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Former Wisconsin forward Aleem Ford signs with the Orlando Magic

Another former Wisconsin Badger will be on an NBA roster this season with Aleem Ford joining the Orlando Magic.

Matt Belz

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Days, after former Wisconsin forward Micah Potter inked a two-way contract with the Utah Jazz, one of his former teammates, earned a new opportunity of his own. 

On Saturday evening, former Badgers' small forward Aleem Ford reached an agreement to rejoin the Orlando Magic, according to a press release shared by the NBA franchise. 

Ford spent last season primarily playing for Orlando's G-League affiliate the Lakeland Magic, though he did sign a 10-day contract in December of last year to earn his first NBA action as well. In his brief stint on the NBA roster, Ford averaged 2.8 points and three rebounds in 14.7 minutes per game. 

As mentioned earlier, most of his playing time came in the G-league a season ago. With Lakeland, Ford shot 38.7% from three-point range and averaged 12.5 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per contest. 

Ford spent this past summer playing for the Orlando Magic in the NBA Summer League. He averaged five points per game in the three contests he saw action. 

The exact details of his contract are not yet known at this time, but Ford is one of 20 players that Orlando will take into training camp. The team will need to trim down to 15 players during the regular season, with two additional players available to sign two-way contracts. 

The expectation is that Ford will once again spend most of the year in the G-League when the season begins, but this is a valuable opportunity for the former Wisconsin forward to carve out a role at the professional level.

Ford played four years at Wisconsin from 2017 to 2021 and made 82 starts in 126 total games with the program. For his career, he averaged 6.5 points and 3.3 rebounds per game. 

The Georgia native was part of the Badgers' 2019-2020 Big Ten regular season championship team and averaged over 8.5 points per game during his final two seasons in Madison. A multi-year starter at Wisconsin, Ford played over 24 minutes per game in three of his four seasons with the Badgers and was a key part of Greg Gard's rotation throughout his time in a Wisconsin uniform.

As a senior, Ford scored in double-figures 14 times, while his career-high for points came as a junior against Purdue. In that game, he finished with 19 points and seven rebounds on 7-of-11 shooting from the floor. 

Ford joins the following former Wisconsin players who enter training camp on an NBA roster:

Kaminsky signed a free-agent contract this off-season and is expected to make the Atlanta Hawks' regular season roster, while Johnny Davis was a first-round pick of the Washington Wizards in the 2022 NBA Draft.

Micah Potter is on a two-way contract that allows him to shift between the NBA and G-League roster throughout the year regularly as needed. It will be interesting to see how many opportunities Potter and Ford have this season in the league. 

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Matt Belz
MATT BELZ

Title: Publisher, Beat Writer for AllBadgers.com, a Sports Illustrated Channel Hello, my name is Matt Belz, and I am the site manager at All Badgers. I previously wrote for multiple years at Buckeyes 5th Quarter and have been the leading publisher here since March of 2022.  When I am not covering the Wisconsin Badgers football and men's basketball teams, I enjoy being outside and spending time with family and friends.  You can follow everything I write about on several different platforms. First and foremost on our site...AllBadgers.com You can follow me personally on Twitter at @savedbythebelz or check out our Facebook page at Wisconsin FanNation on Sports Illustrated.

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