Who are the top trios in Orlando Magic history?

Honorable Mentions

OK, first the honorable mentions. In looking at the Magic’s history, there were some surprisingly interesting trios throughout the Magic’s short history. Certainly some that seemed to be capable of doing more than they actually did.

Since we are focusing on top fives in this series, and there are going to be a lot of overlap in our selection, I wanted to be sure to highlight some of the honorable mentions and other great trios in Magic history that may or may not have had success.

Dwight Howard, Grant Hill and Jameer Nelson (2005-07): Grant Hill played more than 60 games just twice in his seven year with the Magic. That occurred in the 2005 and 2007 seasons. The 2005 season saw him go down with a sports hernia injury late in the year, which derailed the Magic’s Playoff hopes. The 2007 season, Hill’s last, was the year Orlando finally made it back to the Playoffs. It was also probably his best season in Orlando. This group was never destined to play together very long. By the time Hill’s contract ran out, the Magic had already decided to move on and cede leadership to Howard and Nelson. They were not re-signing him, even if Hill was willing to take a significant discount.

Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson, Jason Richardson (2011-12): The Magic’s championship window closed suddenly when the Magic re-acquired Hedo Turkoglu and received Jason Richardson and Gilbert Arenas in a trade. This was their new core. It was not bad by any means. The Magic made the Playoffs in 2011 still, falling in the first round to the Hawks in frustrating fashion. They were flying fine in 2012 before Dwight Howard’s injury too. Richardson was a solid spot-up shooter, but not what the Magic needed to remain title contenders.

Shaquille O’Neal, Nick Anderson, Dennis Scott (1993): Shaquille O’Neal did have one year in Orlando before Anfernee Hardaway arrived and changed everything for the Magic. O’Neal took the league by storm his rookie year, getting named to the All-Star team and averaging 23.4 points and 9.6 rebounds per game. His presence alone transformed Orlando into a .500 team (tied for the last Playoff spot, but losing on a tiebreaker). Anderson scored 19.9 points per game, proving to be a solid young complement to O’Neal. And Dennis Scott was a big 3-point shooter 15.9 points per game and 40.3 percent 3-point shooting. Scott Skiles was not too shabby either just behind him.

Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley, Dwight Howard (2005): This trio only had 32 games together before the Magic decided to trade Mobley to the Kings for Doug Christie. Francis was cruising and still looking like an All Star and Mobley was solid in his short stint in a Magic uniform, averaging 16.0 points per game. Even Grant Hill was contributing at that time as Dwight Howard started coming into his own as a rebounding machine as a rookie. Orlando was 18-14 at the time. They finished the season 18-32. I guess the Magic will never know what this trio could have done if given the time to grow.

Victor Oladipo, Tobias Harris, Nikola Vucevic (2014-Present): The current Magic  trio is good. Or at least it is going to be. Oladipo, Harris and Vucevic have put up some really good numbers in their early years. It just has not translated to team success yet. We have written a lot about this trio. Both Brett and David put this trio in their top five. I am not ready to do that. The talent is certainly there. This is a solid core. It should be good enough to get a team to the Playoffs. It just is not there yet. Not at the level of the five I am about to name.

Next: The core of mediocrity