Orlando Magic Can’t Even Master Tanking

The Orlando Magic can’t even tank properly, which is punishing them for being competitive at this time of year.

With the regular season coming to a close, the NBA playoffs are the talk of most basketball fans. This means that those not taking part in the postseason, like the Orlando Magic, are receiving even less attention than they usually would. While that’s to be expected, it’s somewhat ironic to see the Magic in particular play better basketball than we’ve seen for many parts of the season.

They’re 4-6 over their last 10 games, and when you consider they won only two games throughout the whole month of January, that’s actually not a bad record. Unfortunately for them, this mini run of competitive play has come at the worst possible time, with draft lottery positioning all they have left to play for.

Or is it? While many fans of rebuilding teams are cool with seeing their squads lose games that are ultimately meaningless because it gives them a better chance of picking higher in the NBA Draft, I’ve never been one to think that way. Sure, it’d be nice for the Magic to defy the odds and pick higher than they’re supposed to.

But a guy like Ben Simmons, a potential star out of LSU, should not be the priority right now. This is because (a) he’s essentially unattainable given the Magic’s record (33-44 as of right now) and extreme unlikeliness to land a top-five pick and (b) because this is not where their focus should be this far into the rebuild that came about as a result of Dwight Howard leaving the team.

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It’s frustrating to talk about the Magic and what they can do during this year’s draft, because we’ve been here more than a few times now. This was supposed to be the year the team made a push for the playoffs and while that was the case there for a brief moment, by the turn of the year the organization was lottery-bound once more.

Will it be nice to see another young player join this intriguing mix and hopefully make a meaningful contribution? Of course, it’s certainly not a bad thing to be able to add one of the best college players in the country to a team on a friendly rookie deal. But is that really as exciting as it’s about to get for this team over the course of the offseason?

That’s why I’m cool with the Magic winning games now that have no bearing on their future, even if it means they can’t even tank correctly. It’s not going to make potential free agents sit up and take notice because they beat a horrible Brooklyn Nets team on a Tuesday in late March.

But if they can carry any sort of momentum into next season because of these wins, then it will be worth it in the long run.

Remember, this is an organization that had not won 30 games since Howard’s departure in August of 2012. They’ve managed to end that run, and while it’s a small victory, these are the kind of achievements the team should be aiming for. Why not go for 40+ wins and a playoff berth next season?

If that is the goal, and it should be, is a lottery pick really going to be the missing piece that carries them over the top and into the postseason? I wouldn’t have thought so, which is why it would be interesting to see what the Magic could get for their draft pick, as well as one of their young players.

Free agents and internal growth are the two key components that are going to drastically improve this team’s fortunes next season, and winning games now won’t have any negative impact on the team’s ability to ensure both of those things happen.

Think about it this way, if general manager Rob Hennigan came out and said he was excited to be back in the lottery with the chance to unearth another gem, would you be happy?

It’s not that the Magic’s track record in the draft has been bad since they begun their rebuild, far from it. But they’ve also hit no home runs either, and while that’s acceptable, if you’re not finding real stars through this process the way a team like the Oklahoma City Thunder once did, it’s time to take a different route.

Orlando has all of the complimentary pieces in place to be a successful team, it now just needs that star player to slot in beside them.

A quick word on the art of tanking as well. While I’m not a fan of it, there’s no doubt it can work for certain teams, even if the likes of the Philadelphia 76ers take it too far. But there may be a solution to fix the tanking process while also rewarding teams like the Magic who, for better or worse, are still winning games this late in the season.

Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey spoke recently about changing the NBA playoffs to be more like the EuroLeague’s single-elimination style format once that competition reaches the final four stage.

While that’s drastic and silly (the NBA playoffs’ best-of-seven format is an almost fool-proof way of crowning the best team in the league each year) perhaps that logic could be applied to draft positioning?

Why not have the remaining 14 teams duke it out to decide who should get the No. 1 pick? Teams who don’t make the playoffs are seeded one through seven, with the team with the best record in each conference getting a bye to the next round. From there, the remaining six teams in each conference play each other in a one-game, winner-takes-all contest.

Those three winning teams would be joined by the team which got a first-round bye, creating a Final Four style contest in each conference, again winner takes all until one team remains from each conference. The two teams play each other with the winner having the first pick in the draft and the loser going second.

The eliminated teams which made it to the Final Four the pick afterwards, with the team with the best record from the regular season picking first.

That way, a team like the Orlando Magic, which is still trying to win games, could be rewarded for just missing out on the playoffs (by getting a bye in the first round), but if they didn’t win the tournament, they could still pick quite high off the back of having a better regular-season record than other teams.

Is it likely to happen? No, but can you imagine if the Magic won that tournament, drafted Ben Simmons with the first pick, then convinced Kevin Durant to join them in Florida? It would make the NBA even more interesting and unpredictable, and ensure that every team has an even greater chance to be successful, not just pray that a few ping pong balls fall their way.

The tournament could even be played over the course of a week before the NBA playoffs began, so that all fan bases would be interested in their team’s fortunes at this time of year.

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It seems a solution with benefits for all, but with no clear change on the horizon, trust the Orlando Magic to start winning games when they should be doing what they’ve done so often this season and roll over.