When the Orlando Magic hired head coach Scott Skiles over the summer, it was under the guise that he would try to win as many games as possible, as soon as possible.
The Magic have responded by putting themselves on pace to nearly double last season’s win total and flirting with a playoff birth. They are currently a game back of the Eastern Conference’s eighth and final postseason slot.
But that’s also true of the New York Knicks and Washington Wizards. So if the Magic want the edge in the East’s cluttered playoff race, they may have to make some external changes.
And general manager Rob Hennigan is prepared to do just that.
As he told the Orlando Sentinel‘s Josh Robbins:
OS: How will you approach the upcoming trade deadline?
Hennigan: We’ll be very active in our discussions. It’s our job to constantly search for ways to improve the team. It doesn’t mean that those discussions will necessarily lead to action. We’re in a position where a lot of teams like our players, and so we’ll certainly have options. If something makes sense for us, we’ll be aggressive. But it needs to make sense for both the long and short terms. So we’ll stay equally as disciplined in our decision-making as we are active in our discussions.
This doesn’t mean anything crazy will happen. And it doesn’t mean the Magic are gearing up for noticeable change.
It does imply aggression.
Orlando is on the cusp of being a playoff team and needs to figure out the Evan Fournier-Channing Frye-Aaron Gordon-Tobias Harris-Mario Hezonja situation. Those players don’t all man the same position, but they overlap, and it’s impossible to create enough separation in their minutes when Nikola Vucevic is playing like a borderline All-Star at center, leaving Frye chained to power forward duty.
That’s creating a trickle-down effect, and the Magic, not unlike the Boston Celtics, current owners of the East’s No. 8 seed, need to consolidate their expanded volume of mid-end assets into a top-tier acquisition.
