The 2017-18 NBA season started off looking like the Orlando Magic had finally gotten themselves off the hamster wheel that is mediocrity in sports. The team jumped out to an 8-4 (!) record and was positioned towards the top of the Eastern Conference standings. Currently, the Magic are 14-35 and at the very bottom in the East.
A 6-31 record over a 37 game stretch certainly is enough to squander any hopes and dreams of a Disney-inspired ending. Instead, Orlando is still attempting to reboot itself as a franchise in the post-Dwight Howard world.
The trade deadline is a week away and while the team isn’t loaded with assets that can help jumpstart the required rejuvenation the Magic need, it is a chance for them to make smart choices in an attempt to procure a better future. Every year there are buyers and there are sellers in the trade market. Orlando is definitely a seller this year. We’ve seen a few names mentioned in the lead up to the Feb. 8 deadline (Jonathon Simmons to Oklahoma City and Evan Fournier to Denver to name a couple). With things looking bleak for the remainder of this year, Orlando is a team that contenders could look to poach.
One piece that no team is going to touch is reserve center Bismack Biyombo. Back in the summer of 2016 when teams were handing out long-term, high-priced contracts like Oprah giveaways, the Magic gave the former Raptor a four-year, $72 million deal.
Now in year-two of the deal, Biyombo has proven that he is nowhere near worth $17 million annually at any capacity. With one more guaranteed year and a player option for the 2019-20 season, there isn’t a team in the NBA willing to take that albatross contract off Orlando’s books.
Another problematic player to move is starting point guard Elfrid Payton. While Payton has shown development in each year in the NBA, he hasn’t been able to fix the major hole in his game: perimeter shooting. In today’s league having a lead guard that isn’t a threat from the outside is a death sentence offensively. Teams don’t fear Payton away from the ball and often use his man to load up in the paint or attack other players on the perimeter. To his benefit, Payton could be
a solid defender and has shown a knack for notching the occasional triple-double. Yet, his days in Orlando have not netted what the Magic had hoped when they swapped Dario Saric for him and a 2017 pick —which could net either the Sixers or Celtics and additional lottery pick in the upcoming draft— back in 2014.
However, the Magic do have some players that could potentially net them something of value in return. As noted above both Simmons and Fournier are enticing pieces for teams trying to cement themselves as playoff teams.
There’s also Nikola Vucevic and Terrence Ross who both have one more year left on their reasonably priced contracts after this season. However, injuries have kept both off the floor for a big chunk of this season and at other points of their careers. Medical red flags could drag their stock down across the league.
Every NBA team is constantly searching for more help on the wing and Orlando holds the cards to potentially four players that can dribble/pass/shoot and be average defensively at worst. Fournier, Mario Hezonja, Ross, and Simmons could be had for the right pieces at the deadline this year.
According to recent rumors, Orlando isn’t looking to completely start over. Their goal is to shed salary and find talented players still on rookie scale contracts that could grow along with their intriguing young prospects. Aaron Gordon and Jonathan Isaac look like players that could be mainstays both now and in the future.
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New general manager John Hammond has his work cut out for him with his first trade deadline as a member of the Orlando Magic front office rapidly approaching. Hammond helped re-tool the Milwaukee Bucks back to relevance so there’s hope that the same could be done with Orlando. The line he has to toe is whether to make a move just for the sake of making one or selling high on above-average talent that for one reason or another just hasn’t merged together with the Magic. Either way, after a brief glimpse of something new, the Magic are back to being who we thought they were.
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