Despite what you want to believe, the Orlando Magic are simply not as good as you think they are.
Right now, the Orlando Magic find themselves in a pretty strange place. They’ve got a lot of young players who could one day form a potent core, but it looks like they’ll strike out on all the big free agents this summer.
They do have their own pick in the upcoming NBA Draft, but it is just outside the top 10.
They did have a solid, if unspectacular, head coach in Scott Skiles, but he mysteriously decided to up and leave too. They have rectified that loss quickly however, with what looks like a superb addition in Frank Vogel.
In summary, there’s still the potential for things to turn out right in Orlando, especially with Vogel now onboard. Right now though, there’s still tension in the air regarding exactly what next season will bring, especially as the team enters free agency as an afterthought in many people’s minds.
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It’s hard to blame the fans for this obviously, much of the uncertainty that still makes up this organization is the result of Dwight Howard‘s departure what feels like a lifetime ago.
Add to that the front office’s inability to quickly return to relevance (not an easy ask by the way) and it’s easy to see why things appear bleak.
Yet there’s this almost stubborn belief among fans that actually, this is a roster full of talent that was being used incorrectly last season.
Now, while Skiles refused to use guys like Mario Hezonja all that often, even when the season was lost, the harsh reality is that this team is still intriguing, nothing more.
The loss of Tobias Harris divided fans, with some feeling he was taking minutes away from the likes of Aaron Gordon, while others saw him as a key figure in the rebuild. Even trading away Channing Frye hurt this team.
Take away the fact he’s been awesome for the Cleveland Cavaliers during these playoffs, he was a veteran voice in the Magic locker room. When you take those moves into consideration and look what this roster is currently made up of though, you have to be realistic.
This is a team that is still not very good, despite what you may believe. It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing your team’s young players are better than opponent’s, and that the best players on the team you support are being overlooked by everybody else.
That’s not unique to Magic fandom, but it’s a view that will leave you feeling confused when things don’t work out the way they should in your eyes. If you spend more time looking at the team you support over all others, of course you’re going to think the players on that roster are better than others.
If you look at the squad as a whole though, it’s easier to see that that’s not quite the case.
Nikola Vucevic, this team’s best player, was relatively consistent this season, but his output dipped from two seasons ago (19 ppg, 11 rpg with a 21.5 PER to 18 ppg, nine rebounds a night and a 21.1 PER this season).
It’s not a massive drop-off by any means, but isn’t this a team that is supposed to be constantly improving?
In your eyes it probably did look like Vucevic was as impressive offensively as ever, but the numbers tell us that, while he was still a leader, he was that bit less impressive as the year before.
This team is just trash. They can't draft and every top player they eventually get, they trade away
— Streetz (@_Streetz) May 12, 2016
Victor Oladipo is another player who falls into this category. To watch him every night is to witness a two-way guard who can score in bunches and defend other guards to a high standard.
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When you broaden your view on Oladipo though, you see that, while he is productive for the Magic, he’s playing essentially the same way he has done for a couple of years now.
Ditto Elfrid Payton, whose first and second year numbers were pretty much the same. Again there’s nothing wrong with that, Payton is only 22 years old after all. But as fans we need to look at bigger picture here.
Stop being sentimental because they wear the pinstriped blue and accept that this team is still a long way away from being anything of note.
Could that all change this coming season? Most certainly, and that’s the key positive to take from all of this. Vogel will surely get the attention of free agents Skiles could not, his record speaks for itself.
But do you not think there’s a reason Skiles suddenly up and left? Did he take a look at that roster, look around the rest of the league and realize what he was up against? It’s fair to say the Magic as they look now are not built in the way new age contenders are.
There’s no rapid ball movement, no consistent three point threats (at least not yet anyway) and not tons of interchangeable pieces in the same way the likes of the Golden State Warriors have.
The flip side of that though, is that there are no true stars emerging to take over either, so the team doesn’t even have a more old-school feel to it, like the Oklahoma City Thunder.
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When you consider this, it’s not the strangest thing to consider while Skiles left this situation one year into a three-year deal. That aspect of all of this may work out in the team’s favor, but there’s no doubting that this team is still a long way from being relevant, no matter what you think.