Jeff Weltman chose winning as Orlando Magic’s direction

Orlando Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman had tough choices to make to put his imprint on the team. He made his priorities clear.

The first two summers for Orlando Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman largely passed without much activity or much to say.

He took over a team that was stuck in a deep cap hole with little maneuverability. There were intriguing and talented players on the roster that had failed to coalesce into very much. He was going to have to work to remake the roster, but doing it the right way would come piecemeal and not in one fell swoop.

Those first few years, Weltman worked to build the foundations for the franchise. His biggest moves were largely behind the scenes. He rebuilt the team’s medical staff and the entire internal organization.

The whole point was to have a system in place as he gradually reformed the roster.

Things happened and changed quickly.

The Magic made the playoffs in 2019 and surpassed all expectations. The slow building and foundations he started laying place coalesced quicker than anticipated.

Suddenly winning became important because it was now a reality.

It turned out that Weltman’s internal improvements worked far better than anyone suspected.

Hiring Steve Clifford helped give the team a foundation and direction on the court it did not have before. And that paid off with a playoff appearance in 2019. The Magic had seemingly had their breakthrough.

But that made the team’s choices that much more complicated. What looked like it might be a chance to reset the decks and free up some cap room to continue a long-standing rebuild suddenly changed.

Orlando had proof of concept. The team had shown it could win. Weltman could no longer sit and wait. He needed to make some decisive action that would change the Magic for the short-term, setting their direction for the next few years at the least.

Ultimately the Magic decided winning was far more important and tangible for the team. Something it should pursue with all the tools available to it, while still maintaining some form of flexibility, as scant as it could be.

Weltman decided to spend the team’s resources maintaining the team he knows can win rather than taking a step back to shift its focus. The best way for his team to succeed was to stay the course.

There are already plenty of hot takes about the Magic’s offseason.

Signing Nikola Vucevic to a four-year deal was controversial in itself. Many fans were ready to move on from the six years of the rebuild and hand the keys over to Mohamed Bamba, or at least a cheaper stand-in until he was ready.

The team could certainly buy into the belief that young players like Aaron Gordon and Jonathan Isaac would get better. They could believe Markelle Fultz and Mohamed Bamba would return from injury ready to contribute.

They could see a built-in way for the team to improve without making many changes to the roster.

Weltman had a choice: Go back to rebuilding and take a step back, continuing to work on the fringes and create a structure to support the team while banking on the team’s development and collecting assets. This would have been a hard path for sure. There is no guarantee that players develop and there is no guarantee what effects de-emphasizing winning would do.

Or he could take the big step and commit some long-term salary to keep the team together and see just how far the team can go while still creating an atmosphere the fostered player development.

In this scenario too, the Magic would rely on the growth of their young players but with the support of the veterans who helped carry the team into the postseason and made winning not only a priority but an achievable goal.

Ultimately he decided the best path to development for this team and this group was to continue winning. They would learn a lot more playing meaningful minutes rather than taking a step back and throwing the rookies into the fire.

That has been a big part of Weltman’s approach — and Clifford’s approach too. The Magic want to put players in positions where they can succeed and gain confidence. He has shown patience and caution in bringing players back from injury.

And getting them winning experience seems to trump all.

Orlando Magic

There is no concern in this view of things about Bamba getting enough playing time. Coming off the bench to spell Nikola Vucevic will get him plenty of opportunity to grow and develop, while doing what he can to help the team win.

There is no concern about a logjam at the forward position. Aaron Gordon and Jonathan Isaac showed they could play together. New signee Al-Farouq Aminu can provide some needed depth at power forward and keep the Magic playing a similar style no matter who is in the lineup.

As both Gordon and Isaac gain more confidence they can take more control of the offense or continue to play off Vucevic and his passing ability.

Bringing back both Nikola Vucevic and Terrence Ross gives the team reliable veterans they know can produce when called upon. That will provide something of a backstop as the rest of the roster grows.

If the Magic had let those players leave then Gordon and Isaac would have really been thrown to the wolves with no certainty they could survive. Nor a guarantee the team could.

As bad as the prospect of getting stuck as a lower-seeded playoff team might be, it feels worse to be outside of the playoff picture. The promise of a Lottery pick is not always a good one as the Magic found out in going through the lottery ringer.

Losing can perpetuate itself. It can be hard for a team to change its organizational structure. It would be easy to fall back into bad habits.

Nothing Weltman or the Magic did this offseason guarantees the team will return to the playoffs. There is still a long journey ahead and the team did not address any of its offensive needs.

The Magic really only had the tools to keep their own. And then with their last free agent move, they opted to add a player who fits and reinforces the culture and ethos they want to build.

Weltman had a big decision to make this offseason on which direction he would take his team. It now has his imprint on it. This is the group he will have to work and build with for at least the next two seasons.