Marc Stein, ESPN.com
"The Magic traded Serge Ibaka to cut their losses, knowing they had little to no shot of retaining him in free agency this summer. But they also did it now — despite the grief they’re inevitably getting because of what they gave up to acquire Ibaka in the first place — to bring order to a lineup (and a locker room) that was clearly out of sorts with so many big men vying for minutes. Frank Vogel’s dreams of transforming Aaron Gordon into a Paul George-esque 3-man have been abandoned, allowing Gordon to return to his more comfortable position (power forward) and increasing Orlando’s collective foot speed as a result. “For the first time in a while,” Evan Fournier told reporters after Orlando’s unexpected home shredding of Atlanta, “I feel like we had fun.”"
Fit has been a big talking point among the Orlando Magic all season. From the time the season began, everyone seemed ready to call the Magic’s roster mismatched. But there was hope if the defense became elite like many suspected.
That did not happen. The Magic struggled defensively after a strong first quarter to the season. And the year quickly became lost.
When a team becomes lost like the Magic were, it is, for lack of a better term, not fun.
Magic games became a grind. And for bad teams, if you are going to bad, you might as well be entertaining. Instead, the Magic had not identity. They could not get stops and, worse, they could not score in a league that is seeing an offensive revolution.
Clearing the logjam and going small seems to have unlocked some of these issues and reignited the team. Saturday’s win over the Atlanta Hawks was truly. . . fun.