The Orlando Magic plan to be active at the trade deadline this year and hope to have several options. But do not expect a firesale of unwanted players.
Yesterday, Orlando Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman spoke to Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel for a sort of mid-season check-up.
It feels like it will be a time of change for the Magic right now. The team is struggling once again and has sunk to the bottom of the standings. Largely, Weltman said his new front office was evaluating their team as they plot out a future.
And it seems abundantly clear the team’s future does not lie with the current roster. Not completely at least.
The trade deadline is coming up Feb. 8. It is the first big decision point for the Magic’s new front office. And a poor 12-27 run after the team’s hot start has left them at the very bottom of the NBA’s standings, checking Tankathon on a nightly basis and completely out of the Playoff picture.
It is easy to blame injuries for this, but the reality is the Magic would need to play as they did in the first month of the season the rest of the way to sniff the Playoffs. A .667 pace the rest of the way, like the Magic were on before these injuries, would leave the Magic with 41 wins. That is probably the line to make the Playoffs this year.
So nothing is impossible. But do not hold your breath. The Magic’s margin for error to make the Playoffs is that razor thin.
It is fairly safe to say it will not happen. And this downturn certainly has provided the Magic a ton of information to think about and process.
It leads to a trade deadline where the new management group will almost certainly look to begin making its imprint on the team. And it appears the Magic will look to be active and make that imprint.
Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders analyzed the teams at the bottom and what they might do and writes the Magic are going to be aggressive. But they are not going to firesale the team. It appears they at least believe there is something they can build around here:
"There is little doubt the Magic are going to entertain the trade market fairly aggressively in the coming weeks, but the one thing that continues to be clear is they are not open to a fire sale with anyone. If the Magic make a move, it has to make the roster better, which is often hard to pull off at the deadline, but the sense is the Magic are going to try and see what they can shake loose."
It would be tough to start completely over if the Magic even wanted to. Players on big contracts like Bismack Biyombo and Evan Fournier are going to be tough to move. And Aaron Gordon‘s breakout season has seemingly cemented his spot with the team.
It seems the task for the Magic now is to find a way to build a team around their two new core players — Aaron Gordon and Jonathan Isaac. That likely means building around players they are stuck with.
Injuries have not helped the Magic’s situation. Players who might fetch something in the trade market like Terrence Ross and Nikola Vucevic are on the shelf and likely will not garner much interest unless they prove they are healthy on the court first. That seems fairly unlikely.
Orlando may also have to settle for trading down in talent to free up some cap room and get rid of some of these big contracts. At least that might help the team bring in players that fit the team’s ultimate vision.
When it came to the trade deadline and the players on the Magic’s roster, Jeff Weltman told Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel they are receiving some interest:
"A lot of interest. I think a lot of guys in the league see that we have good players and they know that we were a pretty good team. If you go back and rewind it a little while to when we were healthy and just getting out of the gates, I think that there were a lot of nice things said and thought about our team and about our players. The league is very sensitive to sniffing those things out. So when teams start to turn the other way, when their record starts to head the other way, other teams are going to be monitoring those situations closely. When they like your players — I think our league does like our players — then at the right time you’ll find out what level of interest people actually have."
Of course, interest and finding a deal are two different things. And it is unclear just how much of a talent downgrade the Magic are willing to take.
Kyler’s reporting seems to suggest the Magic are not looking to make deals just to make deals. The trades they might look to make are almost certainly going to have some purpose to them — whether it is clearing cap room or bringing in a player that fits the team’s long-term future.
The dream scenario for the Magic might be to bring in a true impact player and then add another impact player with their draft pick. But that is not likely in the cards.
But Orlando definitely has some options in front of it. The question is whether the Magic find the option they like or they decide to wait things out.
Next: In a make or miss league, the Orlando Magic are missing
The only thing that is clear is that change is coming to this team’s core. One way or another.