Orlando's trade for Bol Bol looking like a steal for the Magic
The Celtics gave the Magic a second-round pick to take Bol Bol last year. This year with Orlando, Bol's looking like a lottery pick.
Bol was out for the year with a foot injury when Boston sent him to Orlando at the trade deadline, along with P.J. Dozier and a future second-round pick. Dozier is playing in the G League, and Bol is in the Magic's starting lineup, averaging 12.8 points and 1.8 blocks in 27 minutes per game.
While Bol stands 7'2" with a 7-foot-7 wingspan, he's not your typical NBA big man. He has skills that one wouldn't expect to see from the NBA's third-tallest player (behind Boban Marjanovic and Kristaps Porzingis). Like when he stole a pass and took it the length of the court for a dunk against the Clippers Wednesday night.
Bol lit it up in Orlando's upset win, which broke a nine-game losing streak for the Magic. He scored 20 points, including a key offensive rebound and go-ahead basket in overtime. Orlando has been bad this year, but that's to be expected when a team's top six players in minutes per game are age 23 or younger, and they've been slammed by injuries.
With Bol, they've found a truly unique talent in the NBA. Yes, he can shoot threes at a 41.7 percent clip, but big men like Porzingis, Brook Lopez, and Karl-Anthony Towns have been shooting threes for a while. Even Bol's dad, the 7'7" Manute Bol, used to shoot three-pointers, usually to draw big men out of the paint, but he did once hit six triples in a half.
What sets Bol apart is his ball handling, as seen in this sweet behind-the-back pass to Cole Anthony for three.
He also showed off a Eurostep this week.
The Nuggets drafted Bol in the second round in 2019, but he barely played for them. This season, he's logged 700 minutes, more than double his career total in the previous three years. Bol was a top prospect in college, but a foot injury in his freshman year sent him tumbling down draft boards.
As a contending team that already had a star center, Denver was a rough spot for Bol. They didn't have a lot of playing time, and until the fall of 2021, they didn't have a G League team. That meant Bol had to play for Chicago's coaches on their G League team, the Windy City Bulls. After playing only nine games in college, it was exactly the wrong place to get playing experience. Orlando is the perfect spot.
Now the Magic have Bol for two years, and it cost them nothing but a roster spot. They're bad now, but with a lot of young players - plus their own first-rounder and the Bulls' pick next year (currently projected to be No. 7) - the turnaround could be very quick in Orlando.
More must-reads: