The Orlando Magic made some strong additions to the team and largely played the summer well. But did they do enough to take the leap? Not in free agency.
After winning 25 games last season, the Orlando Magic had a lot of needs to fill in the offseason. As much as everyone wanted a rim-protecting power forward to line up next to Nikola Vucevic and some star power, that was just not going to be in the cards.
The Magic’s new organization has to prove itself to free agents to attract them into the fold and make that major impact they want to make. The roster they have built through the Draft and the vision the team has tried to put into place has to prove itself on the court before anything can happen.
Each offseason has the certain tasks a team needs to complete just so it can field a competitive roster. The Magic certainly had some of those — needing a backup point guard and to find some type of answer at power forward.
What became increasingly clear though as the Magic went after Paul Millsap and told at least C.J. Watson they were planning on pursuing some “big fish,” the Magic are not going to go anywhere until the players on their roster get better.
So the focus in free agency had to change (or at least stay on track) to supplement the players on the roster ready to grow and bring in a coach who could foster that growth and demand accountability or something a bit more.
The Magic supplemented the roster in free agency the best they could while maintaining cap flexibility. They acquired C.J. Watson as a backup point guard on a reasonable deal and shoring up the frontcourt with Jason Smith on a one-year deal.
The big moves were shoring up the foundations though and continuing the process of developing their young players and building through the Draft.
Mario Hezonja will undoubtedly become a big piece for the Magic moving forward, as you would expect any top-five pick to become. And re-signing Tobias Harris at an average of $16 million per year puts a ton of responsibility on the now-23-year-old forward to become a much more important and consistent player for this young team.
Yes, the Magic did not make anything more than a cosmetic change to their 25-win roster. The only shock to the system was the team’s new coach. That means most of the improvement for the Magic will come internally.
Still these changes that came this year are pretty important. Every move is when you are trying to climb out of the basement and take some steps forward.
So how did the Magic do this summer?
Next: The Free Agents
The Free Agents
BONUS!
Next: The Draft
The Draft
Next: About Tobias Harris
Next: The trades
The trades of Maurice Harkless and Kyle O’Quinn were less about losing these players. O’Quinn got a four-year deal, which few teams were willing to match. He got long-term security the Magic were not likely going to give.
The trades of these two solid (and popular) young players was more about the Magic’s inability to develop them and inability to integrate them into the team. Or more or less giving up on these young talents.
Giving up is kind of harsh. They had an opportunity and lost it in the coaching staff’s estimation.
It seemed unfair Maurice Harkless could not get off the bench throughout the season after the improvement he showed in his first two years. In games where Harkless played more than 20 minutes last year, Harkless averaged 7.4 points per game and shot a 47.8 percent effective field goal percentage.
Harkless buried himself on the bench in a lot of ways. His play was not great, but he never got a fair chance in 2015.
And so getting virtually nothing in return for him feels empty. Very empty.
Kyle O’Quinn also got an opportunity. He slowly lost it for whatever reason. Some of it was Dewayne Dedmon pushing him out. Dedmon did many of the things O’Quinn was supposedly good at, specifically on the defensive end. That made him expendable. And he could easily get priced out for the Magic.
So their Magic careers were not perfect. Far from it. They were slowly phased out. Which is awful to see for a pair of young players. Especially on a young team.
They just did not find favor. And so they are out. On to bigger and better things, probably. That is the worst of it. Magic fans are going to hate how they were treated and how they develop outside Orlando.
Next: Final Grade
Next: Nikola Vucevic excited to represent NBA at Africa Game