The Magic are embarking on a strange, new journey this year.
The Erie BayHawks will kick off their season next week in Idaho, marking their first season and the Magic’s first season with a one-to-one D-League affiliate.
It is still pretty unclear exactly how the Magic will use the D-League. Will Devyn Marble take a detour there to get some playing time and experience? If Aaron Gordon struggles to find his fit, could the Magic opt to send him to Erie to get playing experience and refine some skills while clearing up the potential logjam at small forward?
These are all very realistic options that could come down the pike at some point this season.
Of course, it is perfectly realistic that the Magic will opt to keep all those young players close to home and develop them behind the scenes with the coaching staff and teammates they will eventually be playing with.
The option is there is all.
“I think the fact that we have Erie as a platform to develop our players, our staff, what have you is an exciting thing for us,” Magic general manager Rob Hennigan said. “We don’t know quite yet how it will be used in terms of assignments and allocating guys. I think we will play that by ear as we get into the season. Certainly to have that resource at our disposal is an exciting thing for us moving forward.”
It is exactly that, a resource.
Hennigan’s former employers, the Oklahoma City Thunder, have used it as a way to ensure young players get time to develop. If you gander at Jeremy Lamb or Perry Jones III’s Basketball-Reference page, you will see exactly how they use it. Those players were constantly up and down through the D-League. They usually spent time playing for the Tulsa 66ers while the Thunder were on the road and not likely to get much practice time.
Of course, Oklahoma City had the benefit of having their D-League team a mere 108 miles and an hour-and-a-half drive away. Erie, Pa., is 1,091 miles and 16-hour drive from Orlando. A little bit harder to shuttle guys back and forth there.
So it remains very unclear how the Magic will use Erie as a resource.
Already, they have assigned their first players to their new D-League affiliate. That would be the four training camp invitees. After clearing waivers, the Magic assigned Peyton Siva, Seth Curry, Kadeem Batts and Drew Crawford to their D-League affiliate. Curry and Siva already grace the front of the BayHawks’ Web site.
The Magic will likely be keeping a special eye on these four players with the thoughts of signing them to 10-day contracts in January or to bring them back for Summer League.
The Magic also might take a look at several other players on the roster. The BayHawks drafted Daniel Coursey, John Bohannon and Lenzelle Smith, Jr. with their first three picks in the Draft. These are players Erie specifically selected and so it would make sense the Magic might have a special eye on them throughout the season and for Summer League next year.
Those are likely the players the Magic will be looking to watch and develop.
With the season not having started yet, the Magic have not had the opportunity to fully explore how they will use the D-League. Rob Hennigan said at media day he was not sure whether the Magic would follow the Thunder’s model and send players back and forth from their affiliate. Geography does not seem to allow it.
This is all an experiment on the Magic’s part, joining the wave of teams with single affiliations throughout the league that is making the D-League more of a minor league. As the season picks up, it will be intriguing to see how Orlando uses this new resource.