NBA Week 17 Rewind: Warriors, Spurs are only human
By Tom West
Who’s Struggling?
The Orlando Magic have no real sense of direction or purpose right now. Besides dumping salary unnecessarily, they achieved nothing at the NBA trade deadline to make their fans excited for a future that should feel far brighter. The image above of Aaron Gordon’s thrilling dunk contest performance would have obviously got Magic fans (or any basketball fan for that matter) off their seats, but this is the lone bright spot of the last week after a couple of baffling trades.
There’s talent in place, and after a strong start to the season that saw defensive resiliance and promising offense, there has to be some promise to the core the Magic have in place. With Nikola Vucevic, Victor Oladipo, Elfrid Payton, Evan Fournier and certainly Gordon, there’s talent across the board. The problem is that it doesn’t seem to fit, the defense has fallen off and the trades made at the deadline have set them back further.
Long-term, are Brandon Jennings (on an expiring contract) and Ersan Ilyasova really going to do much to turn the Magic around? Despite Jennings scoring 18 points and Ilyasova adding 16 in their debut, it’s hard to say Orlando really came out on top in this deal.
Although, if creating cap space was their goal, then at least they achieved that. After losing Harris’ $16 million salary and possible losing Jennings’ $8.3 million, they at least add another $24 million for free agency.
This just adds pressure to what they need to achieve in the summer, though. In order to set themselves on the right track and make up for another potential loss such as Evan Fournier on an expiring contract, the Magic need to make a host of adjustments in free agency.
If they aren’t able to land a star or players of significant value, the loss of Harris and Frye will have come for almost nothing.
Next: The Best Highlights of Week 17