Orlando Magic must not repeat the same mistakes to rebuild

The Orlando Magic should take the season and see what the players that are already on the roster do during the 2021 season and make decisions then

It always seems history continues to repeat itself one way or another. Sports are no exception.

In Orlando Magic history, the franchise started with a great center and a trip to the Finals in 1995 with Shaquille O’Neal and again with Dwight Howard in 2009. Both ended poorly. And how the Howard saga ended had a lot to do with the way the O’Neal era ended.

The Magic determined not to let their franchise, Hall-of-Fame center leave in free agency a second time experienced a long, drawn-out dance before ultimately trading the second one away, leaving them with virtually nothing in return.

The Magic went from trusting their free-agent center would re-sign and losing him for nothing to waiting too long to trade a relationship that had already broken and getting left with perhaps the worst deal they could get for an All-NBA player.

In fairness, the Magic “won” that trade in acquiring a future All-Star in Nikola Vucevic. Even if that even took seven years wandering the desert to get.

The Magic are not in that position. But they are watching history repeat itself in a similar way.

They are at another important inflection point where they could be tempted with trying to take the easier path. They are at an inflection point where they know their roster has limitations it needs to break through and needs change to do so. But they have to be careful and purposeful with the moves they make to reach that next step.

They cannot repeat the mistakes they made the last time. But, like in 2011 and 2012, they cannot wait too long and stand still to lose their leverage.

They are now in the same position they were in 2016. They have a roster full of young talent seemingly on the cusp of their next level. But they need to put it together and decide how to make the team better.

Orlando went 35-47 in the 2016 season. After years of irrelevancy, the Magic experienced a taste of winning, going 19-13 before a two-win January completely derailed the season.

Before anybody knew that Scott Skiles’ commitment to the team was lacking, his disciplinarian approach had the Magic doing something it had not done since Dwight Howard left — winning.

Orlando clearly knew it needed a bit more. The young team hit a major roadblock and completely crumbled. They needed some seasoning and guidance from within. There was something to build with there and a foundation to foster.

But that is when the trouble began. The Magic lost their patience and quickly cycled through all their promise in a get-rich-quick scheme.

The Magic failed in 2016, making horrible trades. They dealt away Tobias Harris for Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova — essentially just cap space for the upcoming free-agent bonanza.

In the summer the team traded away its most promising young player in Victor Oladipo along with the draft rights for future All-Star Domantas Sabonis for Serge Ibaka. That was essentially a one-year gambit. With Ibaka set to become a free agent in the summer of 2017, the Magic needed to make the playoffs to convince him to stay.

Orlando Magic

That did not happen. Ibaka essentially checked out as the team struggled through December before the Orlando Magic traded him to the Toronto Raptors for Terrence Ross as they hoped to recoup some of the costs they had already expended.

Orlando has tough decisions coming, and they are going to have to get it right or they could find themselves in a similar hole.

The Ibaka trade still haunts this franchise to this day. Another deal where the team acquires a player on an expiring contract without the assurance that player will re-sign or a roster that can convince him to stay will lead to the same results.

And history is repeating itself. The Magic need to find a similarly aggressive trade to take their next step and find the star they covet. But they need to make sure it is the kind of risk they can succeed at.

The result has to be worth the cost.

Reports that Victor Oladipo wants out of Indiana after the franchise’s fifth straight year losing in the first round and ahead of his own free agency in 2021 has presented a tempting opportunity to reunite him with his original team.

But this would be an example of the Magic repeating their same mistakes, especially since it would probably cost them a young player such as Aaron Gordon, plus plenty of future capital. Not to mention, once again, their draft pick in this year’s draft.

Orlando cannot make a deal like that when the player can leave the next year as in this scenario. Not until they are sure they have something to offer the player to stay.

With Jonathan Isaac likely out for the 2021 season, it does not seem like the right to push all the chips in on one player.

The Magic cannot try to find shortcuts, it is going to burn them again and again.

The Magic are close to taking a major step forward. Orlando needs to find shooting and allow this offense to improve with the young talent still developing.

Markelle Fultz had a great season and will finally have a healthy offseason to improve, which will do great things for the Magic. It will allow him to continue to develop his jump shot, which while not good, did improve from 42-percent from the field to 46.5-percent. His 3-point percentage dropped to 26.7-percent from 28.6-percent, but he also did attempt 1.2 more threes a game. Fultz also had a strong playoff shooting the ball as he shot 37.5-percent on 3.2 attempts per game.

Then, there is Aaron Gordon and Mohamed Bamba who have gotten unlucky with injuries. For Bamba, he was playing very well before the season ended in his limited minutes. Due to COVID-19 complications, he was never ready to play in the bubble.

For Gordon, he played very well after the all-star break and in the bubble before he got hurt.

The Magic were unlucky with injuries, and it ended up being a big reason as to why the Magic struggled throughout the season. Especially with Jonathan Isaac out, there is no point in trying to go all-in this season.

Orlando should take the season and see what the players that are already on the roster do during the 2021 season and make decisions then and make the push for the 2022 season.

Right now the Magic are between a rock and a hard place, but that does not mean that Orlando should go all in and make the same mistakes again.