Dennis Scott: Orlando Magic need to bring back excitement, interest

Orlando Magic legend Dennis Scott is, like us, a bit frustrated with the Magic. He said he wants to see the team bring back the excitement of his day.

When Dennis Scott was in an Orlando Magic uniform, everything was new.

The team was new — the Magic made him the fourth overall pick in the 1990 NBA Draft, the team’s second ever first-round pick. Scott’s 3-point shooting was also very foreign to the league at the time. He set records with his 3-point shooting and he became a dangerous weapon in a league still figuring out how to use that 23-foot, 9-inch line (shorter in the 1994 and 1995 seasons).

Orlando became one of the first teams to win relying heavily on the 3-point line when the team reached the NBA Finals in 1995.

Things have changed from then and from the high in 2009. Orlando is currently going through its worst stretch in franchise history. The team is set to miss the Playoffs for the fifth straight year. That is the longest stretch without a Playoff appearance in Magic history.

The team has also been without an All-Star for the longest stretch in franchise history.

There is a lot of frustration among the Magic fan base. Everyone wants the team to be better and do not see a clear way to get better.

Orlando Magic CEO Alex Martins will have some big decisions to make about the franchise’s future. Everyone is antsy to see where the team goes from here and to see the team make significant improvements to get back into the Playoff race.

It does make a franchise legend like Dennis Scott a bit upset the Magic are not playing at that high level. And he does have a suggestion for Martins if the Magic decide to move in a new direction, telling Zach Oliver of Orlando Pinstriped Post:

"“I would love for [Magic CEO] Alex Martins to give me a call and say ‘Hey, D, let’s have a talk and you come on down here and be like Magic Johnson is for the [Los Angeles] Lakers.’ Just change the whole culture, get the excitement back. Bring in some fresh minds, and ideas and then see if maybe you can land some of those big time free agents that, back in the past, when T-Mac came, and Horace Grant came for us, and Grant Hill came. I don’t see that excitement and energy and love that we created, the original teams and the Dwight teams and the T-Mac teams kind of got back. I think it’s missing that right now.”"

Dennis Scott is not quite Magic Johnson. And the Magic are probably not going to call him to take on the President of Basketball Operations role that Johnson has just taken with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Scott does not have the cache around the league to draw people in like Johnson, although Scott is very likable and certainly entertaining in his role with Turner Sports.

But Scott is right the Magic have to find a way to reignite excitement at the Amway Center. Games are pretty lifeless — both a factor of the culture of modern NBA arenas and the difficulties to put a winning product on the floor — and interest in the team is at a low.

A few weeks ago, it came out that Magic television ratings were down nearly 50 percent from last year.

The Magic do need to change something to spark interest and improve the team.

The decision to go smaller after the All-Star Break certainly seems to have helped. The team is playing a more exciting, aesthetically pleasing style. The Magic have something it seems they can build on.

But they still have a lot of work to do. Orlando is trying to get back to .500 it seems. The team seems closer to that now in a smaller sample size. There is still work to do.

It is unclear who will do it.

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Scott is not likely to be that guy. But he is right. The Magic need to re-spark the city’s love affair with the team and bring excitement and hope back to the Amway Center.