Orlando Magic: Complete 2017 offseason grades
By Luke Duffy
Other draft night moves
The Magic’s roster is already bursting at the seams with the amount of players currently associated with the team, so they needed to get out from under some late round picks.
They did so by sending Anzejs Pasecniks (No. 25) to the Philadelphia 76ers, and Ivan Rabb (No. 35) to the Memphis Grizzlies.
Pasecniks nabbed the team a first and second round pick in 2020 — a solid haul for a guy still playing in Europe with Herbalife Gran Canaria. There’s a chance this move comes back to haunt them given how highly some think of Pasecniks, but we’ve seen plenty of top European players fail to pan out in the NBA (just look at Hezonja).
It was a risk worth taking, and the team now has two future picks coming their way to hopefully help pad out a playoff team with young, cheap talent in 2020.
The team also received a second-rounder in 2019 for Rabb, and while this once again keeps the Magic in the mix for young talent in the future, perhaps Rabb should have been kept.
Even if it meant a stint in the G League, there was enough buzz around him leading up to and on draft night to warrant perhaps finding room for the big man.
Ivan rabb was a lottery/ first round pick last year . Stood two years and his stock dropped. Dudes solid , looking like a steal rn
— DvoXCris (@lordxcris) June 23, 2017
The team will have to make a decision on whether or not to keep Nikola Vucevic soon, and although Biyombo just started a four-year deal last summer, he’s an expensive piece on this team.
We’ll never know, but Rabb was a player once projected as a lottery pick who could have fit nicely next to Issac and Gordon.
A potential slip-up here.
Grade: C