The Orlando Magic are seeking identity as they continue their rebuild. As they have gone year to year, it seems the Magic have lacked this leadership.
Almost five full seasons into the post-Dwight Howard era, the Orlando Magic’s rebuild still lacks a number of crucial elements.
Try as Rob Hennigan might, the team has no true identity, no star player, no obvious direction and, at times, no cohesion, focus or commitment to winning.
These factors combined have resulted in a record of 127-268 and what appears to be five seasons of playoff-less basketball. It leaves a huge question mark hanging over the team’s future and the direction it will go.
On top of that, the club no has some serious personnel issues focused around the fact that Bismack Biyombo, who is averaging just 23.5 minutes per game, is earning more than anyone else on the roster; management/ownership may have lost faith in starting point guard Elfrid Payton; and there is an obvious lack of leadership from the team’s veterans.
The team seems still to lack direction.
Before the season, Jason Concepcion of The Ringer tried to identify the “alpha personalities” for each team in the league. Every team needs one. He becomes someone who directs the team’s style and identity in a number of ways.
When it came to the Magic, Concepcion could not think of anybody:
"Whose team is it? TBD but it’s probably Serge Ibaka"
It was not Serge Ibaka. The experiment with Ibaka did not work as his defense stagnated and the team’s defense cratered.
Orlando still seems to be seeking a firm identity and someone to define it.
With that in mind, now seems like as good a time as any to ask, whose team is it anyway? And how did this evolve through the Magic’s rebuild?
2013: Jameer Nelson
In the immediate aftermath of the Dwight Howard trade, the Magic were left with a roster littered with youngsters, veterans and, well, spare parts.
Consequently, Jameer Nelson took the reigns – something he was used to doing in Howard’s absence anyway.
Hampered by injury, Nelson made just 56 appearances in the course of the 2013 season. He averaged 14.7 points, 3.7 rebounds, 7.4 assists and 1.3 steals in 35.3 minutes per game while playing with the kind of familiar grit Magic fans had grown to love.
But the team around him straddled both the past and the future. It struggled mightily.
Still, he helped the Magic registered a huge win against the team Howard had abandoned the Magic for – the Los Angeles Lakers. Nels had a 19-point, 13-assist performance in a game that clearly meant something to him with the wound so fresh.
Sadly this turned out to be one of the few highlights in a season that saw Orlando log just 20 wins. And while he was afforded another year and a half in pinstripes, Nelson served more as a mentor than a leader on the new-look Magic before departing.
He has continued to play well, but clearly was not ever going to be someone who could define a franchise. For one hurting for some nostalgia before a rebuild, Nelson served his purpose.
2014: Nikola Vucevic
Of all the players the Magic acquired in the Dwight Howard and J.J. Redick deals, Nikola Vucevic quickly emerged as the most promising.
In his first season with the team, he averaged 13.1 points and 11.9 rebounds per game, prompting many to say Orlando won the Howard trade – something that was helped by the fact Howard’s first year in Los Angeles hardly went to plan.
Vucevic’s numbers improved steadily in the next couple of seasons, peaking at 19.3 points and 10.9 rebounds per game during the 2015 season. In recent years his contributions on the defensive end have improved considerably. But the size of the extension he signed coupled with the fact Vucevic is hardly a vocal leader on the floor has often seen him overlooked.
The fact of the matter is Vucevic has been one of the best, most committed and reliable players to don pinstripes since Howard’s departure.
This has never quite felt like his team, though.
2016: Victor Oladipo
Of all the players the Orlando Magic have drafted since trading Dwight Howard, Victor Oladipo is probably the most intriguing.
Taken second overall in 2013, many felt he had the potential to become a franchise cornerstone. For anyone who had seen him play in college, his shortcomings were all too evident – difficulties shooting from range, creating off the dribble, getting to the line, to name a few.
But Oladipo was a lockdown defender, who the Magic felt, for a while at least, could potentially become the team’s starting guard and future All Star.
Presumably, Rob Hennigan envisaged the former Hoosier doing for the Magic what James Harden is currently doing in Houston. But Oladipo possessed neither the offensive weapons nor passing ability to run the show.
He logged three decent seasons with the Magic, averaging 17.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game in that time, before getting traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder. While Hennigan probably overpaid for Serge Ibaka, that trade made more sense at the time.
Oladipo was never likely to be a franchise player. He was a nice supporting piece – one that Orlando has undoubtedly missed this season. Or, at least, could have gotten more in return.
2017: Serge Ibaka
As mentioned, the trade that saw the Orlando Magic give up Victor Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova and the draft rights to Domantas Sabonis for Serge Ibaka on NBA Draft night last offseason made a lot of sense at the time.
Having cleared cap space by giving away Tobias Harris, the Magic were always likely to go after a big fish.
That it was Ibaka came as something of a surprise, though, as the once influential big’s ability to win games through defense appeared to be waning. But in him, Orlando saw a power forward who could stretch the floor and provide some stability alongside the defensively inconsistent Nikola Vucevic.
The trouble is that the gamble was almost entirely reliant on Aaron Gordon ability to play the 3.
Unfortunately, that failed experiment coupled with the fact Rob Hennigan missed on his free agent additions resulted in a gamble that saw the Magic take a huge step back this season. Orlando had to capitulate, trading Ibaka to the Toronto Raptors.
Terrence Ross looks like a far better fit, and the Magic managed to recoup a first rounder from Toronto, which could prove crucial in this year’s talent-heavy draft.
So whose team is it now?
Truth be told, there is no one player holding the reigns right now. The Magic are indeed a bit lost and seeking direction again.
Aaron Gordon is the closest thing the club has to a franchise player, but it remains unclear as to whether he can truly live up to that label.
Despite improving year on year, Gordon is yet to carve out an offensive identity for himself – something not helped by the Ibaka experiment, which saw him play two-thirds of this season out of position.
It will be interesting to see how he fares now that Orlando has adopted a smaller lineup. But the instability and the losses he has been exposed to over the past three years cannot have helped him much.
It seems far more likely whoever the Magic draft this offseason will come in and put the team on his back, especially if it continues to perform poorly between now and the end of the season.
Next: Orlando Magic need more than effort to compete with best
However things play out, the sooner the Magic work out whose team this is the sooner they can start building an identity around that player and, hopefully, get back to winning ways.