 What's the word y'all on the last episode of Kenny beats and podcast We talked about some small market teams in the plan for nominal ball Minnesota Okay, see Sacramento and one team that we cut for the second time was the Orlando magic Well, guess what I got time today in the Orlando magic are nine and five with let me show you this because some of y'all might not believe it With the number one defensive basketball. Yeah sitting above Minnesota Boston. Okay, see Houston That's not by a lot. We're talking one oh six point seven versus one oh six point eight versus one oh six point nine But number one is number one You're not gonna discredit number one just because it's by a little bit. Are you know now? I don't know if they're gonna end up with the number one defense and all the basketball for the rest of season Actually, I would say that they won't but I still feel really confident that the defense is real because this is not just the first 14 Games of season fluke defense. No, this dates back to the end of last year last year. They started off their season six and 20 Six and you you almost got to try to start off a season six and 20 They won't try to do that and they ended the year with a very respectable 34 wins And it's it's super respectable when you remember that they started on four and 20 and a lot of that good basketball That they played at the second half of the season really was their defense coming together One thing that a lot of young slag rebounding team struggle with is finding out what their identity is going to be Because the front office has to figure out when we're drafting when we were at the top of the lottery every single year Are we drafted for fit? Are we drafted for identity? Are we drafted best player available? And it's a struggle for a lot of teams to kind of figure out who they are where they are Right and the Orlando Magic it hasn't been super long since they've traded Nicola Vucovic Aaron Gordon and stuff They basically have Paolo Franz Wagner Jalen sucks who are part of one draft class and an Anthony Black So it's like let's say three seasons within a rebuild and they figured things out Which is cool because there's a lot of young teams playing great basketball right now We talked about okay see thunder they are sitting at the fourth ring defense And then if you look at the best offenses in basketball, the Indiana Pacers are there Those are three of the bottom five top five youngest teams of hoops Orlando Magic are the fourth youngest team in ball fourth And they found out that the defensive side of the ball is where they want to hang their hat And it's it's great because it's it's it's real There are a lot of things to look at this team and be excited about but my number one thing as a guy That's a neutral fan here is the play of Jalen sucks Right Jalen sucks is one of the top picks in his draft class and obviously through the first two years of his career He hasn't lived up to that draft position, but right now. He's finding himself more and more I can't help but to look at this man play and be reminded of like a younger Marcus smart I know a lot of people probably see that but I'm just saying this man plays with a crazy amount of intensity Loose ball on the floor. I'm going after it. One thing that is so funny though It's because a lot of people aren't normally watching Orlando Magic basketball when they're going against your favorite team I see so many tweets of oh my god. This is must be Jalen sucks It's super bold or the amount of passion he playing with no He's just he just plays like that every single night and this is a team that needs a player like that and he fits and Perfectly in that role through the first two years of his career. He struggled with shooting the ball But as of right now, he's shooting 35% or four and a half attempts Which is pretty good It's around a league average and it's a team that desperately needs three-point shooting So if Jalen sucks kids can assist consistently get better at this point of his game. It's just better for his career This is a play I showed on Twitter I have a little series on Twitter that's called Jalen sucks moments because he's one of my favorite role players to watch Starts off right here as you can see The Raptors did not trust anybody from behind the arc and Jalen sucks makes them pay right there Then he's matched up against a way bigger Pascal Siakam All-star player and he fronts that gets to steal and then it's a fast break opportunity for the Orlando magic Palo finds Franz Franz hits the three that is offense turned to defense turned to offense and Jalen sucks It's pumped up. He's pumped up ladies and gentlemen And that was the moment where a lot of people are like man can each allow the answer is no He also reminds me of Marcus smart because one thing about the Marcus smart era in Boston Is that when the clutch moments were happening somehow the ball always found Marcus smart? And I'm I'm getting that same energy from Jalen sucks even this year alone The ball found him for a game with an opportunity that amiss last year against my Chicago Bulls The ball found him for a game and an opportunity and he made it Yeah, he made it, but that's just the player he is one thing that is impressive about the maintenance of number one defense in Basketball and winning basketball games is they're missing two starters. There's no window card He's only played about five games saying thing when Mark Hill folks only played about five games And they found people to slide into those spots to maintain it right last night against the Toronto Raptors Go go bataz. He looked like a Combination of Nicole Yolkage and Joel and B without this without the scorn without the scorn And how is that possible his passive was elite like a Nicole Yolkage and he was rim protected as if he was Joel and B They made no sense Go go has been a guy that I've watched a good amount when he was in Orlando I mean when he's in Indiana didn't really see a bunch of this And he's been able to slide into that starting spot and be really good and Anthony Black is a rookie And though he doesn't get a ton of touches or a ton of opportunities He doesn't make a ton of mistakes in that role And I think that goes a very long way for a roster like this one of the most interesting signings last year Why was like what the heck was seeing Joe Ingalls end up in Orlando because it happened so early and this is such a young team That was like, okay What is the role of Joe Ingalls on this young roster? Well, he adds veteran leadership He adds three-point shooting which is struggling right now He ain't hitting the same amount of shots or the same percentage of shots as last year, but also adds another ball handle I want to remind people just a few years ago He was one of the best pick and roll players in hoops specifically with Rudy go bear I'm not just bringing Rudy go bear into the conversation again But when Rudy go bear and Joe Ingalls that pick and roll was elite a couple years ago So you're seeing some of that playmaking show itself now Especially with them missing like Markel folks and other players My preseason pick for most improved player was Franz Wagner and him and Paolo Ben carol haven't I wouldn't say struggled out the gate But neither of them have hit the next step. A lot of us see progression is linear Oh, they were really good last year So they must be really really good this year and that's just not always the way it works again We're only talking about the first 14 games of the season and we see him Paolo play better and better every single night So I still feel pretty good about him But they've been able to maintain being a really solid team without their star play players turning into all star players At least at this time and I always say if you can play good to elite level defense You're gonna find yourself in a lot of games and that's what we're seeing from the Orlando magic The one bad side is that the offense is still not very good And they haven't played against a ton of really good defenses yet either So them having an offensive rating that is 24th in the league might I don't know I don't want to be we've been talking about how good they've been I don't want to turn the coin, but it hasn't been very good Now the one thing about their offense is that a lot of it a lot of the success is really fueled by defense They caused the most amount of turnovers and ball in their transition Oh is elite But if you slow them down if you're an opponent and you tell your team we not turning the ball over today We're gonna try our best to not to turn the ball over today You can kind of out scheme their lendo magic because if you slow them down Well, you're the worst half-court offenses in basketball as you can see their lendo magic are sitting at 27th in half-court Luckily for them. They get a bunch of offensive rebounds and and so on and they run a bunch That's why I have them 14th around league average and number of plays in a half-court But again slowing the game down for them is probably gonna put them Should make them struggle for sure But again with them being such a young team and them still going towards their rebuild This is something you want to see fixed Obviously, but it's not that much of a problem at this time because them being a top team in a league It's not something that a lot of people expect for them right now. I'ma say it. I'ma say it There are some some offensive oriented guards slash wings Currently on the market that I would at least pick up the phone and call about that's that I'm not saying the names And I'm just saying that there's some offensive oriented guards that might be available and Orlando Might be a team that should be calling cool story for them is seeing John Isaac play more and more minutes every single game and The how he flies around the court is so incredible I got to watch it here twice when they played against the Chicago Bulls this week He was absolutely everywhere so so good that some of these games even like Somewhat closed out with him at the five because he was all over the place So that's a good story after years and years of him not being a part of the team Basically one thing I would like to see more is that right now on a very low volume Palo Ben carer shooting 40% from three I would love to see him take more three-point attempts because again We're talking about year two and as a former number one overall pick They're looking at you to potentially be the main building block of this entire team And I think if you can expand your range to be more of just to mid-range killer slags get into the basket It become a threat from the outside It just opens up the game not just for yourself But for the other four people on the court for you because right now their lendo magic no matter what line up They put together has negative spacing So if you as one of the lead guys can turn into a really good three-point shooter Then that would just improve everything right now Franz is struggling from three But he has over the last couple years been relatively gathered So let's say Jalen sucks is now a league average Palo's 42% is maybe not 42% But gets his value up a little bit more and and Franz gets back to his normal self Then we start to add some of that spacing and then when window Carter ever comes back I don't think he could shoot much worse than what he shot in those first five games So I'm optimistic about things But also have to be a realist and say that the the offense probably would never come around to be one of the top in a league with this current group But I'm just optimistic. I guess. I don't know. You let me know what you think about the Orlando man Do you feel me the Orlando magic or watch them play against the different nuggets and maybe they run the different nuggets up? Jim is I guess it's a positive. It's a possibility. I just watched goga clamp up some other people Maybe he could do the same thing where you know he can't know