Locked On Magic: Where the Orlando Magic stand at the trade deadline

The trade deadline is quickly approaching and there are still plenty of questions about how the Orlando Magic will proceed. Time to take stock of the season.

Before the season began, sports books set the Orlando Magic’s over/under win totals at 31.5. To say there were few expectations for the team was something of an understatement.

It felt like the team would go through the same motions. Doing its best to stay competitive early in the season before ultimately fading.

That would lead to a relatively easy trade deadline at the end of the day. Nikola Vucevic had run his course and would get traded to restock the team’s roster assets. The same for Terrence Ross. It felt like things were set up for Jeff Weltman and John Hammond finally to flip over the roster and put their imprint on things.

The season has a funny way of changing those plans.

The Magic found themselves playing with more resolve and playing with a bit more purpose. Coach Steve Clifford was going to raise the team’s level of play and push the team to be more than it had before. This was not going to be a wasted or lost season.

The Eastern Conference set up perfectly for the Magic to stay in the Playoff race. Orlando kept touch with the leaders and stayed well within reach.

There have been no big winning streaks, but there have been no extended losing streaks. The Magic have done just enough to stay relevant and stay in the Playoff conversation.

That has changed everything at the trade deadline.

Now, Nikola Vucevic is an All-Star and vital to the team’s success on both ends of the floor. Terrence Ross is having a career season and is the only consistent scoring the team has off of a young bench.

Trading either of them would quite clearly make the Magic a whole lot worse. If Orlando moves on from either of them, the season is essentially over unless the team gets a killer haul in return.

The Magic are playing meaningful games at the trade deadline for the first time since Dwight Howard left. That is not nothing.

But the reality is also the Magic are not in the Playoffs. They are chasing it and three games back. While some of the players the Magic have improved greatly, the team is still short of the postseason. There is a lot of ground to make up in those three short games and the team has not shown it can win consistently.

Not yet, at least.

The decisions ahead of Weltman and Hammond are not easy to make. And they have to take stock of what they have to move forward.

That is what we did on a recent episode of Locked On Magic. I was joined by our correspondent Stuart Hodge to discuss the Magic season so far and how the Magic move forward before the trade deadline.

On This Episode

• What Nikola Vucevic’s All-Star selection means to him and the franchise
• Mohamed Bamba‘s role and development in his rookie year and why he isn’t ready to supplant Nikola Vucevic
• What has Evan Fournier‘s dip in production meant to the Orlando Magic’s chances of making the Playoffs?
• What does Evan Fournier’s trade market look like?
• Why being in the Playoff race matters for the Orlando Magic and their young players
• Why the Orlando Magic need to regain legitimacy and improve their reputation among players
• What is Aaron Gordon‘s market looking like and what do the persistent rumors mean about Gordon’s overall level of play?
• What would the Orlando Magic look for in a Terrence Ross trade?

The trade deadline is Thursday at 3 p.m. And there is still plenty to sift through before then.

My thanks to Stuart for helping clarify some of these questions by hosting this podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @HodgeyTheHack.

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