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NBA Trade Deadline: Dealing Tobias Harris a necessary risk for Orlando Magic

By Brett David Roberts

Feb 5, 2016; Orlando, FL, USA; Orlando Magic forward Tobias Harris (12) holds a towel over a laceration that required stitches as head coach Scott Skiles walks along during the second half of a basketball game at Amway Center. The Clippers won 107-93. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 5, 2016; Orlando, FL, USA; Orlando Magic forward Tobias Harris (12) holds a towel over a laceration that required stitches as head coach Scott Skiles walks along during the second half of a basketball game at Amway Center. The Clippers won 107-93. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Orlando Magic dealt Tobias Harris for payroll reasons, but the big payout may come this summer — rather than never.

Muddling along with merely decent talents is what keeps a team locked in a state of perpetual mediocrity. Orlando Magic general manager Rob Hennigan is willing to wind up for something bigger.

The Orlando Magic are a team without a superstar and alpha dog.

The season started with Evan Fournier looking like a semi-star as the leading scorer, then it was back to Nikola Vucevic.

Really, however, different players lead the team in scoring regularly, with it being the now-departed Tobias Harris some nights, Vucevic others and still Victor Oladipo on other nights.

This is not a recipe for consistent winning basketball.

Look no further than the fact Orlando’s fickle attitude toward its rotation has rendered the team almost unpredictable on a night to night basis.

So, the clear answer is to wind up and hope the team can strike gold — hope that by freeing up the necessary cap room that one of the stud free agents decides to take his talents to Orlando and buy into this young group.

Can that happen? Absolutely. Will it certainly happen? No.

But trading Tobias Harris for Brandon Jennings’ expiring contract (and Ersan Ilyasova) is a sure-fire way at least to give Orlando the flexibility and the chance to add that defining talent. Harris was not it. No other player on the roster is either.

Magic fans are going to clamor for Kevin Durant, Al Horford, Mike Conley or any of the other big names on the market. We already discussed how unlikely it is Durant will choose Orlando, and that same line of reasoning takes hold for any other superstar free agent.

But getting the cap flexibility to make it happen is one step toward avoiding long-lasting mediocrity. The Magic are taking a rather big risk in dealing a productive player like Harris — in dealing a guy who has continued to improve and is a proven (if not peaked) commodity.

Harris may already be playing at his ceiling, and that is not the level of a No. 1 option, not the level of a superstar.

Fans of most teams want to see the windup to an eventual title. Without chasing superstars that just does not happen in the NBA. Only the Detroit Pistons were able to win without a defining talent in the past 20 years, and there is no reason to expect the Magic to share the ball evenly with a different guy leading the team in scoring every night. Much less play that level of defense in a much different league.

That is not the recipe to being a title contender.

Even with two superstars, we still see teams fall short. Even three does not guarantee it, as we saw with the Miami Heat failing to achieve the “Not four, not five…” line that LeBron James spouted when he arrived in South Beach. Two rings is far better than none, but loading a team with talent does not always result in a dynasty.

With no superstars it is a guaranteed path to nothing but sustained mediocrity.

For some fans that may be fine, but I suspect that faction is a very small minority. Most Magic fans want a superstar in Orlando, and clearing the cap room to sign one is the only thing that makes a lot of sense.

Orlando may not get Durant. It likely will not happen. We do not know which stars if any will find the pull of Central Florida irresistible. It has not happened often in franchise history.

Only in the summer that drew Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady did Orlando drastically improve its chances by signing big names. So perhaps it is just a pipe dream. Maybe the only way the Magic get franchise talent is by drafting it.

But top-three picks also are not handed out like free candy samples. So this is one avenue toward giving Orlando an eventual realistic title chance.

It may completely backfire as we watch Orlando strike out on free agents and essentially have given Tobias Harris away.

That is the worst case scenario of course.

The best case? The Magic finally get a defining talent that can take this team to the next level.

There is no way to play NBA Nostradamus and know what will happen. But what can be known is Orlando would have only had the chance at more “very good” players without dealing Harris. The door is now open for a great player this summer.

And that is how titles are won.