The Orlando Magic appear to have some hope to separate itself from the low depths the franchise has been treading at for years. The young core featuring rookie of the year frontrunner Paolo Banchero and standout sophomore Franz Wagner gives fans something to get excited about, unlike terrible free agent signings of yore.
You would think with no state income tax and the allure of theme parks for players’ family members, it would be easy to entice players to join the team. That helped attract former All-Stars in Horace Grant and Rashard Lewis to put the team over the top to contention in the past or helped them welcome home Tracy McGrady to keep the team relevant.
But especially recently, that has not proven to be the case. Free agency has not been nearly the tool to help the Magic that they hoped.
Instead, the Magic have struggled to attract the kind of difference-makers that would set the franchise on a course toward championship success, losing both times they made the NBA Finals. Other times, they have landed that player, only for it to backfire spectacularly.
As the Orlando Magic try building a postseason contender, let’s look at some of their worst free agent signings in franchise history.
There are only three ways for teams to acquire players: draft them, trade for them or pick them up in free agency. The latter is often the most memorable, as it is the one that makes the biggest splash in the newspapers and on local radio, not to mention social media these days.
During the franchise’s relatively brief existence, the team has taken many swings at transforming the team with free agents. Some have worked out, but there have been some difficult failures that remain difficult for the team’s fans to recall years and even decades later.
Disagree with any of the picks? Feel free to comment with your own list of bad Magic signings.
Here are the 10 worst free agent signings in franchise history.
The 10 worst free agent signings in Orlando Magic history
10. Grant Hill
7 years, $ 93 million in 2000
In a vacuum, Grant Hill should be much further on this list. He came over to Orlando in a lucrative sign-and-trade at the turn of the century, only to have injuries sabotage his career.
In Hill’s first six seasons — spent with the Detroit Pistons — Hill had more than 9,300 points, 3,400 rebounds and 2,700 assists to his name. At the time, only Oscar Robertson and Larry Bird had done that in their first half-dozen seasons (LeBron James has since done it as well).
In August 2000, Hill agreed to a sign-and-trade that would see him make $93 million over seven years. Paired with recent signing Tracy McGrady, Orlando was ready for its superstar combo to lead the way and mitigate the loss in the trade of Ben Wallace (whoops).
Unfortunately, the defining moment of Hill’s tenure with the Magic came before he was even a member of the team. A week before the playoffs during his last year with the Pistons, Hill suffered an ankle sprain, which worsened when Hill tried to play through it during the postseason.
That injury kept reappearing in different ways throughout Hill’s time in Orlando. Here is how many games Hill played in each of his first four seasons: 4, 14, 29, 0. He played in fewer than 30 games in five of his seven seasons with the team.
Hill played well when he was able to take the floor, averaging 16.4 points per game on a 50.2-percent effective field goal percentage. But it just was not often enough. The Magic only made the playoffs once during Hill’s time in Orlando — his last season with the team with Tracy McGrady having already departed and Dwight Howard beginning his ascendance in his second season with the team.
He may have twisted the knife a bit after his Orlando Magic stint, joining the Phoenix Suns and playing in at least 70 games in four of his five seasons and 80 games in three of them. Marks never achieved in Orlando.
Fans still feel a bit sour about this thinking Hill should have given the team a discount and stayed with the team. The fact is the Magic were just as ready to move on from Hill as Hill was ready to depart.
It is hard to blame a player who was so snakebitten by injury about the negative impact of his contract, though.
The 10 worst free agent signings in Orlando Magic history
9. Luke Ridnour
2 years, $5.5 million in 2014
Luke Ridnour played his last game with the Orlando Magic, but the franchise was not the final stop of his NBA journey. Not even close.
Long pivoting between starter and backup, the guard signed a two-year, $5.5 million contract with the Magic in 2014. He was coming off the worst season of his career, split between the Milwaukee Bucks and Charlotte Bobcats and seemed to be approaching the end of his playing days.
Ridnour exclusively came off the bench in the 2015 season. He averaged a lowly four points and two assists per game in 47 contests. The end was definitely nigh.
Then, something kind of fun happened — well, fun to everyone except Ridnour, one could imagine. His contract became a hot potato and he was traded . . . then traded again . . . and again . . . and again. Four trades in a span of only six days, before he was ultimately waived by the last of his acquirers, the Toronto Raptors.
After all of that movement, Ridnour decided to stay still and skip the 2016 season, the second year of his two-year pact with the Magic. At the end of that season, he retired.
It is probably safe to say that the way things ended in Orlando were much more memorable for fans of the team than Ridnour’s production on the court.
The 10 worst free agent signings in Orlando Magic history
8. Jeff Green
1 year, $ 15 million in 2016
This contract does not get scrutinized enough because it only lasted for one year. But Jeff Green had one of the worst seasons of his career and was paid $15 million for it, though injuries were a factor.
Green has been a journeyman for hiis whole career and had already adopted that role by the time he made it to Orlando. Despite being the No. 5 overall draft pick in 2007 and an All-Rookie First-Team player, Orlando was his fifth franchise in a decade.
He spent half a season with the LA Clippers before arriving in Orlando. In 27 games, Green averaged 10.9 points per game with the Clippers, which would have been one of the lowest full-season scoring averages of his career.
Nevertheless, the Magic front office figured Green’s microwave scoring could give the franchise a boost. And in the summer when teh salary cap spiked, the Magic had money to burn and they burned it.
So they gave him a $15-million deal in the 2016 offseason, perhaps hoping his heaters could propel Orlando to a playoff bid.
It did not turn out that way in one of a number of disastrous moves for the team in the summer of 2016 (this will not be the last we hear of it).
Green had one of the worst scoring seasons of his career, averaging 9.2 points per game. Lower back soreness hobbled him for much of the season and resulted in him being shut down for the final nine games of the year. The Magic won 29 games that season.
That back injury did not seem to hamper Green in the long run. He has played for several more franchises since that season, almost always averaging more than 10 points per game. In fact, he is still playing a big role in the league, currently with the Western Conference’s top team, the Denver Nuggets.
The 10 worst free agent signings in Orlando Magic history
7. Shelvin Mack
2 years, $12 million in 2017
Shelvin Mack was a serviceable backup guard for his season in Orlando. That is probably the narrative that applies to the former Butler Bulldogs guard at every stop in his career, in fact.
When Mack joined the Orlando Magic, he had already been around both the NBA and NBA D-League block multiple times. He had already played games for the following franchises: the Washington Wizards, Philadelphia 76ers, Atlanta Hawks and Utah Jazz.
In 2017, Mack signed a two-year, $12 million deal with the Magic to be their backup point guard. He led the team in assists for the season despite starting only three times. That was not saying much, though, as he averaged only 3.9 assists per game.
That tweet alone was embarrassing enough (it’s still up for posterity):
📩 @ShelvinMack with the dimes pic.twitter.com/yiv1nOL5aQ
— Orlando Magic (@OrlandoMagic) April 23, 2018
Mack did not see the second year of that deal.
During the offseason, Orlando waived the journeyman guard, saving $5 million in the process. The team needed the savings because it was strapped against the cap and his production simply did not cut it, even when he received more playing time following the trade of Elfrid Payton.
Mack still had a few more stops on his basketball journey: Memphis, Atlanta again (for a day), Charlotte, Italy, Israel and Greece. More recently, he has served as a CBS Sports college basketball analyst.
The 10 worst free agent signings in Orlando Magic history
6. Brandon Bass
4 year, $18.5 million in 2009
Brandon Bass was a serviceable player during his couple of seasons in Orlando. His contract was not abysmal either, but it was not great at the same time.
Before coming to Orlando, Bass played for a couple of seasons with the Dallas Mavericks. averaging 8.4 points and 4.5 rebounds per game over that time. Most memorably, he was the recipient of Jason Kidd’s 10,000th career assist.
Hours after the Hedo Turkoglu sign-and-trade to the Toronto Raptors, Brandon Bass became a member of the Magic as they tried to get over the hump following their 2009 Finals appearance. The team signed him to a four-year, $18.5 million pact.
Bass came off the bench during his first season, averaging a mere 13 minutes per game as he got beat fairly quickly by Ryan Anderson (acquired alongside Vince Carter on draft night). His numbers reflected his small role, as he averaged 5.8 points and 2.5 rebounds per game.
He had a bigger role in his second season. He started a majority of the games he played and averaged a much more robust 11.2 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. It was not enough to guarantee his future in Orlando, though.
After two seasons, the Orlando Magic dealt Bass to the Boston Celtics, where he had some of the best years of his career. In return, the Magic received Glen Davis and Von Wafer. Bass squeezed out another six years of his NBA career before ending his playing days in China.
The 10 worst free agent signings in Orlando Magic history
5. Al-Farouq Aminu
3 years, $29.2 million in 2019
The most recent transaction to make this list, the signing of Al-Farouq Aminu came in the wild 2019 free agency period when teams were handing out money like lollipops at a doctor’s office.
That resulted in Orlando giving Aminu nearly $30 million to play 35 games for the franchise.
Aminu was a starter for most of the four years he spent with the Portland Trail Blazers prior to signing with Orlando. He was never spectacular, but he was solid and the four-year, $30-million deal he played on felt palatable for that franchise.
The Magic were coming off the 2019 Playoffs when Pascal Siakam feasted on their lack of size off the bench when the team took Jonathan Isaac and Aaron Gordon out and put Terrence Ross in at forward. There was at least some logic to the move.
So Orlando went ahead and gave him a three-year contract for $29.2 million.
But Aminu struggled to adapt to his new team almost immediately. That became more troublesome when he tore a meniscus and missed most of the 2020 season. Throwing in Isaac’s devastating knee injury that season (the first one of many), the Magic were suddenly smaller than ever.
After a long absence, Aminu finally returned to the court as a starter. He looked slightly better than he had the previous season, but it had already become clear Aminu was not going to be able to live up to his contract or be a long-term contributor in Orlando.
Aminu could be considered the “other” player in the deal that sent Nikola Vucevic to the Chicago Bulls in 2021, netting Orlando Wendell Carter, Otto Porter and a couple of draft picks. Aminu played six games for the Bulls and has not been in the NBA since.
The 10 worst free agent signings in Orlando Magic history
4. Jonathon Simmons
3 years, $20 million in 2017
Remember Jonathon Simmons? He burst onto the scene with the San Antonio Spurs in the middle of the 2010s, earning a shot at a bigger role with the Orlando Magic. It felt like a big deal that an up-and-coming player would give a rebuilding team like the Magic a shot.
That did not end well, though, and essentially ushered in the end of Simmons’ NBA career.
After going undrafted in 2012, Simmons battled his way through the barely solvent American Basketball League and the NBA D-League (that is what it was still called) before earning his chance with the Spurs. San Antonio poached him from Brooklyn’s Summer League squad in 2015 and Simmons earned Championship Game MVP honors with the Spurs, who quickly signed him to a real deal.
He was a key bench cog for San Antonio during his two seasons with the team, averaging about six points per game in each of the two years. He was offered a $1.6 million qualifying offer in 2017, but San Antonio withdrew that offer and let him walk.
Two days after the Spurs withdrew the offer, Orlando handed Simmons a three-year, $20-million contract. And for the first few months, that deal seemed to be a good one, with Simmons regularly dropping more than 20 points, including a career-high 29 in December. In February 2018, he soared even higher with a 34-point performance.
He managed to exceed that one more time and averaged 13.9 points per game in his first season in Orlando. But he continued to struggle behind the arc, which only got worse the following season when he shot 22.9 percent from three in 41 games, never scoring more than 18 in a contest.
Approximately halfway through the deal, the Magic sent Simmons to the Philadelphia 76ers for a couple of picks and Markelle Fultz. That may be Simmons’ best contribution to the Magic, as Fultz has proven to be a possible long-term backcourt option in Orlando.
As for Simmons, he played 15 more games with the Sixers that season and hasn’t appeared in an NBA game since. He currently plays for the Shanxi Loons in China.
The 10 worst free agent signings in Orlando Magic history
3. Rashard Lewis
6 years, $118 million in 2017
At his peak, forward Rashard Lewis was a very good player, even an All-Star a couple of times, including once with the Orlando Magic. He was a vital piece to the Magic transforming the league and getting to the Finals in 2009.
But Orlando handed him way too much money and essentially bid against themselves to secure his service. And even his transformation into the model stretch-4 the league would build upon during the next decade was discovered by accident.
The Seattle SuperSonics made Lewis a second-round pick in the 1998 NBA Draft. It was not long before he and Ray Allen were taking the soon-to-be dormant franchise as high as they could, with Lewis making All-Star Game in 2005.
After nine seasons in Seattle, Orlando threw a boatload of cash at Lewis, inking him to a six-year, $118-million deal in 2007. The first thing the Magic did was move him from small forward to power forward — an accident caused by Hedo Turkoglu’s stellar play as a big playmaker and Dwight Howard injuring Tony Battie’s rotator cuff in practice.
He played well, though, and the Magic made the second round of the playoffs for the first time since Shaquille O’Neal left in his first year with the team.
In 2009, he made the All-Star Game for the first time in a Magic uniform and even hit a game-winning shot in the playoffs. The Magic made it all the way to the NBA Finals, where they were soundly beaten by the Los Angeles Lakers.
That was the high point of the Rashard Lewis experience.
The next season, he was suspended for the first 10 games after testing positive for a banned substance. His numbers started trailing off and got even worse the following season. After four years in Orlando, the Magic dealt him to the Washington Wizards for Gilbert Arenas.
Lewis played in the playoffs for Orlando three times and he was very good for them in two of those instances, averaging at least 19 points per game in those respective seasons. His Orlando career was not bad, it just did not live up to the contract he signed.
Toward the end of his time in Orlando, he was briefly the second-highest-paid player in the entire league. Lewis’ exit also ushered the end of an era for some of Orlando’s best teams, especially when Howard became dissatisfied.
The 10 worst free agent signings in Orlando Magic history
2. Channing Frye
4 years, $32 million in 2014
Channing Frye was a good player when the Orlando Magic signed him to a four-year, $32 million deal. But he was not a great player and he proved to be a big disappointment in Orlando as he was unable to provide the veteran leadership the rebuilding team needed and checked out pretty quickly when he understood they were not ready to compete seriously.
Frye spent the year before signing with Orlando in Phoenix. He had one of his best — and healthiest — seasons in 2014, starting all 82 games and averaging 11.1 points and 5.1 rebounds per game.
After he arrived in Orlando, Frye’s play suddenly fell off a cliff.
In his first season in Orlando, he averaged 7.3 points per game. In his second, it was 5.2 points per game. But at least his three-point percentage stayed solid for that time.
Midway through his second season, the Magic front office decided it had had enough. The team shipped Frye to the Cleveland Cavaliers at the 2016 trade deadline, receiving back Jared Cunningham and a future second-round pick. Cunningham never played for the Magic in what became a pure salary dump.
It took mere months for Frye to add insult to the injury that was the Channing Frye experience in Orlando. Yes — that was the same year LeBron James and Kyrie Irving brought a title to Cleveland. Frye left the deflated Magic and won an NBA championship the same season.
Frye was a solid stretch big both before and after his time with the Magic. But his time in Orlando was the least productive of his entire stellar career, making his free-agent signing a big disappointment for the franchise.
The 10 worst free agent signings in Orlando Magic history
1. Bismack Biyombo
4 years, $ 72 million in 2016
This is not a particularly close call. The Orlando Magic decided to hand a four-year, $72 million deal to a player who, at best, was an energetic rebounder and backup center. That is $18 million pra year for a player who would always be stuck behind Nikola Vucevic on the depth chart. And then probably behind Serge Ibaka after the magic acquired a third center on draft night.
Signing Biyombo just made no sense without a second move that never came as the Magic squandered their cap space following one of the worst trades in franchise history. They fell in love with a Playoff hero who proved to be a flash in the pan.
Biyombo’s prior contract was a two-year, $5.7-million pact with the Toronto Raptors. The Congolese big man played in every game for the Raptors that season, starting about a quarter of them. He averaged 5.5 points and 8.0 rebounds per game, making 62.8 percent of his free throws – the latter two numbers have proven to be career bests.
He made his mark with a strong postseason in 2016, averaging 6.2 points per game and 9.4 rebounds per game in the Raptors’ run to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Biyombo declined his player option for the second season, becoming a free agent. Once the Raptors re-signed DeMar DeRozan, they were priced out of keeping Biyombo. Perhaps they would have been anyways, considering what Orlando paid him.
He played two seasons with Orlando and, to his credit, played in almost every game he could have in that season. Biyombo averaged six points and seven rebounds per game in his first season and a matching 5.7 points and rebounds per game in his second. Then, it was over.
Orlando sent Biyombo back to the Charlotte Hornets, where the big man started his NBA career. The Magic received Jerian Grant and Timofey Mozgov in the three-team deal. Just like that, Biyombo’s contract was someone else’s problem.
Coincidentally, the worst free agent signing in franchise history has followed in a similar path to the player at the start of this list — Bismack Biyombo is playing for the Phoenix Suns today and may very well win a championship for his troubles.