Chuma Okeke: Orlando Magic youngster has fans dreaming of exciting future

The best ability is availability, so having a distinct lack of players will undoubtedly impact on a team’s chances of winning games.

So far this season, the Orlando Magic have missed 264 games due to injury, according to Sportrac, which leads the NBA. As a result, they are the worst team in Eastern Conference, aside from the hapless Detroit Pistons.

It begs the question: with all the missed games, should this team have blown it up in the way they did at the trade deadline?

The Magic traded away Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon, Evan Fournier - three of their top five scorers and staples of the organisation - as well as Al-Farouq Aminu and Gary Clark to truly start from ground zero. The whirlwind moves at the trade deadline left some wondering what the front office was hoping to achieve, and critics accused the franchise of giving up cornerstones for what appeared to be very little on paper.

Even Terrence Ross - by no means a bad player but not someone typically thinks of as a team’s leading player - joined in on the fun during an emotional few hours.

Fans had built up a lot of love into those players. Under head coach Steve Clifford, the Magic had made back-to-back playoff appearances the past two seasons.

But this year, the injury bug struck. Developing guard Markelle Fultz and Defensive Player of the Year candidate Jonathan Isaac were felled with an ACL injury, Aminu has had knee problems, Cole Anthony has had upper-body issues, Gordon and Fourier have missed time, and many have faced Covid-19 and non-coronavirus illnesses on the team.

Health is a big reason why Orlando are struggling so much, but last year’s playoffs made it clear that there was a ceiling on the roster. Yes, they might have secured consecutive postseason berths, and even taken a game off each of the top seeds they faced, but on both occasions they were only enough for a gentlemen’s sweep - losing four games to be knocked out of the series after winning one.

Despite making the playoffs, the team’s winning percentage in those regular seasons got worse. Since Gordon joined in 2014, the core had peaked.

Selling high was a good option, but with so many players out already, and the newly acquired team-mates being unable to join the team in the middle of a road trip or due to injury, it’s difficult to find direction.

Coach Clifford told Sky Sports: “To be honest, we’re not even close [to knowing who the leaders are]. Since these guys got here, we left for this trip the next day. We’ve had one practise and Otto [Porter] has been hurt so he couldn’t play last night or tonight.

"Gary [Harris] hasn’t been able to play yet. So we’re still in the very early stages of learning about them and trying to get everybody comfortable with what we’re doing.”

It’s not like it’s an easy time to figure it out either. On this road trip, the Magic have faced the LA Lakers, LA Clippers, New Orleans Pelicans, Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets - four of them being among the top five teams in the Western Conference, and one battling for the play-in spot.

Still, since the team’s top performers have left, it’s opened up some space to see some of Orlando’s exciting young talent show out. One name in particular that has Magic fans excited is Chuma Okeke.

Listed as a power forward, his 6ft 6ins frame is strong, and he has long arms that give good ball handlers problems. But during recent games he has been playing more like a perimeter guard/forward and has been more integral on the offensive end of the floor.

It’s a small sample size, but since the trade, Okeke is scoring 16 points per game, grabbing six rebounds and dishing out three assists per game, compared to just his seasons averages of six, four and two, respectively.

Clifford hasn’t exactly given Okeke LeBron James-like keys, but he is showing more trust in the youngster to run the offense. Against the Nuggets on Sunday, the rookie tied a career high five assists - he has responded well to a decision-making role in previous games when point guards are out.

He seems to already have good chemistry to Wendell Carter Jr - who was acquired as part of the Vucevic trade, so he has big shoes to fill, but the pair have different games.

Carter is still only 22 and has a lot to learn, but he might be one of the most underrated roll men in the league, with near perfect body positioning each time and an athletic ability to finish softly in traffic. He has scored on 76 per cent of his attempts in the paint during the most recent three games, and averaged 18 points and 11 rebounds.

The Magic have welcomed the return of Terrence Ross, who has dealt with injuries in recent weeks. Affectionately known by team announcers as the Human Torch, the five-year veteran is no longer flaming out after hot streaks, and is averaging a career high 16 points this season as the oldest player on this now young team.

They will need him to step up more into this role, because trading away experience and talent means you are entering a youth movement, which showed during the second half against the Nuggets on Sunday.

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While the upstart Magic had fresh legs to start the game despite being on a back-to-back and were up 18 heading into the locker room, a lack of discipline saw Denver go on a 10-2 run to begin the third quarter and by the start of the fourth it was basically even.

There are other veterans to add to the mix: Gary Harris was acquired by the Magic from the Nuggets, along with another young prospect RJ Hampton, and adding Otto Porter, Markelle Fultz and Jonathan Isaac back into the mix next season should see this group have a few more level-headed guys to avoid similar lapses in concentration.

By then, the younger talent will have had the opportunity to get their legs underneath them as leading players on a new team. There is talent among that group and more to come thanks to draft picks acquired at the deadline. The veterans might add enough juice to get back to the playoffs next season.

They will probably be looking at another early first round knock-out if they do, but this time, it won’t be the peak - it will be the start of something.