ORLANDO — The Orlando Magic took a different approach with No. 11 overall pick Jett Howard than most teams take with their lottery picks.
Instead of giving Howard minutes in the NBA or forcing him to ride the bench, they had him get reps in the G League with the Osceola Magic.
So while Howard only played in 18 games with Orlando exclusively in garbage time, he played in 29 regular-season G League games with Osceola, averaging 18.5 points per game while shooting over 37 percent from beyond the 3-point line.
Howard is set to become the 3-point specialist the Magic need alongside Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, but in order for him to get to that point, he needed this season to get reps in Osceola after just one year with the Michigan Wolverines.
While he didn’t make much of an impact in his rookie year in the NBA, the Magic are pleased with his progress.
“I think Jett had a great rookie year,” Magic president Jeff Weltman said in exit interviews. “It’s not going to show up to the fans who come to the Orlando games, but Jett had a great rookie year. He got so much better in a lot of areas that we had targeted when we drafted him.”
The Magic hope that the minutes he got in Osceola will translate into positive impact in the rotation in the NBA next season. However, given his impact for the past year, it’s impossible to evaluate him properly.
