Bol Bol Makes The Orlando Magic a Worthy Watch

In lieu of doing my annual thanks post I usually do on Thanksgiving, I took the day off to reflect. I am very thankful for so many things, but I wanted to do something a little different, a little off the beaten path from what I normally do. This piece is going to meld the two things together for me.

I love basketball, as you all know very well. I especially love the NBA. In football I prefer college, but the NBA just does it for me. It is also very early in the season, so things are pretty wide open and kind of nuts right now. I like to watch all the teams, and having League Pass makes that a cinch. This means I have been watching a ton of Orlando Magic. Some might say too much.

Orlando is not very good, but they are fun to watch. They fly up and down the floor. They do not play much defense, but their offense is fast and tense. They love to get it up and down, and I love that style of basketball the most. I am currently coaching my 5th grade team to run, run and run some more. It doesn't always work, but when it does, it is a thing of beauty. I feel like that is what the Magic are doing right now. They are just throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. They also have a core group of young players and they are a delight to watch. Even when they screw up it is still somehow entertaining. I like guys like Cole Anthony. He is fun and plays a little old school-ish. Franz Wagner is turning out to be a very solid pro on both ends. He is living up to the hype. Paolo Banchero was the correct choice at number 1. He is hurt now, but when he has played, he has looked very legit. He has the tools to be a star. Mo Bamba is playing more like I hoped he would when he first entered the league. He is a rim protector, a decent low post guy and can run for days. Jalen Suggs has looked better this season. Wendell Carter Jr has found a place that has let him figure it out and he looks like he is doing just that. Even Markelle Fultz, when not hurt, has found a style of play that works for him and the team. But the one guy that has impressed me the most, the player I like to watch the most on this team, the whole reason for this blog today, is Bol Bol.

Bol Bol was a very ballyhooed recruit. He was this unicorn that every major program wanted. He finally decided on Oregon. When I first heard of him, then saw him, I was skeptical. But then he played a few games for the Ducks. He was worth the hype. He was blocking shots left and right. He was scoring with ease in the post. He was pulling big guys outside and making threes. I was flabbergasted. I could not believe my eyes. But then he got hurt. He missed most of his freshman season. He then went pro, as expected, but slipped to the second round. The Nuggets drafted him. I liked this pick because he could develop with a very good pro team. He was going to be learning from some of the best. But they never played him. They could not find minutes for him. He'd get in blowouts and show flashes, but nothing was sustainable. He was then traded to multiple teams. He somehow ended up in Orlando before this season started, and I liked it. It reminded me a ton of when they acquired Fultz. Bol Bol was going to get to play, he was going to learn on the fly and the Magic were going to let him be himself. And so far, he has looked pretty wonderful. He is hitting threes. He is grabbing boards. He is blocking shots. He is putting up double doubles with ease. He looks to be having fun. He looks healthy. He looks like he is turning into the unicorn that everyone previously thought he could be.

Lately I have been watching a ton of the French kid, Victor Webanyama, and he is legit. He is going to be a star. But everyone says that no one has ever looked like this kid. Well, and he is not even close to this kid's level, but isn't Bol Bol kind of like the poor man's Webanyama? They both have similar games. The French kid is built better, but Bol Bol has gotten bigger since he entered the league. The French kid and Bol block a lot of shots. They both grab boards. They both can stretch the D. Again, Bol is not the prospect Webanyama is, but he is a very similar player. They have very similar profiles.

All in all, it has been an absolute joy to watch Bol Bol to this point of the season. I hope it sticks. I hope he becomes a regular starter in the NBA. I also hope he stays with this fun young core in Orlando. I feel like this team could be very good in two to three years if they stay put. Until that time comes though, I will sit back and gladly watch Bol Bol do stuff that I have never seen on an NBA floor in my life to this date. He is a fun player to watch.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

Bol Bol is the Early Star of the NBA Bubble

The 2020 NBA restart is just two days away. By all accounts, it looks like things are a go, and teams will start playing real games on Thursday. I have a whole restart blog I will do with picks and who I think will get into the playoffs, and win, tomorrow. Today though, I want to talk about Bol Bol and how wonderful he has looked in these scrimmages.

Yes, I have watched an inordinate amount of the scrimmages as well. I am starved for sports, the MLB doesn't look great right now after last night, I am not a soccer or golf guy and I have never seen a UFC fight. That means these scrimmages have been what I have watched, and gladly watched I might add. It is cool to see the teams playing, kind of taking it seriously and what kind of wild lineups teams are putting out there. That was what led me to watch Denver when I saw what they did on the first day of the live scrimmages. They put out a lineup that had no one under 6'8 as a starter out there, including Bol at forward. He is over 7 feet tall, and they played him at forward. That was more than enough for me to tune in. As I watched, I remembered why he was such a get when he committed to Oregon two years ago. He was a top flight recruit out of high school. You go back and see his mixtapes, and he was dominant. Bigger, faster and more nimble than anyone that he was going up against. He parlayed that into, I think it was only seven games that he played at Oregon. He was a nightmare matchup for opponents. He was a very solid rim protector. Sure, he was a bit too thin, but his speed and quickness more than made up for how much he weighed. He could also drill threes. Like, he wasn't just taking them to see if he could shoot them, he was a solid three point shooter. Players needed to be prepared to come out and guard him at the top of the key because he can hit that shot at a solid clip.

Then he got injured. Then he decided to skip out on the rest of the college season all together. Then his injury got worse. Then he had a bad showing at the combine. Then he slipped out of the first round and went deep into the second round. When the Nuggets took him at 44 I was stunned. I couldn't believe he fell that far, and I couldn't believe that the Nuggets were able to steal him from a team that might actually need him. The year before they were able to snatch up Michael Porter Jr in the late lottery due to injury concerns. This is what the Nuggets do. They are so loaded with talent, that when the draft comes, they can take any gamble they choose. Hell, they had both Nikola Jokic and Jusuf Nurkic, both later first round picks, and were able to trade Nurkic without a second thought. The Nuggets are a very well run franchise, and these picks prove that even more. Porter Jr is going to be good when he gets real minutes, and when he can stay healthy. But the way that Bol has looked in these scrimmages, my goodness, he can be great. He just needs time too. I have seen him take, and make, contested threes. I have seen him recover and swat both jumpers and layups. I have watched him throw down alley oops and run pick and rolls for easy dunks. He is out jumping guys for rebounds. He looks like the kid that was such a coveted recruit. He even looks a little thicker too, which is good. Bol looked so good in his first scrimmage, he got "randomly" selected to be drug tested by the NBA. I mean, if that isn't recognition that he is good, I don't know what is. And believe me, I understand these are scrimmages, not everyone is going 100 percent, not every team has their full roster of players and some are going a little easy, waiting for the playoffs. But, these guys are all still pros, they are on these teams rosters or part of their G League affiliates. They have been in the league for awhile. They are pro basketball players. And Bol is looking more and more like a dude that can be special in the NBA. If it happens in Denver, great. But, with their depth, I could see them striking while the iron is hot and trading Bol for a solid deal as well. Based on these scrimmages I think some teams, especially ones not in the bubble, are wishing they had taken a chance on Bol, and now, they may trade a bit more than they would have to acquire him.

I have loved what I have seen out of him, and I am rooting for him. I would love to see him do something similar to what Rashard Lewis did. For those that may not remember Lewis, he was a prep to pro that was invited to the green room for the draft, and he didn't get picked until the second round. He was the last person left in the green room. He vowed to make teams regret their mistake, saying as much at his interview, and he went on to have a very, very solid NBA career. He was an important player on some very good teams. I want Bol to have that same career, he just needs a real chance. But damn has he been fun to watch in these scrimmages, and I think he will force the Nuggets to play him, or trade him to a team that will play him. Bol Bol is good. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the best damn basketball writer on all the internets.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.