For the last coupla years the Magic have been one of my favorite teams to watch (I'm a sucker for youth movements). This summer saw a re-shaping of the entire roster, shipping out much of the promising youth in favor of veterans. As a watcher I've lost interest but has the team improved?
They let go of Brandon Jennings (Knicks), Joe Harris (Nets), Dewayne Dedmon (Spurs), Jason Smith (Wizards), Andrew Nicholson (Wizards), Ersan Ilyasova (Thunder), Victor Oladipo (Thunder), Shabazz Napier (Blazers), and Devyn Marble (Clippers). Jennings was never meant to last in Orlando, Harris is a minimal commodity, Dedmon is nice but not irreplaceable, Smith is....who is he?, I like Nicholson and thought he could've helped this team for the long term, Ilyasova was always just a chess piece for the Magic, Oladipo isn't the bust-out star the Magic were hoping for but he was certainly good enough to earn another contract from Orlando, Napier is probably my least favorite in the entire league, Marble is a bottom of the roster guy. Okay, maybe that's not so bad.
They made all the deletions to make room for DJ Augustin (4yrs/$29m), Jeff Green (1yr/$15m), Bismack Biyombo (4yrs/$72m), Serge Ibaka (free agent next summer), CJ Wilcox, Stephen Zimmerman (41st pick) and they re-signed Evan Fournier (5yrs/$85m). Augustin is a reliable backup PG, Green is an occasionally explosive scorer, Biyombo is an athletic rebounder down low, Ibaka has one year to provide wing scoring and good D, Wilcox will take Napier's spot at the end of the bench, Zimmerman is a nice 2nd round pickup, and giving Fournier a ton of money was the smartest thing they've done in a while.
Considering how little they received for Mo Harkless, Tobias Harris, Kyle O'Quinn, Channing Frye and Victor Oladipo, we shouldn't be surprised that the Magic have moved two of their most recent draft picks: #11 (Damontis Sabonis) to the Thunder and #47 (Jake Layman) to the Blazers. The youth movement is officially over, the sad retread of aging vets is here. Are they better? Ehh, maybe. But they're certainly not any more interesting, nor do they appear secure for the future. How do these pieces fit together? Does Hezonja play PG? Does Ibaka play PF? Do Vucevic and Biyombo play together?
Starting five: PG Payton, SG Fournier, SF Gordon, PF Ibaka, C Vucevic with Hezonja, Augustin, Wilcox, Green, Biyombo, and Zimmerman off the bench. Not a bad collection of talent and they do have Coach Vogel to put it all together. But everything about their moves over the last coupla years indicates a team that doesn't know what it wants to do. They're tired of building for the future but they don't have enough right now to be players. I don't see them getting to the 8th spot in the East and given their penchant for giving up on previous moves, I wouldn't be surprised to see Ibaka, Vucevic and/or Green get moved at the trade deadline. If that is the case, hopefully it's because they have a reason to do so.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment