The focus for the Orlando Magic and GM Rob Hennigan has turned to the trade deadline. But a deal is not going to fix everything, even as they search.
The Orlando Magic are 18-28 as their rough January schedule comes to a close. This is not at all where the team expected to be or wanted to be. And after a summer remaking the roster and pushing for the franchise’s first Playoff appearance in five years, the team is feeling the pressure to make the Playoffs.
To say the least, the Magic did not imagine they would have a bottom-10 offense and a bottom-10 defense once again and find themselves fading away in the Playoff race.
Time is seemingly running out to fix things and set the Magic back on the right course. All the pressure is on Magic general manager Rob Hennigan.
And the next big decision date comes Feb. 23 with the NBA’s trade deadline. After that, the team will be on its own to make the Playoffs or not.
The Magic have said the team will be active in the trade market. In an interview with Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel, Rob Hennigan confirmed the team is actively seeking a deal with some specific needs in mind.
But Hennigan acknowledges a trade alone will not turn things around. As much as he is looking to improve the team externally, he tells Robbins the Magic need some internal gelling and improvement to achieve their goals.
"“Certainly, as we’ve watched the season transpire I think internally there’s room for improvement if we can harness some consistency that has evaded us over the course of the season. Getting back to our defensive roots — I think that’s something that can be, or potentially be, addressed internally. And then I think externally — I’m not going to spill internal secrets here — some more shot-making and shooting and maybe feel-for-the-game type of qualities along our perimeter could help us.”"
Hennigan said the team will explore every option. But a trade is not a “necessity,” in his words, to turn things around. Orlando will be searching for more shot-making and offense and players with high-basketball-IQ players. It appears to be a similar approach to previous deadline and transaction dates.
In dissecting the season so far, there is plenty of frustration. Most of all with the defense and the lack of consistency up and down the roster. After acquiring Serge Ibaka and Bismack Biyombo, adding them to strong defensive talents in Aaron Gordon and Elfrid Payton, the team expected to dominate defensively. That has not come together.
And that is where the big disconnect remains. Hennigan said the defensive performance to this point of the season is certainly disappointing. They expected to hang their hat on that end of the floor.
But there are still signs of encouragement. There are still those brief flashes of strong defensive play. And individual players like Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon and Elfrid Payton have made encouraging improvements.
Overall, the Magic are in a tough spot. There is clear pressure to win now after the moves the team made this summer and the general length of the rebuild. At the same time, the team needs players who have been inconsistent to this point in the season to step up in a bigger way.
It appears the Magic’s targets in the trade market are to acquire more offense, a clear weakness for the team.
But the team still will not make the improvements it needs unless the players already on the roster come together and improve significantly.
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It leaves Hennigan in a very tight spot for sure. Certainly, there is the expectation the Magic will make a deal. But, at the same time, he must balance the franchise’s future and ask whether a deal will actually make the team better.