The Orlando Magic have had a celebrated history with fantastic players. The Orlando Magic Daily staff got together to vote the top 25. Here is part two.
The Orlando Magic’s 27-year history has been full of many, many highs. Some of the best players the league has seen at various times have worn a Magic uniform.
It has not delivered a championship yet, but the Magic have a history they can be proud of. The team has reached the Playoffs 14 times in its history with a gap no longer than four years. The franchise has had 22 All-Star selections in its short history.
The Magic are entering a season that has a lot riding on it. They are hungering to return to the Playoffs. And there is a lot of uncertainty about the roster.
The Magic’s history though is still one to celebrate. There are some truly great players that have walked through the hallways of the old Orlando Arena and the new Amway Center wearing Magic jerseys.
Magic history is full of some truly great players. And some memorable role players. Magic fans have a good selection of players to pick from when looking back at history.
The Orlando Magic have recently finished their offseason fan poll to name the top 25 players in franchise history. They selected 25 players and had fans vote for one, the winner would advance to the next vote.
Shaquille O’Neal won the day, coming in at No. 1 with Anfernee Hardaway at No. 2 and Dwight Howard at No. 3.
https://twitter.com/OrlandoMagic/status/768941900850204672
As you can see in the video from FanSided above, they picked a different trio. There seems to be a bunch of different ways to go — so long as the top four are set as Howard, O’Neal, Hardaway and Tracy McGrady.
The list though was a little bit unsatisfactory. Vince Carter cracked the top 10, beating Dennis Scott, Scott Skiles and Darrell Armstrong among his six straight wins, before the team stopped him from advancing any further.
It was certainly part of the risk of having a fan vote.
It inspired us at Orlando Magic Daily to come up with our own list. Orlando Magic Daily contributors Philip Rossman-Reich, Zach Palmer, David Iwanowski, Ryan Doyle, Carson Ingle, Dar-Wei Chen, Vincent McMillan and Spencer Henderson submitted their list of the top-25 players of all time. We put our lists together and came up with this ranking of the top 25 players in Magic history.
This is part two with Nos. 16-20 of our Top 25 list. You can read part one of our list with Nos. 21-25 here.
20. Rony Seikaly (1997-98)
High/Low: 10/UR
By Philip Rossman-Reich
Rony Seikaly had the ignoble honor of being the first man to replace Shaquille O’Neal.
That was an impossible task. There is simply no one who could replace O’Neal short of one of the great centers of the 1990s. Seikaly was not one of the great centers of that era. Not even close actually.
But Seikaly was a solid center option, at least statistically. He just was not Shaq.
Seikaly finished the 1997 season averaging 17.6 points per game and 9.7 rebounds per game. He played in three games during the Playoffs before an injury knocked him out. Not that he could do very much against Alonzo Mourning (or P.J. Brown).
Seikaly was a good offensive player and scorer. He might very well be one of the best offensive post players in Magic history — put him in the category with Shaquille O’Neal and Nikola Vucevic for sure. Seikaly was crafty and agile around the basket.
He just was not Shaq.
And that is ultimately his legacy. He got the first crack at filling those big shoes. And he was nowhere near that level. And, as they said in This Magic Moment, he was the center of attention in some bad ways too.
The bottom line is Seikaly just was not Shaq, no matter how much he could produce. And so he became one of many rotating centers for the Magic trying to find his replacement.
19. Victor Oladipo (2014-16)
High/Low: 13/22
By Zach Palmer
With the wound still fresh from his departure, Victor Oladipo clocks in as the 19th-best player in Magic history in the Orlando Magic Daily poll.
What I want to focus on here is what could have been with Victor Oladipo though.
After just three seasons with the team, Oladipo was thought highly enough of to make this list. Oladipo averaged 15.9 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game with the Magic. Oladipo showed steady improvement with the Magic each season, through coaching and role changes.
Oladipo has not reached his ceiling, and Frank Vogel would have been the best coach that has ever worked with Oladipo.
In his time with the Magic, I do not think I ever saw Oladipo give up during a game. Think about that, a guy who played through 153 losses in three years never gave up on his team.
There were flashes of brilliance, including his shootout with the Thunder during the second game of last season. Or his 45-point game against the Cavaliers.
Oladipo suffered playing on a bad team with non-ideal fits around him and still managed to be an effective player.
But, like all good things, it must come to an end. Unfortunately for Magic fans, we will never find out what could have been with Victor Oladipo. The Magic lost the possibility of a top-5 player in franchise history in Oladipo but will the gain be worth it (Serge Ibaka)?
That is the adventure we are going to have to take together in the coming seasons.
All we have left with Oladipo is what could have been and whether Oladipo could have turned into the star this rebuilding Magic team desperately needed.
18. J.J. Redick (2007-13)
High/Low: 13/22
By Ryan Doyle
My favorite Orlando Magic player of all-time is J.J. Redick. I was a big Duke fan growing up as a young kid — I loved the villain.
Redick just had the swagger and confidence on the court that makes you love him or hate him.
J.J. Redick is one of the most interesting stories in Orlando Magic history.
Redick was one of America’s biggest sports villains coming out of Duke. He was cocky on the court, and he would back up his play by hitting a 3-pointer right in a defender’s face.
Then of course he would follow that by taunting the crowd.
The Magic drafted him at No. 11 in the 2006 Draft. Redick was expected to make a contribution as an outside scorer.
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As his career began, Redick was quickly humbled. He saw limited minutes on the floor and it affected his development. His jump shot was there, but he was just a defensive liability and did not appear ready to be the star that some wanted him to be.
Some players at that point, sputter out of the league and jump from team to team. Redick did the opposite. He stayed in Orlando and improved his game. He became a key role player on the 2009 team that made it to the Finals. He improved on the defensive end, continued to shoot and became a really good player. Redick still credits Stan Van Gundy for saving his career as he fit in and improved enough defensively to gain the notably difficult coach’s trust.
It looked like Redick could be the sixth or seventh man on the Magic for a long time.
Sadly, with the team in rebuild mode, Redick was shipped off to Milwaukee during his best year with the team. Redick ranks in the top-10 in virtually every Orlando Magic shooting category as well as 10th in games played. Redick showed tremendous growth with Orlando and became a fan favorite, even those that could not stand him back in college eventually came around.
17. Vince Carter (2010-11)
High/Low: 13/20
By Spencer Henderson
The Orlando Magic acquired Vince Carter after they won the Eastern Conference in 2009. At the time the move made sense, the Magic needed another playmaker, anticipating they would move on from Hedo Turkoglu.
The Magic had arguably the best starting lineup in the East at the time — Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis, Matt Barnes, Vince Carter and Jameer Nelson. They seemed ready to defend the Eastern Conference title and finished second in the Eastern Conference that season with 59 wins.
Unlike Tracy McGrady, Carter did not spend his best years in the league with Orlando. Carter was an 11-year vet during his first season starting for the Magic.
Carter still had plenty of gas in the tank, even though he seemed to defer more with the Magic. He averaged 16.6 points per game and put in an iconic performance with a 48-point output on national TV against the New Orleans Hornets. Carter fit the bill as a perimeter creator for a team built around Dwight Howard and shooting on the perimeter.
But the Magic took a nose dive in the Eastern Conference Finals against Boston. The Magic lost their first three games to go down 0-3, then won the next two games to eventually lose the series 4-2. Carter’s highest point total in the series came in Game Three where he scored 15 points. And Carter is often blamed for not helping the Magic more in that series. His two missed free throws to tie Game Two stung especially and his confidence seemed shaken the rest of the series.
Although Carter may have played for Orlando on the downside of a stellar career, his contributions to the organization puts him in the top 20.
16. Steve Francis (2005-06)
High/Low: 5/UR
By David Iwanowski
Steve Francis played a big role on the Magic: the key player in the post-Tracy McGrady era. He was seen as a rising star in Houston, and was the big haul the Magic acquired for Tracy McGrady.
In a season and a half for the Magic, Francis averaged 19.4 points, 6.5 assists, 5.4 rebounds and 1.3 steals. He got to the line 7.2 times per game.
He was put in a situation where he had to do everything for the team, with the Magic in a rebuilding situation and Cuttino Mobley having been injured for most of his half season with the team.
Francis’ first season with the team, he racked up an 18.9 PER, 31.6 assist percentage, and 28 percent usage percentage. He had 6.2 win shares, as the team’s poor performance inhibited his win share potential.
For comparison, Stephen Curry’s usage percentage was 28.9 in his 2015 MVP campaign. Francis was not shy about going after his shots and dominating the ball. Someone had to do it as the Magic tried to remain competitive post-McGrady.
Francis played an essential role for the franchise as the next star after the T-Mac saga, and the focal point of the offense. He succeeded in that role, even though opponents focused their gameplans on limiting his play.
Although he ultimately did not achieve everything the front office and fans had hoped he would, he was still a very good player for the team and was ranked here for his overall impact.
Part 3 will publish Wednesday morning with Nos. 11-15 with the next five revealed every morning the rest of this week.