Orlando Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman sat down with the Orlando Sentinel to assess the season and say where things are headed next.
The Orlando Magic’s season has not gone according to plan. Everyone can admit that.
The team has lost 24 of its last 27 games, burying a promising 8-4 start. It seems like the Magic are once again destined for a Lottery-bound season again. Not just a Lottery season, but a season where the team will land a top-five pick — or top-five odds.
In that respect, the season remains a bitter disappointment.
Taken with the last five years, the season becomes even more disappointing and frustrating. The Magic have not lived up to even the most modest of expectations. Orlando has underperformed. And it feels like it is time to change.
It is easy to point to injuries — and even president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman would admit that — but it does feel like something more. And with five years of struggles under their belt, it feels like it is time to make a change.
The trade deadline in early February is in everyone’s focus at the moment. It is the first chance to make changes to the roster since the summer when Weltman opted to hold firm and see what he had on the roster. Pretty soon the time of evaluation needs to end and the Magic need to take actions to improve the team.
For now, the Magic are publicly saying their evaluations continue. There is no rush to make a move and Orlando, while disappointed with its season so far, are still letting the team’s new management put all the pieces together and strategically moving forward.
That was the feeling in Weltman’s mid-season interview with Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. In the 2,000-plus word interview, Weltman uses some variation of the word “evaluate” six times. And that is the general sentiment still.
Midway through the season, the Magic are still learning what they have and figuring out how to move forward:
"“We’re still evaluating that,” Weltman told the Sentinel about the team’s direction. “Obviously, the season hasn’t turned out the way that we had hoped, but I think that’s largely been due to factors beyond our control. I think when we were in control we had showed pretty well. So there’s some stock to be put in that. You also have to wake up and have a realistic account of where you sit right now and the reality of the rest of the season and what’s in store. You try to factor in all those things and put it all together and then see what other teams think and whether there are other deals to pull you in a certain direction.”"
Weltman hit on several topics throughout the interview. But he remained extremely vague about the team’s direction, again defaulting to his “evaluating” statement.
No one would expect Weltman to divulge his plans in a public interview. He is not about to say who he will trade. But he continues to stick to his lines that everyone is under evaluation and that he is learning who the team is and how they interact with each other.
The only place where Jeff Weltman seemed to be unequivocal is that coach Frank Vogel has the team’s faith and has done a good job considering the difficult hand he is dealt. Weltman added Vogel would certainly agree he could do things better. But that his job is relatively safe. It does not seem the Magic are complimenting any changes for now.
Everything may have to wait for the end of the season for a final (you guessed it) evaluation.
Weltman seems still to be preaching patience. He does not want to rush the rebuild or make a change for the sake of change. Continuity is earned, as Weltman said, but this is a process that cannot be hurried.
The evaluations will continue even through this season. The Magic might hang on to their dreams from the beginning of the season as a sign of hope. They will look to Aaron Gordon‘s improvement and the hope Jonathan Isaac brings (when he is healthy).
Next: Orlando Magic must explore their late-game options
The team will look to improve everywhere they can. But Orlando is waiting for its opportunity and continuing to evaluate things.