Orlando Magic Player Evaluations 2016

The Orlando Magic improved by 10 wins this year and saw some players step forward and improve. But there were also a lot of questions left for the team.

The Orlando Magic season was certainly a weird one. This week’s news of Scott Skiles‘ sudden resignation has made it even weirder.

The Magic improved by 10 games in the win column and saw statistical improvements in just about every category, yet they admittedly fell short of their goals. That goal was the Playoffs. That goal was becoming a top-10 defensive team. Orlando was far from that.

What the Magic’s season ultimately became was something of a disappointment.

Victor Oladipo never became a star. Tobias Harris seemed to be doing a lot of things well except score — and he was traded anyway for less than many thought the team could get for him. Nikola Vucevic saw his scoring and rebounding numbers decrease for the first time since joining the Magic. Elfrid Payton had some growing pains in a new offensive and defensive scheme.

Aaron Gordon began to emerge and Evan Fournier had his breakout season. It was not like every player took a step back or at least failed to meet some outside expectations.

As a whole, the team improved. But left plenty of questions.

The Magic perhaps wrote checks in their 19-13 start that the rest of their season was unable to cash. A 2-12 January knocked down their confidence and all but ended Playoff discussions. The Magic never truly recovered their defensive footing.

And now it looks like something else was at play with Skiles ultimately concluding he was no longer the right coach for this team and his sudden departure. Plenty has and will be written on the reasons for that.

It was very much a strange season, even with the progress the team made. It still felt like they could have done much more.

Perhaps that is why this summer seems set to answer some very big questions about the roster. And create some changes — both through trades and in free agency. And, now, in the coaching chair.

How do we evaluate this Magic season then? How do we break this thing down to is component parts and get a fair shake on how the year went?

For the past two weeks we have done our individual player evaluations to look at how each player performed. Perhaps that is the best place to start.

Next: The franchise guard?