New Orlando Magic executives Jeff Weltman and John Hammond have a type of player they like.
Jonathan Isaac sure fits the mold.
He is long, athletic and agile.
The Magic selected Isaac, a 6-foot-10 forward from Florida State, with the 2017 NBA Draft’s sixth pick Thursday night.
“He’s very skilled,” Weltman said. “He shoots the ball well. He rebounds. He plays with a lot of energy and intelligence. He’s just a winning player. He does winning things. He does things that contribute to winning. As I’ve said before, we want talented players who play for each other, and this guy embodies that.”
Isaac is a swing-for-the-fences pick: He’s potentially high reward but also potentially high risk.
He’ll likely be a long-term project.
He averaged 12.0 points and 7.8 rebounds per game and made a respectable 34.8 percent of his 3-point tries during his lone season at FSU — promising numbers, to be sure, but not dominant. He’ll likely need at least several seasons to develop and to add strength. Even then, there’s no guarantee he’ll fulfill his potential.
“I’m not pleased with myself in the sense where I think I do anything fantastic or great,” Isaac said. “I know I have the capabilities to be an amazing defender, and I think I have the capabilities to be an amazing offensive player. But I’m nowhere near that. I have a lot of work to do. I have a lot of work to put in. But I think I’m on the right track.”
Weltman, the Magic’s new president of basketball operations, had said the team’s goal with the sixth pick was to find a player who will become a cornerstone of the team’s rebuild.
After the Magic drafted Isaac, the team traded away the 25th and 35th picks.
Weltman said the draft’s talent level flattened before Orlando’s final three picks. Since Weltman was reluctant to add a total of four rookies at once, he decided to move two of the picks for future draft choices.
The Magic sent the 25th pick to the Philadelphia 76ers and will receive a heavily protected 2020 first-round pick that the Oklahoma City Thunder owed to the Sixers if that pick falls 21st or later.
Those protections remain through 2022, and if the pick isn’t conveyed to the Magic by 2022 at the latest, the Magic instead will receive the Thunder’s second-round picks in 2022 and 2023. As a part of the deal, the Magic also will receive a 2020 second-round pick: the less favorable of the either the Brooklyn Nets’ or New York Knicks’ second-round pick.
The Magic traded the 35th pick to the Memphis Grizzlies and received the Nets’ second-round pick in 2019.
Those trades leave Weltman open to significant second-guessing if a player picked 25th or later turns into a star.
With the 33rd pick, the Magic picked wing Wesley Iwundu, who played four years at Kansas State.
“We felt he very easily could have been a first-round pick,” Weltman said.
The Philadelphia 76ers picked Washington point guard Markelle Fultz first overall. The Los Angeles Lakers drafted UCLA point guard Lonzo Ball second, and the Boston Celtics took Duke small forward Jayson Tatum third. The Phoenix Suns selected Kansas wing Josh Jackson fourth, and the Sacramento Kings acquired Kentucky point guard De’Aaron Fox with the fifth pick.
Those choices set the stage for the Magic to pick Isaac, who was born in New York City but has lived in Florida for the last nine years.
As Thursday approached, Hammond, the Magic’s new general manager, said he and his colleagues in the Magic front office didn’t see a gap between the fifth-best player on their board and the sixth-best player on their board.
The Magic desperately needed an infusion of talent.
Last season, team officials hoped the franchise would turn a corner and make the playoffs, but the team instead posted a 29-53 record. Those struggles prompted the team to fire GM Rob Hennigan and assistant GM Scott Perry.
How do the Magic plan to develop Isaac?
That’s unclear.
In a phone conversation Thursday night, Weltman told Isaac that Isaac’s goal for the next year should be to become the hardest worker on the team.
“Obviously, he needs to physically grow into his body,” Weltman said. “He needs to learn the NBA game. The things that he needs to improve on — if he’s a hard worker, which we are betting on, he will improve on.”
The Magic finished last season with Evan Fournier as their starting small forward and Aaron Gordon as their starting power forward. With combo forward Jeff Green scheduled to become a free agent, Isaac should have an opportunity to compete for minutes as Gordon’s backup or even as a backup to Fournier.
“My first impression is that we’re young and we just got younger,” said Isaac, who will turn 20 in early October. “There’s a lot of room for growth, and there’s a lot of things to do to grow.”
As the 2013 draft approached, Weltman, then a Milwaukee Bucks assistant general manager, heard about a promising but under-the-radar Greek forward named Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Weltman walked into his boss’ office one day and suggested they visit Greece to scout Antetokounmpo.
Weltman’s boss was Hammond.
The Bucks chose Antetokounmpo 15th overall in 2013.
And this past season, the so-called “Greek Freak” made the Eastern Conference All-Star team for the first time.
These days, Weltman is the boss in Orlando, and Hammond is Weltman’s general manager. But their preference for long, athletic, agile players has remained the same. Back in 2013, Antetokounmpo’s physique resembled Isaac’s physique now.
The Magic would be ecstatic if Isaac blossoms like Antetokounmpo has blossomed.
“It is exciting,” Isaac said. “It is humbling because I’m a humble person. I appreciate them seeking me and wanting me to be a part of their program. I know that the new people in charge are used to winning, and they’re used to turning programs around, and I just want to be a part of that.”
jrobbins@orlandosentinel.com. Read his blog at OrlandoSentinel.com/magicblog and follow him on Twitter at @JoshuaBRobbins.
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