Paolo Banchero and the Orlando Magic are currently just a few days into the 2024 NBA offseason following their crushing Game 7 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. Although the Game 7 loss will sting for a while, especially considering that they held a 19-point lead in the first half of the contest, it was still a wildly successful year on the whole for the Magic, who saw Banchero blossom into a legitimate star and earn his first All-Star nod as a result.
The Magic’s calling card all year was their defense, and one person who knows a thing or two about that end of the floor is none other than franchise legend Dwight Howard, who recently took to The OGs Show podcast with former NBA champions Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller (presented by Playmaker) to discuss his admiration of the Magic, as well as his desire to return there to finish out his playing career one day.
“The one guy I like is Jonathan Isaac, because of his defense,” said Howard, via NBACentral on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter. “He can play guys one through five. He’s strong enough to play a five, he’s quick enough to guard threes, but I just think now it’s just the mentality for them. But if I could go back to a team, I’ve got to go finish with the Magic. It’s only right.”
A legendary Magic career
Dwight Howard immediately became one of the best NBA players in the NBA after being selected by the Magic number one overall in the 2004 NBA Draft. Howard was one of the last true traditional centers in the NBA, using his size, strength, and freakish athleticism to become the best defender in the league for the better part of a decade, eventually leading the Magic to an NBA Finals appearance in 2009, where they lost in a competitive five games to Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Howard would eventually follow in the footsteps of former Magic big man Shaquille O’Neal by taking his talents to Los Angeles and joining Bryant a few years later, albeit with vastly different results.
In the years following Howard’s departure, the Magic struggled to form a consistent identity, using several high lottery selections on big men who did not end up panning out in the way they had hoped.
However, it seems that now for the first time in over a decade, the Magic truly have a great young star to build around in Banchero, and an array of solid complimentary players surrounding him. A big man of Howard’s ilk is not necessarily what the Magic would figure to need the most at the current moment, as their lack of perimeter shooting was thoroughly exposed in the loss to the Cavaliers.
However, it would certainly be interesting if the big man did end up reuniting with his former team, as well as seeing how the Orlando fans receive him after what was a bit of a messy exit, to say the very least.
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