The Orlando Magic seem to have pushed their fifth overall pick from the 2015 NBA Draft deep onto their bench. What options did they pass up?
When the Orlando Magic took Croatian wing Mario Hezonja with the fifth overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, it seemed as if they had found a versatile scorer who could provide some much-needed offensive support to a developing young team.
His rookie year saw him average 6.1 points per game in 17.9 minutes per game. Modest numbers, but enough to whet the appetite. This year has seen him regress. He is putting up just 3.4 points per game in 9.3 minutes per game. On top of that, Hezonja is teetering on the brink of the Magic’s rotation, and has played just 17 minutes in the past three games — 12 of them in Wednesday’s blowout loss to the Charlotte Hornets.
While Mario Hezonja has not exactly done a great deal wrong, he did join Orlando shortly before the club decided to kick its rebuild up a notch. Aaron Gordon and Elfrid Payton have been affected by that decision too, as the former has had to adjust to playing the small forward role when he starts, while the latter seems to have lost his place as a starter indefinitely.
Heoznja has struggled to find his fit.
Amidst talk of a stint in the D-League, and a flurry of potential trade scenarios, now seems as good a time as any to use the benefit of hindsight to think about how the Magic might have used that fifth overall pick more effectively. Or whether there truly were any better options.