Orlando Magic offseason review

As the NBA offseason plows ahead we’re taking some time to pause and assess the work each team is doing, building for the present and future. Today, we’re looking at the Orlando Magic.

The Scott Skiles experiment did not work last season and the Orlando Magic spent another year spinning their wheels as they try to develop their young core into something special. This summer they made some significant moves, but went in some surprising directions.

Inputs: Stephen Zimmerman (C, NBA Draft pick No. 41); Serge Ibaka (PF, traded from the Oklahoma City Thunder); Jeff Green (PF, signed for one year, $15 million); D.J. Augustin (PG, signed for four years, $29 million); Bismack Biyombo (C, signed for four years, $70 million); C.J. Wilcox (SG, traded from the Los Angeles Clippers)

Outputs: Victor Oladipo (SG, traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder); Jason Smith (PF, signed with the Washington Wizards); Andrew Nicholson (PF, signed with the Washington Wizards); Dewayne Dedmon (C, signed with the San Antonio Spurs); Brandon Jennings (PG, signed with the New York Knicks); Shabazz Napier (PG, traded to the Portland Trail Blazers); Devyn Marble (SF, traded to the Los Angeles Clippers); Ersan Ilyasova (PF, traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder)

Retained: Evan Fournier (SG, signed for five years, $85 million);

Pending:  None

The draft night trade for Serge Ibaka was enormous and signaled what the Magic were after this season — players who can help them win now. Ibaka, on paper, is a perfect fit next to Nikola Vucevic in that he can defend the rim and fully space the floor. Putting him next to Bismack Biyombo works just as well and Biyombo should bring significant upgrades in defense and rebounding to their bench.

While the frontcourt is looking stronger, deeper, and more experienced, the additions of Jeff Green and D.J. Augustin seem out of place. Augustin is a below-average point guard who will struggle significantly on defense. Green is really only effective at power forward (and only marginally in that case). If he’s playing minutes it’s likely cutting into development time for Aaron Gordon at power forward or Mario Hezonja on the wing.

Evan Fournier was nice resigning. It’s a reasonable price for what he offers and his offensive creativity was important last season. All in all, there is more structure to the roster but their ceiling is still set by the potential development of the young players.

3 Big Questions

To really dig deep on Orlando’s offseason, I’m leaning on friends with some Magic expertise. Chris Barnewall (@ChrisBarnewall) is the assistant editor for FanSided’s Friendly Bounce and a regular contributor to FanSided’s Hardwood Paroxysm. Zach Oliver (@ZachOliverNBA) is the managing editor for SBNation’s Orlando Pinstriped Post. Philip Rossman-Reich (@OMagicDaily) is a contributor to Hardwood Paroxysm and the editor of FanSided’s Orlando Magic Daily.

Chris, Zach, and Philip were nice enough to help out by answering three big questions about Washington’s offseason.

What do the Magic need to do this season to convince Serge Ibaka to stay?

Chris Barnewall: They have to win games. You can give Ibaka all the touches he wants, make him a huge part of the offense, and turn him into an MVP candidate, but if the Magic only win 28 games then there’s no reason at all for Ibaka to stay around. He’s spent the majority of his career on a contender, and while I’m sure he’s excited for new possibilities it’s not going to be easy to go from 50 wins a season to a team that might struggle to reach 40.

Zach Oliver: Ultimately, like Chris said, they’re going to have to win games. Ibaka is going to take on a bigger role on the offensive end than he has previously had, and as long as they’re able to get the ball to him, he should be happy. Now, that doesn’t guarantee he’ll stay. They’re going to have to play a productive brand of basketball that gives them opportunities to win games more often than not to sell him on staying in the long-term. As Chris noted, the transition from a contender to a team hopefully of fighting for the seventh or eighth seed is going to be challenging for him, and could lead to him looking at his options next summer.

Philip Rossman-Reich: Win. That is all free agents want. If the Magic want to keep Serge Ibaka, they have to show him that they are legitimately a playoff team. Featuring him prominently in the offense probably would not hurt either. Ibaka has been starved for a larger role and the Magic seem set to give him more shots and feature him. But ultimately winning is all free agents want. Or at least the free agents you want to keep around want. Orlando has to move on from 35 wins to a legitimate playoff threat while showing a lot of faith in Ibaka’s abilities. That would get the job done.

Evan Fournier will be                            this season.

Chris Barnewall: The same player he’s always been. Fournier is a solid offensive wing that excels in creating for himself, not so much for others. He can score in bunches at times, but it’s dangerous to rely on him too much. Defensively he’s not horrid, but he’s not really raising the bar for you with his skill. The Magic paid for him at market value, but I hope they aren’t expecting anything different from him.

Zach Oliver: The Magic’s leading scorer. It’s not a stretch to say that, especially after his productive 2015-16 season, but Fournier is going to have to do some heavy lifting for the Magic if they want to take the big steps forward they think they can. He fits better with Elfrid Payton than Victor Oladipo did, and brings much needed shooting to a team that desperately needs it. He’s better than people give him credit for, and he’s getting ready to enter his prime.

Philip Rossman-Reich: The player the Orlando Magic need, but not right now. Commissioner Gordon is going to set the dogs on him because HarVictor Oladento was sacrificed as the white knight for him. Or something like that. Evan Fournier is a really nice player. He can fit into an offense and succeed. But can he be the leading scorer and featured perimeter player on a playoff roster? That part I am still not sure about. I believe the Magic got Fournier on a good deal. But Orlando is going to rely heavily on him for offense and it still pretty uncertain. Add Mario Hezonja waiting in the wings and Fournier will begin feeling a ton more pressure.

The roster, overall, seems like it has gotten older and more experienced. Is that kind of structure what Gordon and Hezonja need to thrive?

Chris Barnewall: This is such a cop out answer, but yes and no. The Magic’s lack of real identity, and locker room leadership has been a huge problem for them for years. They’ve tried to sign veterans in the past but they were never guys that could right the ship when things went bad. Look at last year — Orlando gets off to a good start but the minute things stopped going their way the youth showed and they tail spinned (there was also potentially some issues with how much the coach believed in his team but that’s a wholeeeeee lot of speculation) so the youth on this roster needs veterans that can show them how to win in this league. That said, if guys like Jeff Green and Jodie Meeks are playing massive minutes over Aaron Gordon and Mario Hezonja, then this could just be yet another case of a team using veterans to spin their wheels without any actual progress.

Zach Oliver: It worries me when I agree with Chris, but it’s yes and no. Having players around who aren’t going to put up with nonsense is going to be good for them and help them take the next steps in their respective developments, but it’s going to hurt some also. I think moreso it’s going to effect Gordon because he’s going to be forced to play out of position at the three more often than not, unless of course he has developed into a league-average shooter, then it’s a whole other case.

For Hezonja, I’m not as worried. With Jodie Meeks’ recent foot surgery, Hezonja is going to be asked to play some big minutes behind Fournier, and will likely spend some time at small forward as well. Yes the Magic are somewhat lacking depth on the wing, but Hezonja’s ability to play both the two and the three are going to be huge as they find rotations that work for them with the positional versatility the roster already holds.

Philip Rossman-Reich: Both Aaron Gordon and Mario Hezonja largely need more playing time to thrive. And to be put in the situations where they can succeed. Having an older roster will surely help them and get them to gain experience. But playing is still the best medicine. For extremely raw players like these two, that is not usually going to happen on teams with a win-now focus. If Scott Skiles were still the head coach, it is possible both could struggle to find playing time. Frank Vogel should be a little more patient. I think adding him to the bench will allow them to develop a little bit better. But they have to play to get better. They have competition now though. So they have to show what they can do on the court and make the most of their talent. They will not be given roles they cannot succeed in, but they have to play to show real improvement.

Bringing the defense

For the Orlando Magic, the past few seasons have been a very active process of trying to mold their young talent into a team that wins a lot of basketball games. From the outside, it seems that effort has often been focused on building a good defense. The Magic’s first two coaching hires during this rebuild — Jacque Vaughn and Scott Skiles — both brought defensive credentials with them but were never really able to translate defensive experience into defensive effectiveness.

This summer the Magic, again with an eye to defense, hired Frank Vogel as Skiles’ replacement. Vogel spent six seasons with the Indiana Pacers and helped them build one of the strongest defenses the league had ever seen. Even in the build-up and breakdown away from those two historic seasons, Vogel always guided the Pacers to better than average defensive performance.

In fact, if you average the defensive efficiency of Vogel’s teams compared to the league average, his record compares incredibly favorably to some of the biggest names in coaching.

Obviously, Vogel doesn’t have quite as long a track record as most of the other coaches on this list but he’s already placed himself in elite company. The length of Vogel’s head coaching experience is comparable to Tom Thibodeau’s and his teams’ defensive performance has been pretty close as well. In addition, Vogel is, thus far, ahead of Skiles by a fairly wide margin.

The Magic have made some solid personnel changes that should improve their defense this season. With Vogel at the helm, they could be in for an enormous leap on that side of the ball.

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