If former Wizard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is back to the KCP of old, the Boston Celtics have their work cut out for them in the NBA playoffs.
KCP is one of the best three-point shooters of the past decade in the NBA. He shot the three-ball at a clip of 38.5% or higher for five straight seasons from 2019 to 2024 and has evolved over those years into more of a 3-and-D role. He is one of the better defenders to have missed out on All-Defense honors in recent years, and he’s transformed his offensive game to the point of taking more threes than twos per game.
KCP spent a season with the Wizards before being scooped up by the Denver Nuggets, with whom he became an irreplaceable member of the 2023 championship team.
The Orlando Magic were dark horse title contenders before the season began after signing the sharp shooter away from the Nuggets, but a plague of injuries to stars like Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, and Jalen Suggs sapped the team of its juice. A drop from 41% from deep last year to 34% this year from KCP certainly did not help.
The Magic managed to squeak into the playoffs as the No. 7 seed with a 41-41 record thanks to a dreadful crop of play-in teams in the Eastern Conference, so they have the tall task of squaring up against the defending champion Celtics.
The Magic have been hanging their hat on their second-ranked defense all season long. How they try and defend the Celtics’ second-ranked offense without Suggs should be interesting to watch, and it will be far more interesting than whatever the Magic are able to put together on offense.
Orlando was one of the worst offenses in the NBA this season, and they are comfortably the worst offensive team playing postseason basketball. Their offensive rating of 109.46 was better than only the Brooklyn Nets, Charlotte Hornets, and Wizards this year.
This is where KCP comes into play. The Magic are the worst three-point shooting team in the NBA (they shot a putrid 31.8% from deep as a team for the season), which is the reason they even brought in KCP in the first place. The former Wizard is one of the elite role players of the last few years in the NBA, and if he is able to shake off a rough season and get going against the Celtics, he has a game-swinging shooting touch.
All that being said, a Magic upset over the Celtics should only stretch to a game or two at the absolute most. A tough first round series will certainly complicate matters for Boston, who will have to play the Cleveland Cavaliers eventually, but a reinvigorated KCP could make things interesting.