Orlando Magic: About That Whiteboard Debacle
By Luke Duffy
With the Orlando Magic headed towards the lottery again, the last thing they needed was another reason for others to laugh at them. Enter Rob Hennigan.
Now that it has marinated for a few days, we really need to talk about the lowest point of the Orlando Magic‘s season.
It wasn’t the failed Serge Ibaka experiment or the now-laughable belief that this could be a playoff team.
It wasn’t even Jeff Green and everything he brought to the team this season.
No, it was a seemingly innocuous tweet sent out by the agent of new acquired Patricio Garino. A picture which may end up being the final nail in the coffin of general manager Rob Hennigan.
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What we saw was Garino signing a contract and what looked to be the Magic’s offseason plans in the background.
Now the leak itself is so bad that it’s laughable. But really, are the Magic likely to be big-time players this summer?
Probably not (and especially not if the contents of that whiteboard are legitimate); in fact we could all make a decent attempt at plotting out the Magic’s offseason.
It will start with taking their lottery pick and adding it to their young core, before filling out the rest of the roster with low-risk young talent and some proven veterans.
Orlando Magic
The leak is worse than that for a number of different reasons and it begins with the fact this picture was ever allowed to come out in the first place.
Everybody is connected to the online world these days and you can’t keep tabs on everything happening within the organization at any one time.
But would a contending team have allowed something like this to happen? Slip-ups like that are why get GMs fired, so why should Hennigan be any different?
This is especially true when you consider the pressure he was already under and it’s not like it’s been a good year.
If the Magic win their three remaining games (anybody want to bet on that happening?) they’ll still finish four games worse than last season’s 35-47 effort.
This despite signing Bismack Biyombo and trading for Ibaka in the summer, with Ibaka later being flipped for Terrence Ross, a much better fit with this team.
The Magic also committed to Evan Fournier and added competent veterans Jodie Meeks and D.J. Augustin.
Head coach Frank Vogel was seen as a steal after being let go by the Indiana Pacers last summer.
Injuries played their part for sure, but on paper this roster was the best they’d had in place since Dwight Howard was with the team.
To regress on last season (in an admittedly tougher Eastern Conference) can’t have been the game plan.
But in fact we may now know that game plan heading into the offseason as well and it doesn’t inspire confidence of any kind.
In no particular order, here is everything that was wrong with the picture that was later taken down off Twitter.
https://twitter.com/theScore/status/849061707536228353?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fbleacherreport.com%2Farticles%2F2701779-magic-gm-rob-hennigan-responds-to-trade-and-free-agency-big-board-leak
Having Jeff Green On The Board … Twice
I mean Jeff Green just turned in one of the all-time forgettable seasons in a Magic jersey, and you’d think about bringing him back?
Not for any amount of money should that take place, and the reason it’s a scary possibility is the fact his name appears (twice!!) under the heading “Hybrid Free Agency.”
Perhaps even more concerning, there’s an X beside one of his names.
In an ideal world that would mean he’s off the team’s radar already. In an unideal world, the team wants to clone him ahead of next season.
Maurice Harkless/Tobias Harris
Potentially going after a guy the team let walk wouldn’t even be all that surprising.
But given how the Magic let Maurice Harkless, Tobias Harris, Victor Oladipo, Kyle O’Quinn and Dewayne Dedmon (to name a few) go, it would sting.
This is even worse when you consider Harkless signed a four-year deal with the Portland Trail Blazers last summer and the team would have to give up something to acquire him.
Ditto Harris, who has two years (at $16 million per season) left on his contract.
All this serves to remind us is what the Magic could have had if they’d held onto some of the players that once suited up for them.
They would undoubtedly be in a better place if they had of done so.
Some Of The Players On That List
This is why we should maybe not read too much into the contents on that whiteboard. It feels like every player in the league is on that list.
Here are some of the more worrying names that jump out, however, and if Hennigan was even half-serious about going after any of them, the team should start looking for a replacement.
- Luol Deng: Past his best and surely only now suited to playing for a contending team.
- Andre Iguodala: Would most certainly be coming to Florida for one final pay check.
- Lance Stephenson: Off the table for now, but surely not ever?
- Chandler Parsons: With the money he’s making, even worse than signing Stephenson.
Trading Aaron Gordon For Dario Saric
This is a deal that is unlikely to ever happen, but it serves to remind us of a couple of things.
The first is that the Magic actually owned the draft rights to Dario Saric, before sending them to Philadelphia in the deal that landed them Elfrid Payton.
The team didn’t do too badly out of that one, but if they rate Saric highly enough to want to trade Aaron Gordon for him after one season, they could have held onto him and had both.
The second is that the team would think of moving Gordon in the first place.
No player on this team should be unavailable, but it just goes to show the Magic still don’t know who they’re building around.
Gordon is about as good as this team has right now and explaining to him that this whiteboard is all one big, elaborate, well-thought out, time-consuming joke would be a difficult conversation.
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We could go on and on about the contents of this list (Kelly Olynyk, Derrick Williams, Ibaka’s name is up there for some reason), but the damage has already been done.
If there truly is nothing to this picture, then Rob Hennigan and his staff have too much time on their hands.
However, if it is a real inside look at what the Magic are planning on doing this summer, what exactly does that say about their future?
Only that all players in the league are up for consideration and that the team will move whatever players they need to on their own roster.
That doesn’t speak to the front office knowing which direction it’s hoping to steer the organization in the future.
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But we didn’t need photo of a whiteboard to tell us that.