The Magic seemed to have a very clear and measured approach to rebuilding their franchise and restocking their talent from the moment they hit the reset button and dealt Dwight Howard in the summer of 2012.
They used the ammo acquired in that blockbuster trade and the resulting bottoming out to build a very talented and athletic young team that seemed positioned to be one of the most exciting teams in the eastern conference in the future.
Here are the players they acquired through the draft or trades from the summer of 2012 until the February 2016 trade deadline:
Summer 2012:
Nikola Vucevic (Dwight Howard trade)
Moe Harkless (Dwight Howard trade)
Arron Afflalo (Dwight Howard trade)
Andrew Nicholson (No. 19 pick 2012 NBA Draft)
February 2013:
Tobias Harris (Acquired in trade for J.J. Reddick)
Summer 2013:
Victor Oladipo (No. 2 pick 2013 NBA Draft)
Summer 2014:
Aaron Gordon (No. 4 pick 2014 NBA Draft)
Elfrid Payton (No .10 pick in 2014 NBA Draft)
Evan Fournier (Acquired in trade for Arron Afflalo)
Channing Frye
Summer 2015:
Mario Hezonja (No. 5 pick 2015 NBA Draft)
So in summary, from August 2012 to February 2016, the Magic slowly but surely stockpiled their roster with an assortment of two-way talent that gave them length, scoring ability, athleticism, positional flexibility, rebounding and the potential to be a top 10 defensive team.
Their core was an elite defensive back court of Elfrid Payton and Victor Oladipo, talented wings who have the ability to put the ball on the floor and knock down open jump shots in Evan Fournier, Mario Hezonja and Tobias Harris, a freak athlete. The second coming of Shawn Marion with Vince Carter’s athletic ability in Aaron Gordon and a center who can score in a variety of ways and give you 18 and 12 on a nightly basis in Nikola Vucevic. They choose to patiently and smartly build through the NBA draft with savvy trades and maintain their financial flexibility.
All of their core was 25 and under and they were looking to finally be making a break through after four straight 20 win seasons as they were 25-30 going into the all-star break.
This is when their rebuild started to go haywire as they became impatient and started to prefer a retool in order to make them postseason caliber in their eyes sooner.
They decided to trade a 23-year-old combo forward in Tobias Harris who was averaging 14 and 7 on 46 percent shooting and on what looks like a very savvy $16 million contract for a point guard coming off of an Achilles injury in Brandon Jennings that was only going to steal minutes from Payton and Ersan Illyasova.
The Magic basically admitted that trade was a mistake this offseason when they traded Illyasova and didn’t re-sign Brandon Jennings.
They followed up a bizarre trade deadline move with another questionable trade in which they traded one of the cornerstones of their rebuild and a potential two-way all-star caliber two-guard in Victor Oladipo, Ersan Illyasova and the No. 11 pick (Domantas Sabonis) for Serge Ibaka.
Ibaka is a very good NBA player that fills a shooting and rim protecting need for the Magic, but he is also a player that has declined the past two seasons and would steal some of the much needed minutes from Aaron Gordon’s development and doesn’t necessarily help the Magic become a playoff team in 2016-17.
After trading for Ibaka and re-signing Evan Fournier which was a much needed move after dealing Oladipo, the Magic have essentially spent $42 million in yearly salary to acquire another center in Bismack Biyombo, a player who is only effective as a four in Jeff Green and an oft injured three-point specialist in Jodie Meeks.
Meeks is an odd move but adding Biyombo and Green to a logjam that already includes Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon and Serge Ibaka makes little if any sense and creates a huge roster imbalance. The Magic will struggle to find minutes for some of the most talented and highest paid players on their roster. They also are paying Jeff Green essentially the same salary they were paying Tobias Harris.
There are 96 minutes available at the four or five position in an NBA game. The Magic have 3 guys who should play in the neighborhood of 30 or more (Vucevic, Gordon, Ibaka) a guy who should play no less than 25 (Biyombo) and a guy who has traditionally played 20 to 24 minutes per game and is being paid $15 million this season (Jeff Green).
That equates from anywhere from 130 to 150 minutes between those five, which means a few of these players will suffer mightily from the logjam.
A team that no so long ago seemed to have a bright future now seems to be lost and destined to be another middling franchise with little cap flexibility and no clear vision for the future.
