Orlando Magic Power Rankings Roundup: A fresh start
Matt Moore, CBS Sports
(39-16). Previous: . Cleveland Cavaliers. 1. team. 156.
25. team. 170. . (24-32). Previous: . Charlotte Hornets
38. . (21-37). Previous: . Orlando Magic. 27. team
"“The Magic would go to the swapmeet with gold coins and leave with a teddy bear missing one eyeball and a box of expired Twinkies.”"
(18-39). Previous: . Phoenix Suns. 27. team. 66.
Plenty are calling the Serge Ibaka deal a failure in the bigger picture. And rightfully so. The Orlando Magic essentially gave up Victor Oladipo, Domantas Sabonis and half of Tobias Harris for Terrence Ross and a first round pick in the late 20s. Orlando took a risk and ended up on the short end when the risk did not pan out.
Rob Hennigan in some respects looks like Dwight from The Office during the company garage sale:
Probably should have stopped at Erin’s squid thing. It has superstar potential.
But that is the feeling the Magic have. Rob Hennigan has pulled off some good deals — his swapping of J.J. Redick’s expiring contract at the last second to the Milwaukee Bucks for Tobias Harris and his shipping of Arron Afflalo to the Denver Nuggets for a young and similar Evan Fournier were inspired. But of late, things have not worked out.
Harris felt like the telescope in the video above. And somehow Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova were Doctor Copperfield’s Magical Legumes. At least, Serge Ibaka certainly qualifies as a moon shot that did not turn into very much for the team.
Orlando, in its last few deals, certainly should feel like it has come up short. The Magic lack a lot of good young players with room to grow — or much roster cohesion — and now feel like they are holding a bag of empty promises.