Orlando Magic: Finally Some Movement

The Orlando Magic have gotten Serge Ibaka and no matter how that works out on the court, at least they’re trying to improve their team.

In the end, the 2016 NBA Draft came and went and despite the Orlando Magic having the 11th overall pick, much of the night was about them. However, previous years had seen the team draft early and do little else.

In fact, of all of the players drafted since Dwight Howard left town, not one pick to date has yielded an All-Star selection. Even worse, the team has not been to the playoffs since that departure either, meaning all of those picks came in the lottery.

Thursday night was different though, as even though the Magic drafted Domantas Sabonis, he ended up being sent to the Oklahoma City Thunder in a deal that brought Serge Ibaka the other way.

Victor Oladipo and Ersan Ilyasova were also a part of the deal, with the loss of Oladipo in particular a puzzling one. It was clear he was not the star player the franchise hoped he’d be when they drafted him second overall in 2013.

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But he was an effective two-way guard, a commodity that can be tough to find in the NBA today. My feeling was always that if he was the second- or even third-best player on a Magic team, they’d be approaching contending status.

Instead he will be just that on a stellar Thunder team, assuming Kevin Durant stays beyond this summer. For Orlando though, it was a trade that threw up more questions than answers.

Having had a few days to digest the move, the one overriding emotion that I am feeling is relief and I feel that way for a number of reasons. The biggest contributing factor to this is that finally, the organization has made some sort of movement.

A commitment to at least being aggressive and trying to find ways to be more competitive come next season. It was clear the team was just a load of young players that the Magic hoped could someday form a cohesive unit.

But time was running out and the fear was that they would have to start over with more young players as the current iteration wasn’t growing together as it should have. So they shipped out Oladipo and brought in a proven veteran in Ibaka.

Is Ibaka the player he has been in the past? Right now he’s not, but he’s also still only 26 years old and a contributor in several areas. He’s a three-point threat and can protect the basket as well. He’s gone deep into playoff waters numerous times and can stretch the floor for his new team.

In short, he’ll be relevant on both ends of the court and will hopefully thrive in the role of best player on this team (for now at least). The thought of pairing him with Nikola Vucevic is exciting from an offensive standpoint as well.

Stick a pass-first point guard like Elfrid Payton on the court with those two and the team may forge a run-and-gun identity to mesh alongside the hard-nosed defending head coach Frank Vogel will be sure to drill into them.

Here’s the real reason I’m glad the Magic made the trade and that is that the draft was just not working for them. So they went with a proven talent instead and it’s nice to see the franchise branch out in this direction.

Consider this: in the last decade leading up to Thursday’s draft, the Magic had made 17 draft picks. Of those, there have been no All-Star appearances as mentioned above, but it gets much worse than that.

Three of those picks came in the top five, with another five coming in the first round. Only two of those picks ever became recognized starters with the team and a worrying eight of the 17 aren’t even in the league anymore.

If you’re a team like the Thunder who can mine the draft for all it’s worth, good for you. It’s the best way of finding young, cheap talent, as well as a genuine star who will likely be with your team for close to a decade.

But the Magic had been up to bat numerous times when on the draft clock and each time they struck out. In the last five years before Thursday night, here are some of the players they chose not to draft.

Hassan Whiteside, Lance Stephenson, Jae Crowder, Draymond Green, essentially anybody they wanted in the 2013 draft not named Anthony Bennett, Marcus Smart, Julius Randle, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Stanley Johnson and Devin Booker.

There’s tons more, of course, but even one of those players would have made the team better than it is today. So changing it up and opting to use the young players the team has to pursue veteran players makes more sense at this time.

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For all the positivity in bringing Ibaka on board, however, two key pieces of information scare me. The first is that Ibaka is entering the final year of his contract and can become an unrestricted free agent next season.

I had many problems with Oladipo being the cornerstone of this team, but he is talented and was continuing to improve. Did the Magic just get rid of a young and steadily improving player they could have kept around for years to come for what may essentially be a one-year rental?

On top of that, what if Ibaka is the best player on this team come opening night next season? Orlando would be more competitive then sure, but they’d risk getting caught in the cycle that the Atlanta Hawks did for years.

That would be good enough to make the playoffs, but not talented enough to do much more. That middle ground is the worst place to be in the NBA. Adding another talented player (Mike Conley, Al Horford) is surely the goal now and it’s exciting to see who that could be.

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But if nobody else joins the team (I bet the Magic wish they could get that Tobias Harris trade back now), I would question if this bold new direction is actually as aimless as the last. Moves are finally being made though, at what is a crucial time for this team. What will happen next?