Orlando Magic front-office executives have faced an obstacle as they prepare for the 2020 NBA Draft: the pandemic, which forced the cancellation of the league’s draft combine and has prevented teams from hosting prospects.
So how have the Magic readied themselves for the draft on Nov. 18? To answer that question, The Athletic turned to Magic assistant general manager Matt Lloyd, who has led the team’s professional, college and international scouting departments since mid-2012.
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Here, in the first installment of a two-part interview, Lloyd describes the Magic’s player-evaluation process during this unprecedented year. How has the front office attempted to replicate in-person player visits to Orlando? What role do psychological assessments play in the Magic’s decisions? How has the recent departure of scouting director Prosper Karangwa for an executive role with the 76ers impacted the Magic?
Lloyd answers all of those questions — and much more — in this conversation, which has been lightly edited for brevity.
When the pandemic forced the cancellation of postseason college basketball, where did the Magic stand in their draft prep?
We were in a really, really good spot leading up to that point. We have a lot of good scouts on our staff, and Prosper leaving to go to Philadelphia was a product of that. We were probably 85 percent of the way done with our evaluation piece and seeing the players in-person. We were starting to close the book on all of our background collection, and then it just stopped.
For us, everyone was out and about. People were at conference tournaments. (President of basketball operations) Jeff (Weltman) and (general manager) John (Hammond) were at conference tournaments. So the first thing we had to do was safely get everyone back and then reassess where we were at that point. We were really nearing the end of our normal calendar. That point in March is the conference tournaments and then select NCAA Tournament games. We probably would have either holed up in the conference room and watched a bunch of the first-round and second-round games together and had some discussions about players. In some cases, we selectively pick NCAA Tournament games to go get one more look at a guy in-person. John and I did that two years ago. He and I wanted to make sure we had seen this one player one more time, and we jumped on a plane and did it.
At that point in March, the next step would have been going to Portsmouth (for the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament) and going to the McDonald’s All American Game and going to the Hoop Summit, and that just didn’t happen this year.
In a “normal” year, teams would attend the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago, interview draft prospects there face-to-face and later invite prospects to team facilities for workouts and in-person interviews. But the pandemic prevented all that. What restrictions are in place regarding in-person visits with draft prospects?
We’re not allowed to bring any of the players to Orlando this year. For us, that’s always been a big advantage because we have that module down perfectly, where the prospect comes in, he gets to see the great community that we all live in, and we get a chance to take him out to dinner or do anything that we can to expose the player to Orlando.
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We can’t do that this year. The NBA has said that each of the teams can make the decision to go to a draft prospect or go see a draft prospect work out. We’ve been in the advantageous position of having a couple (of prospects who) were within driving distance, and we took advantage of that. Generally, all of that is on a case-by-case basis.
Because we were so comfortable with where we were in our draft prep, and because we had been really diligent about churning through a large number of interviews via Zoom, we had a lot of that work done. It’s a testament to the staff. We’ve been continuing to chip away each of the last seven months to get to a point where we had all the information we need to collect.
Given how important the combine is to getting prospects’ medical information, how has the team collected medical information on the people it will consider?
We’re still in the process of that, and the NBA deserves a huge round of applause because they have been in contact with agents. The teams are all able to submit lists of players that they would want to get physicals on, and the NBA has been really diligent about trying to get them as many as possible. …
In some cases, a lot of it comes down to the pre-existing relationships you have with those agents. We’re in the process of gathering the final touches on that. To me, it’s just really a similar process. It’s just a different context this year. They’re not at the combine, and they’re not maybe an in-person type of evaluation. But we’ve been able to get all the information we need at least at this point.
What is missed with not being able to bring players to Orlando for workouts and interviews?
I think we won’t know until afterwards. Those workouts are so valuable to have the player come in. Really, it’s the time they get to spend with Jeff and John — Jeff and John in particular, because they’re the ones at the highest levels of the organization, and they need to have that personal connectivity with the player.
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So we’ve simulated that and replicated it as best we can by attempting to be a little innovative with our virtual pre-draft visit, where the players are going through the same process they would if they were here for an in-person workout minus the on-floor segment. They’re still getting the exposure to the organization at a level that we feel puts them in position to have a good understanding of what they would be subject to here with the Magic and gives us a personal connectivity to that player. So we’ve done the best job we can given the circumstances we have.
It would have been great to get the players on the floor. But because we had done that massive amount of work in the evaluation process, we’re pretty comfortable not getting that piece. Instead, we’ve spent the time looking at the context of the players and looking at ways that we can put them in a position to succeed developmentally. A lot of that’s come through film work. We’ve just had to be a little bit creative and innovative in how we approach the finalization of the process.
Are you referring to virtual interviews over Zoom?
We’ve done a healthy amount of Zoom interviews, and we’ve been able to work with the agents to get everything that we need to get done for any sort of assessments we may do. Some of the players we’ve interviewed up to two times.
For us, that piece is so important. When we draft players and we introduce them into the community, we also are putting them with the group of players we have, and those guys are all going to be together for 200 days out of the year.
That’s something that Jeff Wellman and John Hammond do particularly well. They both can get the sense of what type of person the prospect is through making him relaxed in interviewing them. So again, I don’t know what is different from the in-person visit. It’s just a shame that we don’t get to introduce the players to the community and allow them to see it from a perspective that they may not have seen it in before.
You used the word “assessments” just now. What is the role of psychological assessments as used by the Magic?
It’s a piece of the puzzle, and it’s something that we do to get a sense of where the opportunities of growth are. A lot of the stuff we do is proprietary, and we’re probably not going to go into depth as to how we utilize it. But it’s never a disqualifier. It’s something that we use as part of our assessment piece. It really shouldn’t have a negative connotation. It’s part of our whole process and our philosophy to know as much as we possibly can about how to put the players in a position to succeed. That’s how we use it.
You also mentioned Prosper Karangwa early in this conversation. He was hired by the Sixers in a vice president of player personnel role a few weeks ago. What impact does his departure have?
The lucky part, again, is that we had gotten to a point where he had made all his assessments. He had performed his role, and there was a level of finality to what he had done in terms of this draft. So from a work-product standpoint, he had given us everything that we would have needed from him for the draft.
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We just miss him personally. We worked together for eight years. He worked with Jeff and John for the last three drafts. He’s got such a great personality, and he’s someone who lights up the room. But it’s such a great opportunity for him. And it’s a great opportunity for some of the other members of the staff to experience things at a different level. He had done such a good job of mentoring some of the younger guys on our staff.
He wrapped up all his stuff on his way out of the door as a true professional would do. We’re so excited for him, and it’s such a great opportunity. He said this, and it was such a great way to look at it: “Now it’s time to do all the fun stuff, which are all the discussions and all the talking.” So while we miss him personally, we’re super excited for him professionally.
(In part two of this interview, Matt Lloyd will describe the role analytics play in the Magic’s draft prep; the team’s 2019 first-round draft pick, Chuma Okeke; the hallmarks of drafts run by Jeff Weltman and John Hammond; and the atmosphere within the team’s war room on draft night.)
(Top photo of Pete D’Alessandro, John Hammond, Jeff Weltman and Matt Lloyd: Fernando Medina / NBAE via Getty Images)