Doing right by players will benefit Orlando Magic in the future

The Orlando Magic have put the noise that was a crazy NBA trade deadline behind them, yet there has been a familiarity to their last two results.

A deflating loss to the Miami Heat, with the referees being handed some of the blame by fans, followed up by a win against the Chicago Bulls.  A result showing all that is good about this group.

The Magic continue to grow together on the court, and at 24-34, they have surpassed their win total from last season. It would be fair to say then, that dreams of the play-in tournament are still within reach.

What has been talked about less is how the Orlando Magic have handled business off the court, and how that is going to stand to them in future when attracting stars.

It would make sense this would fly under the radar, but the buying out of Terrence Ross was the most recent, and noteworthy, example of how the Magic take care of their own players.

Ross gave everything to the cause in his six-and-a-half seasons with the organization, and now looks set to compete for a championship by signing with the Phoenix Suns.

He was a fan favorite in Orlando and their flamethrower sixth man off the bench on two squads that made the postseason.

More than that, Ross never complained about his role. Even with Gary Harris taking it from him this season, and appeared to be the model veteran. One that his teammates were sad to see depart.

With Ross on an expiring contract for this summer and a player who plenty of teams would have enquired about renting for a playoff push, why did the Magic decide to give him up for nothing?

This was so Ross could choose his next destination, as opposed to being traded to an organization that may not have been as close to contention as the Suns. This is the Magic doing right by a player who gave his all to them, and it is important in building the right culture.

There will come a time in the next few years, where the Magic will begin to get meetings with notable free agents. This will likely be off the strength of Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner and Wendell Carter.

A trio of young players with huge potential who, if you put an All-Star level talent next to them, propels the Magic into the upper reaches of the Eastern Conference.

We have to remember that Orlando is a small market, and higher-level players have only ever been interested in going there by choice when the franchise has had a winning team assembled.

This was the case when Dwight Howard was in town, and it has not been true since.

Players in the NBA talk to one another, and you can bet that Ross is going to have good things to say about the Magic when he is in the locker room of the Suns.

That is just one example, with center Mo Bamba another. He was moved to the Los Angeles Lakers at the deadline for a whole load of nothing. Bringing to an end the underwhelming tenure of Bamba in Orlando.

Perhaps the deal the Lakers offered up truly was the best/only one on offer. But in sending Bamba to the Lakers to play with LeBron James, the Magic put him in a big market to play next to one of the best players of all time. A fact Bamba is also unlikely to forget.

Really if you go back to the last iteration of the Magic, led by Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon and Evan Fournier, then you will see that the front office did right by all three of those guys as well.

The Magic certainly profited from the Vucevic deal to the Chicago Bulls, getting Wagner, Carter and potentially another pick this year out of it.

But this was also done so Vucevic could compete on a promising team looking to climb higher in the standings alongside a star in Zach LaVine. The Bulls added former college teammate DeMar DeRozan and Lonzo Ball in hopes of winning the following offseason and were on track to do so until injuries ate up the team.

That has not happened and the Magic won that trade, but they did not do Vucevic dirty in the process.

Similarly, Gordon ended up on a contender with the Denver Nuggets, where he has realized the best version of himself. Fournier went to the Boston Celtics, and although it did not work out for him there, from the Magic’s perspective at least they sent him to a contender.

So the Magic right now have a reputation as an organization that is going to look after you, even if that ultimately means letting a player go to another destination.

The only word of caution, is how they are treating R.J. Hampton. We don’t know what is going on behind the scenes, but he never plays and has been sent to the G-League multiple times. Even there, it appears the Magic are set to buy him out and let him pick his next destination and prepare for a critical free agency period for the young guard.

Maybe there really were no offers at all for him at the deadline. But the guy clearly wants to play, wherever that may be, and the Magic are obstructing that path.

This franchise is building a great product on the court, and a nice reputation off of it. All it takes is a player like Hampton to derail both, and they must be wary of this.

By and large however, the Magic are doing right by the players that have given their best to them when with the team, and it is going to pay off in a big way down the road.