5 questions the Orlando Magic have to answer to finish the season
By Omar Cabrera
Which veterans will stick around?
The Orlando Magic as of right now, are extremely young. But they do not want to make the same mistake again they made during their last rebuild in trusting young players to go out and learn without some guidance.
Steve Clifford has made this clear that he does not want to throw five inexperienced players out on the floor. He feels veteran players provide some organization and help young players learn to play better together.
This has proven to be a tough task so far.
The average age of the current Magic roster is 24.2 years old, which while young, there may be a couple of veterans who may no longer be with the team to start the next season.
Terrance Ross, Michael Carter-Williams, James Ennis, Gary Harris and Otto Porter are all at least 26 years old. They are considered the veterans on the team. With Porter and Ennis set to be free agents this summer, the Magic have decisions to make on what the roster looks like moving forward.
One of the mistakes the Magic made during the Rob Hennigan rebuild was that they had no quality veterans to guide the young players. Arron Afflalo and Jameer Nelson provided good stability early on but the team handed the keys to young players very quickly.
At a certain point, the main veteran was Channing Frye, who was never the leader type. So the team was very young with no leadership, which led to bad habits and never learning how to win.
The Magic are on the verge of facing that situation once again with two more potential lottery first-round picks this summer to add to this young team.
The Magic are going to have to decide which veterans to add to this team and help provide some stability.
Ross, Harris and Carter-Williams are still going to be under contract going into next season, but the Magic have to add other veteran pieces. Whether it be free agency or even via trade, such as trading this year’s Chicago Bulls pick, the Orlando Magic need to add leadership to a team to avoid the mistake the previous regime made.