Orlando Magic: Has The Draft Run Dry For This Team?

It might be a little bit depressing to talk about, but the Orlando Magic will once more be using the NBA draft as a means of acquiring talent this summer. We say this as a bad thing, because a lot of people thought they’d have turned into something by now, an actual team that had an identity and a purpose. That still hasn’t happened, and it’s been a bit of a disappointment.

Of course getting young and cheap talent from a pool of the best college players is great for a variety of reasons. But at what point does the draft become less important for this team?

Now there are plenty of positives from drafting (some of which are mentioned above). It’s not going to seriously harm your team in most cases. About as bad as it gets is nurturing these young players so that they can one day return the favor by helping the team be better. There’s one problem with that though, at least for the Magic.

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They’ve spent years now developing talent, and can’t waste much more time repeating the process. Sure, Victor Oladipo (a second overall pick) is turning into quite the player, but they won’t all work out as he has.

Elfrid Payton and Aaron Gordon, the two first-round draft picks from last year, have most certainly taken time to settle into this league. For all that Payton does right, and that’s a lot of things by the way, he still can’t shoot at all and hurts this team offensively.

This isn’t a knock on Payton, his weaknesses were well documented coming into the league and Magic fans realize they are lucky to have him. Defensively he’s already above league average and will only get better. But it’s taken time, and the losing of a lot of matches, to get Payton this far, and he’s still far from the finished product.

Gordon has had similar drawbacks. Injuries haven’t helped his cause, and despite the fact he’s starting games these days, theres still much work to be done on his game. So while drafting makes sense for lots of reasons, franchises pin their hopes on it after all, there comes a time when you have to move away from the lottery balls and the promise of a better future.

Another interesting case in point here is Maurice Harkless. His rookie year with Orlando, when this team truly had nothing to lose, he was used often and provided some nice production. Ever since then though, his usage rate and productivity have slid downwards.

Although technically not drafted by Orlando (he was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers and then traded to the Magic in the Dwight Howard deal having never played a regular season game for Philly) he was a young player who it looked like they were going to put considerable time into nurturing.

That approach tailed off, and now the guy is criminally underused. The general consensus is that the Magic have drafted well in the years after Howard’s departure, and I’d agree with that, but there comes a point when they must move away from that and go after veteran players who can help the team now.

When the team got rid of Arron Afflalo and Jameer Nelson, I was ready to accept a longer rebuild than I initially had hoped for.

But then the likes of Channing Frye, and to a lesser extent Luke Ridnour and Willie Green (Still not sure about that one) were brought in, and I thought this team was going to aggressively pursue a playoff spot. I felt sure that there’d be more activity before the trade deadline, but that doesn’t seem likely anymore. So, what exactly is this team then?

It’s a team full of talented youngsters seemingly on the brink of being something more, they just can’t push this rebuild over the top.

Is another foray into the draft really going to change that? Look, it’ll be great if Orlando can draft high once again. Nobody is going to turn their noses up to a Jahil Okafor or a Karl Towns. But great as they may be, they will still take at least a couple of years to turn into great players for this team.

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting tetchy already just thinking about this lack of playoff action continuing into the foreseeable future.

Throw in the fact this team doesn’t have a head coach, and it’s hard to see how they’ll be able to pull themselves out of this funk. Oladipo is a great second option to have, and Nikola Vucevic may well be the franchise guy. But this team is still lacking quite a lot of things, and I’d prefer to see them explore trades instead of pinning their hopes on the draft once again.

I’m not saying go all in like the Brooklyn Nets or New York Knicks and give away every draft pick you’ve got for the next 30 years, I’m just saying be a little bit more aggressive in trying to make the future happen now.

For every Anthony Davis, there’s a Jonny Flynn, and the draft is no sure thing. Repeatedly going back there will only get you so far, especially as some guys who’ve been around the team a while, like Oladipo, may get frustrated at a lack of progress and leave.

The foundation for this team to be successful is already in place, so why have they gone down with a whimper this season and resigned themselves to another season of teaching a young player the game?

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