How #18 Pick Tristan Da Silva Complements Orlando Magic Frontcourt
The 6'8" Forward can dribble, pass, shoot, and score in a variety of ways; can the newest Orlando Magician crack a rotation competing for another Playoff run?
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2024 NBA Draft Prospect Profile on 6'8" F Tristan Da Silva (Orlando Magic, 18th Pick)
The Orlando Magic made a safe, sound selection on draft night, selecting 6’8” Forward Tristan Da Silva out of Colorado.
The Brazilian-German basketball player will spend his international career playing for the country he was born in, Germany, alongside the Wagner brothers, his new teammates in Orlando.
Da Silva uses anticipation and timing with his lengthy 6’10” wingspan effectively on both ends of the floor, showing defensive feel on hustle plays and excellent relocation understanding of where to be, an elite off-ball mover cutting through open gaps and finding open spots on the floor, bringing shooting gravity everywhere he goes.
Tristan scored over 1.0 PPP in 6 playtypes as a Junior and 5 as a senior, according to Synergy Sports, thriving in off-ball movement actions like Cuts, Transition, Spot Ups, Handoffs and on-ball shot creation like Post-Ups, Isos, and P&R Ball-Handler sets.
The 2x All-Pac 12 wing posted a handful of inspiring stats in college, improving his TS% each season up to 61% as a Senior and flashing impressive two-way impact of 7.1 BPM in his final two years.
124 College Games Played at Colorado:
79% FT% on 2 FTA
55% 2P% on 6 2PA
39% 3P% on 3 3PA
Senior Season
84% FT% on 3 FTA
40% 3P% on 5 3PA
16 PTS - 5 REB - 1 STL
2.4/1.8 A/TO
Da Silva flashes malleable scoring ability, from off the ball in a catch and shoot from standstill and in motion running around screens, to on the ball initiating the offense with and without a screen, mixing in Postups ISOs and P&Rs, looking to attack the rack and decelerate to the rim for graceful finishes.
Tristan even has a go-to move when he finds a mismatch in the post through a backdown or rim-roll counter-measure with the backdown baseline high-release fade.
Using soft touch and a wide variety of finishing moves in the paint, Da Silva often creates a good open look for himself, hitting finger rolls, floaters, hooks, and fadeaways from many spots below the arc.
Overall, Da Silva is a versatile scorer with impressive length and timing, understanding the game well to anticipate help-side blocks and jump gaps for loose ball steals, with the dribble-pass-shoot skills necessary to attack closeouts and score effectively in a variety of playtypes or keep the ball moving when needed.
Magic fans can envision Da Silva one day taking over Joe Ingles’ old role running bench unit offense with endless pick-and-rolls with Mo Wagner, especially since the team created cap space by letting Ingles walk in free agency this summer. Da Silva and Mo Wagner could eat up the shotclock mismatch-hunting for efficient shot creation, building two-man chemistry through reps in FIBA and Orlando.
With a high floor and relatively older age for a draft prospect, Da Silva’s ceiling shouldn’t be glossed over. Sometimes already being good at many aspects of basketball leaves scouts and fans wondering where there’s room to grow, when really the opposite can be just as true: why can’t the sum of the parts of already proven skills rise even further as the game slows down for young prospects who continue to finetune their game?
Tall wings with high shot releases who can score in a variety of fashions, shoot from deep, dribble for drives and kickout pass when drawing in extra defenders tend to become tough shot makers and sound closeout-attacking connectors at every level; rounding out two-way team-first playstyle could create high-level big wing impact.
If Tristan fine tunes his strengths as an offensive swish army knife, could he one day produce like Danilo Gallinari? If Da Silva holds his own defensively, could he become a bonafide starter in the modern game mold of big wings who bring versatility to both ends like Harrison Barnes, Tobias Harris, or Gordon Hayward?
The offensive limitations Tristan can develop are in on-ball scoring consistency, finding a way to establish real advantage creation on his own and reaching a point where he’s able to self-create good shots for himself and teammates as primary option.
For his rookie season, Da Silva could be a complementary third or fourth forward behind Orlando’s young stars, a floor-stretching play finisher who can plug and play as a scoring option in virtually any lineup, who will maximize his playing time if he can hold his own defensively.
Opportunity and defensive development will be the deciding factor for if Da Silva can be a longterm rotation player in Orlando, because Tristan’s variety of offensive skills already impresses across the board.
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