Magic Roll Out Makeshift Starting Five Against Kings
Lineup alert: Magic will start Black, Bane, Cain, Wagner, Carter Jr. on Tuesday. - @UnderdogNBA
The Orlando Magic are rolling out a starting five of , Desmond Bane, Jamal Cain, Franz Wagner, and Wendell Carter Jr. on Tuesday. If you had Jamal Cain starting a November game on your bingo card, congratulations, you are either a liar or his immediate family member.
With and Jalen Suggs missing from the opening , Orlando is officially entering the experimental phase of the early season. You cannot really blame head coach Sean Sweeney for shuffling the deck when his team is sitting at a miserable 2-7. The Magic currently hold a -9.3 net rating that ranks 25th in the league, and they just gave up 126 points in a weekend loss to the Golden State Warriors.
This sudden lineup shift completely changes the offensive ecosystem. Franz Wagner is already carrying a massive load, averaging 20.8 points and 8.8 assists per game, but he is about to see every defensive scheme the have in their playbook without Banchero out there to draw attention.
Meanwhile, anyone holding a Desmond Bane points prop has to be thrilled about the sudden spike in available shot attempts. Orlando brought Bane in to be a high-volume upgrade from deep, and he is going to have the ultimate green light to fire away in this makeshift rotation.
The Magic are in the middle of a brutal stretch featuring nine road games this month. We will find out quickly if this weird unit can actually hang with the Kings, or if they are just going to get run off the floor before turning right around to play the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night.