The Orlando Magic’s interregnum era between its two trips to the NBA Finals in 1995 and 2009 was filled with . . . well, it was filled with disappointment.
It was not that there were no good memories during that time. Tracy McGrady became one of the most gifted scorers in team history. He was an All-Star in all four years he spent with the Magic and led them to three playoff appearances. He was second in MVP voting one year and was a fixture in the larger NBA story.
It was just filled with missed potential. Three first-round playoff exits kept McGrady from ascending to the top of the NBA — he was still All-NBA despite the Magic’s middling record showing how good he was at the time.
Then came blowing a 3-1 series lead in the first round and the great bottoming out in the 2004 season. The team was constantly waiting for Grant Hill to stay healthy and give the team the 1-2 punch it signed up for in the summer of 2000.
Tracy McGrady gave Orlando Magic fans some of the best individual memories of franchise history. The team around him was a frustrating mess for his four years.
With Hill and McGrady’s max contracts weighing the franchise down, Orlando had to shuffle through veteran players over and over again. The decisions the team made to fill out the roster — and the draft picks the team constantly missed on in the process (or flat out gave up on too quickly) — only made things worse.
McGrady is undoubtedly one of the four best players in Magic history. McGrady averaged 28.1 points per game, 7.0 rebounds per game and 5.2 assists per game in fours seasons with the Magic.
He earned his way to the Hall of Fame and his time with the Magic was a big part of that. But the team never experienced any real measure of success.
The four years McGrady was in Orlando felt lost not because McGrady was never brilliant but because the Magic never put their ducks in a row.
Ultimately, McGrady forced his way out.
Frustrated with the team bottoming out with a 21-61 season in 2004, disgruntled with general manager Jon Weisbrod and impatient to wait on the top overall pick — in his worst piece of general managing, Tracy McGrady made it clear he wanted the team to take college star Emeka Okafor over raw high schooler Dwight Howard — McGrady asked and received a trade to the Houston Rockets.
Orlando did not have to wait as long to rebuild, opting to still field a competitive team in Howard’s early years as he developed into his own Hall of Fame career.
The best way then to tell the story of the McGrady era is through the starters he had to play with. It is the best way to illustrate how bereft of talent these teams were, and probably describe how good McGrady was in his time with the Magic.
5 worst Orlando Magic starters of the Tracy McGrady era
Grant Hill (2001-03)
47 starts, 15.1 PPG, 7.6 RPG, 4.5 APG
Grant Hill was a very good player in an Orlando Magic uniform. That needs to be said beyond anything else. Hill was an All-Star player with the Detroit Pistons and a Hall of Famer with the ways he impacted the game with Duke, the Pistons and after his time with the Magic.
His time with the Magic was just something that kept the Magic waiting forever and ever. The whole franchise was seemingly in suspension as Hill dealt with the foot and ankle issues that limited his time with the team.
Hill played in only four games in the 2001 season, his first with the team. He followed that up by playing 14 and 29 games in the following two seasons. He did not play at all in McGrady’s final year with the team.
You can certainly argue that Hill’s absence expedited McGrady’s turn to superstardom. It seemed at that point after the Magic gave McGrady his max contract that his stardom was assured. He was certainly on that trajectory although nobody saw him reaching these heights.
But undoubtedly, Hill’s absence put a cap on what the Magic could accomplish. In these days when the salary cap was much smaller, Hill’s absence really weighed the team down. It prevented them from going out and getting quality starters to pair with McGrady and try to boost those teams.
The false start nature of many of Hill’s injuries did not help matters. He always seemed so close to returning and starting the season on time.
This was just bad luck as much as anything. Hill’s desire to return to the court likely made things worse as he nearly died of a staph infection because he was pushing so hard to return and make good on the massive contract he signed.
Hill would eventually make some good. After McGrady left, Hill played 153 games in three seasons averaging 16.8 points per game. Hill still had plenty left in the tank.
He just could not get on the floor for the Magic while McGrady was there. And that just left everyone wondering about what could have been.
5 worst Orlando Magic starters of the Tracy McGrady era
Horace Grant (2002-03)
77 starts, 7.8 PPG, 6.0 RPG
Patrick Ewing (2002)
4 starts, 6.0 PPG, 4.0 RPG
Shawn Kemp (2003)
55 starts, 6.8 PPG, 5.7 RPG
The Orlando Magic went through a weird phase in the Tracy McGrady era. They had few financial resources to add to their team and they were trying desperately still to replace Shaquille O’Neal at center in an era that still valued centers.
Those centers will be a constant theme throughout this post because it was the white rabbit the team was chasing — all while O’Neal was winning championships with the Los Angeles Lakers.
So what did the Magic do?
They did not go invest their mid-level exception or their free agency money on a solid veteran center to anchor their defense. They did not draft a capable center they could develop and grow.
No, they went for 1990s nostalgia in an attempt to sell some more tickets and hope they could keep the thing glued together.
It was . . . not good.
It started first with re-signing Horace Grant in the 2002 season.
Grant was two years removed from being traded out of Orlando ahead of the cap cutting of the Heart & Hustle season. He won a title with the Lakers but returned to the Magic as a sort of favor to John Gabriel after getting the richest contract of his career.
Joining him in that 2002 season was Patrick Ewing.
The New York Knicks legend was not the player he was in the mid-1990s. The knee issue that kept him out of the 1999 Playoffs continued to plague him and he moved without the fluidity and explosiveness that made him a Hall of Fame player.
Still, the Magic put Ewing and Grant on all of their promotional materials that year. They wanted everyone to know they had these great players at the tail end of their careers. Not to mention Julius Erving in an executive role.
It did not work at all.
In what was Ewing’s final year, he averaged 6.0 points per game and 4.0 rebounds per game and 13.9 minutes per game. He could not even play long enough anymore to make any real impact.
Grant was still at least somewhat productive. He averaged 8.0 points per game and 6.3 rebounds per game. But the 2003 season went off the rails quickly when he openly fought with coach Doc Rivers. The Magic cut him in December.
The following year, the Magic tried to reach into the nostalgia well one more time, signing Shawn Kemp.
Kemp was no longer the high-flyer he was with the Seattle Supersonics. He had put on weight, ballooning past 300 pounds, with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Portland Trail Blazers. By the time he was with the Magic, he barely elevated on his jumpers. He was just a big body.
Kemp averaged 6.8 points per game and 5.7 rebounds per game. Like the year before, Kemp was on all the promotional materials before the season.
It was a big flop for the Magic as a whole as they tried to piece together their roster and stay relevant. This was not it and a clear sign the franchise was happy just making the playoffs and did not have an actual long-term plan to build a contending team.
5 worst Orlando Magic starters of the Tracy McGrady era
Steven Hunter (2002-04)
49 starts, 3.5 PPG, 2.5 RPG, 1.0 BPG
What is the best way for a cash-strapped team to stay relevant and add talent? How does a team in the middle of the league jump into the upper reaches of the league? How does a team that cannot win free agents keep replenishing their talent?
The answer should be the NBA Draft.
It is now pretty clear how critical the draft is to building a team. Unless a team is a free-agent destination, the draft is an essential tool to add talent to any roster. And when a team gets the draft wrong, it sets them back and only makes it harder to remain competitive.
That was unfortunately the Magic throughout the Tracy McGrady era.
Yes, there was Mike Miller as the fifth pick in the 2000 Draft (completing the Chris Webber-Anfernee Hardaway trade from 1993). Miller won Rookie of the Year and was a close friend and solid running mate for Tracy McGrady.
But after that? There were some real duds.
It started with the 2001 Draft. That was a complete disaster considering the team had two first-round picks.
Orlando selected Steven Hunter, a shot-blocking center from DePaul, with the 15th pick and followed that up with SMU big point guard Jeryl Sasser. Both of them were clear busts.
Hunter played three seasons in Orlando and was never more than just a potential shot-blocker. He had no offensive game to speak of and never found his place in the league.
Sasser might have been even worse. He played 82 games (four starts) in two seasons before washing out of the NBA, averaging 2.5 points per game.
The following season, the Magic would swap center Curtis Borchardt at the No. 18 pick for power forward Ryan Humphrey (the No. 19 pick). Humphrey played 35 games with the Magic (one start), averaging 1.8 points per game before he was included in the Mike Miller-Drew Gooden trade.
Orlando tried again for another tall point guard, drafting Louisville guard Reece Gaines with the 15th pick in 2003. He lasted only season (38 games and one start) and averaged 1.8 points per game. He was traded with McGrady to the Houston Rockets.
At least the Magic drafted Zaza Pachulia in the second round that season. But he too lasted only one year in Orlando, with the Charlotte Bobcats taking him in the expansion draft.
The players the Magic passed on from the first round those years? Zach Randolph, Brendan Haywood, Gerald Wallace and Tony Parker in 2001. Tayshaun Prince in 2002 and Carlos Boozer in the second round. And David West, Boris Diaw and Josh Howard in that landmark 2003 Draft.
The Draft is always hit or miss and a little bit of guessing. But Orlando continually guessed very wrong at a moment when the team needed the influx of talent.
5 worst Orlando Magic starters of the Tracy McGrady era
Andrew Declercq (2001-04)
139 starts, 3.7 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 2.9 PFPG
Undoubtedly there was a gigantic hole left when Shaquille O’Neal left in free agency. In a league that was obsessed with size and had several of the best centers in league history playing at that time. Orlando had a once-in-a-generation player and lost him for nothing.
That was a deficit that was difficult to make up. But at least the Magic did OK in Rony Seikaly with their first attempt to replace him in 1997.
Nobody knew that was the best the Magic would do at center until Dwight Howard arrived. Orlando never found the right center to step in.
They could have found one through the draft, but all of those efforts failed. They tried to find aging veteran legends to fill in that spot. But that was always a short-term solution.
Instead, the Magic kept going back to a tried and true veteran who was a hard worker but always a bit out of his depth as a starter.
I mean, just look at the stats. How could any team survive with a starter of nearly half a season every year averaging 3.7 points per game and 3.8 rebounds per game?
That was Andrew Declercq. The former Florida Gators center never should have been the starter, but he kept finding himself starting alongside Tracy McGrady. He was there for all four of McGrady’s seasons in Orlando. And the Magic just could not stop playing him. They needed him.
There were other solid options during McGrady’s time. But they were not difference-makers. In addition to drafting Steven Hunter, the team had John Amaechi, who played very well in 2000 with 10.5 points per game and even turned down more money to stay in Orlando for McGrady’s first season in 2001. But he never improved on the Heart & Hustle season, averaging 7.9 points per game in 82 games (36 starts).
In the 2001 season, DeClercq ended up starting 51 games anyway. He was the established starting center in nearly every year in Orlando. Somehow he kept winning that battle.
Or no better option materialized. And it certainly held Orlando back.
5 worst Orlando Magic starters of the Tracy McGrady era
Britton Johnsen (2004)
4 starts, 2.1 PPG, 2.3 RPG
I do not mean to throw shade on Britton Johnsen at all here. He was a great guy who provided Orlando Magic fans with a really fun Summer League highlight in the video above (I name him only to share that video once again).
We have been through our share of rebuilding and tanking seasons. And the lowlight of those tanking seasons is usually when the roster is full of G-League players and guys fighting to make the NBA who are not going to last long.
Indeed, Johnsen played only one more year in the NBA and played in only 20 games for the Magic in that woeful 2004 season.
My biggest Johnsen memory from the 2004 season though was at halftime of the Orlando Magic’s nationally televised game against the Phoenix Suns on Nov. 20, 2003. The Magic had just fired Doc Rivers and were on a 10-game losing streak that would extend to 19 games.
The TNT broadcast put the Magic’s starting lineup and roster on the screen — the starters were Tracy McGrady, Tyronn Lue, Drew Gooden, Keith Bogans and Steven Hunter. Britton Johnsen did not even play this game showing how bad my memory can be.
But I do remember Charles Barkley ripping the Magic for putting such a poor supporting cast around Tracy McGrady. How was a player even as great as McGrady supposed to carry this team?
That was the reality of playing on this team and a team that was destined to tank and get the No. 1 pick.
Johnsen was not the problem, he was a symptom of the bigger problems that led the team to bottoming out in this way. The Magic could not attract or get talented players and eventually the team would hit rock bottom.
Every player on this list is a symptom of the problems with the Magic’s front office and team building plan that ultimately wasted McGrady’s prime years in Orlando.