@OMagicDaily with the pieces the magic have and continue to build is it enough to win a championship In the next 10 years?
— Jimmy Rond (@JimmyRond) February 22, 2015
@OMagicDaily on a scale of 1-10 10 being the best how successful has the rebuilding process been so far?
— Jimmy Rond (@JimmyRond) February 22, 2015
10 years is a very very long time. The Magic have had only two players make it that long with the franchise in the team’s 26-year history. So it is very unlikely that any player currently on the roster will be with the team a decade from now, no matter how good they might be. This is just the way the NBA works.
If Victor Oladipo or Elfrid Payton or Nikola Vucevic or whoever is with the team for 10 years, then that probably means the Magic are competing for championships.
The pieces the Magic have are still the very beginnings of a championship team though. Someone has to make that “star turn” and it looks like Victor Oladipo is preparing to make that kind of a turn. We will have to see next October. The team right now also lacks depth and have missed on a few young prospects as Maurice Harkless and Andrew Nicholson have not developed as expected.
At some point, and it is probably not this summer but it is coming soon, the Magic will have to spend their money and bring in a player or have a player develop into a “star” and lead the team back into the Playoffs. You cannot keep rebuilding forever and at some point the team will take a risk if things do not go according to plan.
So where are the Magic at with their rebuild?
On a time scale, I think they are a half-year behind. They put a lot of eggs into getting Andrew Wiggins or Jabari Parker in last year’s draft. No disrespect intended to Aaron Gordon.
On a 1-10 scale, I think they are a 5 on how successful the rebuild is. The coaching decision with Jacque Vaughn turned into a disaster and set things back. That misstep has probably hampered the growth of Maurice Harkless and Andrew Nicholson too. Not to mention, it turned this into something of a lost season.
The Magic definitely still have work to do and definitely still have to see players improve from within their roster to get where they want to go. It is going to be tough to see the end to this road. The picture is still pretty unclear, and that is probably the biggest problem from this season.
The Magic wanted to make their picture that much clearer this year and that did not happen.
Next: Elfrid Payton becoming historically great for the Magic