Yes, the Orlando Magic did not have a good Lottery

While there are still plenty of silver linings and opportunities at No. 6 in the 2017 NBA Draft. The Orlando Magic were certainly a loser on Lottery night.

There are a few truths about the NBA Draft Lottery.

Teams line up to give themselves the best odds at winning the thing, sometimes even going to nefarious measures to try to position themselves with the most ping pong balls. When the Draft is as loaded as the 2017 Draft seems to be, things get a little bit hairier.

The Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers were involved in a race to the bottom. The Philadelphia 76ers also tried their best to throw games away and position themselves for a top pick again.

The Orlando Magic? Coach Frank Vogel said he believed in basketball karma. The basketball gods would take care of his team if he continued to try to win. Besides that point, what young players was Vogel not playing that he needed to play? By the time the season ended, the team had shut down Jeff Green and spent some games playing late-season pickups Marcus Georges-Hunt and Patricio Garino.

Everyone has their lucky charms and their beliefs when it comes down to the Lottery and winning it. The reality is that it is the random blind draw. The Boston Celtics won the Lottery three times before the Lakers landed the the second pick.

The statistics say only one team will jump into the top three. The Magic, like many teams, were statistically most likely to fall one spot — in their case, to sixth. The results of Tuesday’s Lottery were what everyone could expect. There is no reason to get upset by this.

But no doubt, the Magic did not have a successful Lottery. The team fell a spot to sixth and lost the Lakers’ 2019 first round pick thanks to the Lakers winning the second pick. The Lakers had roughly a 50-50 shot of landing in the top three and keeping that pick. They won the coin flip.

The Lottery is completely out of the team’s control. There is nothing any team can do to make the Lottery results work in their favor once they enter that lottery room.

But undoubtedly, the Magic needed a boost. The team, having gone 29-53 after a painful five-year rebuild and firing their general manager Rob Hennigan, needed a new direction and a reason to give their fans hope. With little cap space to work with, the Magic do not have many avenues to become a better team.

And that is why so many hopes got pinned to the Lottery and getting a high pick.

Of all the losers in the Draft — the New Orleans Pelicans and New York Knicks certainly among them — the Magic seem to be the one that lost the most. They needed some hope.

The Ringer even called the Magic the saddest team after the Lottery results:

And it is hard to argue that. The team has made misstep after misstep, relying too much on the Lottery at times and coming up with very little to show for it. The team’s future is very bleak indeed.

Rob Mahoney of Sports Illustrated named the Magic one of the losers of the Lottery saying the team needed a happy ending after a clunky, frustrating season.

But, as Mahoney notes too, the Magic should still get a solid player at six. This Draft is deep enough to give them that opportunity.

Whether it is Dennis Smith, Jayson Tatum, D’Aaron Fox, Jonathan Isaac or Malik Monk, the Magic will get a player with some star potential. But also potential risk too.

Smith is an explosive scoring point guard a year after tearing his ACL and having played for a losing team. Tatum is an old-school scoring forward, but may not have 3-point range for the NBA. Fox is a dynamic point guard drawing comparisons to John Wall from their mutual coach with the Kentucky Wildcats but has some serious shooting question. Monk may be the best shooter in the Draft, but at 6-foot-3, his size is a question mark at shooting guard. And Isaac is perhaps the most talented and athletic forward in the Draft, but never quite put everything together with the Florida State Seminoles.

Each player brings with him hope, but also a fair measure of risk. The Magic will have that opportunity to analyze their picks and what they can bring in.

The opportunity is there, but obviously not as ideal as winning the Lottery. And it certainly would not get the fans as excited as winning the Lottery would have.

The Lottery proved to be a defeat if a minor one. But a high-profile one for sure.

Next: Discussing the NBA Draft Lottery fallout with Heart and Hustle Podcast

The Magic may still be in a decent position with the sixth overall pick in the Draft. But they certainly did not have a good day at the NBA Draft Lottery either.