Orlando Magic: Complete 2017 offseason grades

The Orlando Magic had their most proactive offseason in over half a decade this summer, but how much have they improved their roster for the future?

With five straight seasons of finishing bottom of their division and no All-Star level talent emerging from their numerous draft pics, the Orlando Magic had to shake things up this summer.

They did just that, and moved quickly to can previous general manager Rob Hennigan mere days after the regular season ended.

In came respected GM John Hammond, formerly of the Milwaukee Bucks, and new president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman, who spent the previous four years with the Toronto Raptors.

Despite remaining quiet in the lead up to the NBA Draft, once they took Jonathan Isaac with the sixth pick, moves came at a more rapid pace. Here we grade each move for the team.

Draft pick No. 1

With the sixth pick on the night, many felt that the Magic were in a tough position with who they should take.

The consensus was that the top five guys were all pretty much locks at that point, leaving the team with the task of picking a player based on talent or fit.

In the end they did both, kind of. Jonathan Isaac was a stretch at No. 6 in the eyes of some, while for others, his play warranted the charge up the board that eventually came to pass.

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We’ll never know how guys like Dennis Smith Jr. and Malik Monk would have fit on this roster, but both were available to the Magic when they were called. What we do know is that both were offensively gifted college players, with Smith in particular looking like he could have usurped Elfrid Payton if given the chance.

However, Isaac has the kind of frame and skill-set that translates really well to the league as we know it today.

As is stands, the team currently has a lot of players with clearly defined roles that harken back to the more stringent, position heavy basketball that was prevalent as little as five years ago.

Bismack Biyombo (rim protector, screening), Elfrid Payton (traditional, almost old-school point guard) and Aaron Gordon (pure athleticism, for the moment at least) aren’t overly flexible.

Isaac can change that, either as a center who can stretch the floor in a small-ball lineup, or in his more traditional power forward role.

He could even add versatility as playing the 3, with the 7.8 rebounds per game and 34.8 percent he shot from deep during his lone season at Florida State being noteworthy numbers.

At only 19 years old, expectations must be tapered with what Isaac can do his rookie year. But the feeling is this team finally has a young player worth building around.

Grade: B

Draft pick No. 2

In taking Wesley Iwundu with the 33rd pick, the Magic again opted for versatility in choosing an athletic swingman with great length.

As of now it’s unclear where exactly Iwundu will find minutes on this team, with Evan Fournier, Terrance Ross and Arron Afflalo all needing playing time.

It may be that Iwundu is the cost-effective replacement for Mario Hezonja, who has failed to live up to the “Super Mario” title he was given when drafted back in 2015. It’s more likely he spends some time in the G League with the newly named Lakeland Magic.

Whatever becomes of Iwundu in his rookie year, it’s clear the front office has ideas of creating a much more flexible roster, with Isaac and Iwundu the beginning of this process.

With the frontcourt also looking crowded as it stands now, the Magic were only ever really going to go with a guard/wing player. At this point, anything they can get from Iwundu will be a bonus in their attempts to become a competitive team once more.

Shooting 37.5 percent from 3-point range last year with Kansas State on their way to an NCAA berth is further proof that this team is trying to embrace the league-wide trend of spreading the floor with threats from all angles.

Grade: B

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.

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

First of the offseason signings

Things went quiet around the Magic as the big-name free agents moved to different destinations to play. This was to be expected, but it was still somewhat frustrating to sit out while guys who could help the team were never even linked with the organization.

Potentially getting a meeting with Andre Iguodala was as good as it got, although thankfully the team did not go down this route.

Orlando Magic

Instead, point guard Shelvin Mack was the first in the door, coming over from the Utah Jazz after having a career year in their run to the second round of the playoffs.

Although a little puzzling, it was the kind of move the was expected to make, despite being at a position that fans are still divided over. The overall feeling is that adding Mack was good business at two years, $12 million. He has also appeared in 30 postseason games.

Mack has spent most of his career as a component backup, although unsurprisingly, his best numbers have occurred when given extended run as a starter.

This is where the confusion comes in, as at 26 Mack must surely want to become a starter in the league as he enters his prime. Payton is clinging onto that position with the Magic, for now, and this move must be seen as another to warn Payton he’s running out of opportunities.

He’s had veterans such as C.J. Watson and D.J. Augustin to help him over the last couple of years, and it still hasn’t come together for him. Mack will no doubt start the season behind Payton, but a slow start from him and there could be a change, with Mack looking the most sensible option to take over starting duties.

A sensible addition.

Grade: B

The Crown Jewel

By the Magic’s standards, the signing of Jonathon Simmons was the biggest offseason signature acquired since before Dwight Howard‘s departure.

Here was a guy who played tremendous defense for the San Antonio Spurs last season, and was a key piece in their playoff run to the conference finals.

A young 27 years old, Simmons has only played 2,537 minutes in his NBA career. This covers two seasons, both of which included postseason action. There’s little wear on those tires, and the guy brings the kind of attitude you’d expect of somebody who had to pay $150 of his own money to bag a tryout with the Spurs.

He automatically becomes this team’s most promising player for the future, and likely for the present as well.

Orlando Magic Daily

While Vucevic has averaged a double-double in four of his last five seasons and both Isaac and Gordon could be good, it is Simmons who excites fans the most at the moment — with good reason too, as he’ll quickly become the defensive leader head coach Frank Vogel can turn to many times throughout the long regular season.

The only concern is the numbers Simmons has posted so far in his career, but we must also remember in San Antonio, no player is above the team, so they should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Nevertheless career averages of 6.1 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game on 32.2 percent 3-point shooting aren’t pretty to look at. Those scoring numbers improved to just over 10 points in 20 minutes of action during last season’s playoffs, but still.

The advanced numbers don’t help his case much either, with a Player Efficiency Rating (league average is 15) during his two seasons with the Spurs sitting at a tragic 11.9, followed up with a 9.9 last year. The silver lining here is that in the playoffs those numbers jumped up to 16.7 and 15, respectively.

Still, a lot is expected of a guy who was a role player, albeit a highly effective one, through his first two years in the league.

There’s every reason to believe that he’ll deliver now that he is one of the team’s go-to guys, but that optimism just needs to be curtailed somewhat, especially during the opening months of the season.

However, signing Jonathon Simmons to a three-year, $20 million deal was a great piece of business from a team that were never going to get meetings with the established elite players. Overall, the Magic would have struggled to make a better move all summer.

Grade: A

The Puzzling Big Man Signing

There are two ways you can look at the signing of Marreese Speights to the team on a one-year deal: The positive and the negative.

Getting the pessimistic outlook out of the way first, and Speights has started 75 games in his entire career. He has never really excelled with any team he’s played for, save for as a valuable role player for the Golden State Warriors, a historically deep team.

He has career averages of 7.9 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. It’s hard to know if this piece is genuine or only highlights further the kind of career Speights has had to this point. On top of all that, the team have committed $30 million this season alone to their two centers, Biyombo and Vucevic.

So where does Speights fit into this, and why?

Well if you you’re looking at this particular glass as half full, you can argue that the 30-year-old, who is thrilled to be with the Magic, will be helping this team more off the court than on it.

Signed for the veteran’s minimum, he is a cheap alternative to the bigs already on the team, and one who can space the floor like nobody else on the roster.

He has won a championship with the Warriors, and if the team decides to cash in on Vucevic through a trade, he would be an adequate placeholder until next summer.

There’s lots to like about having a guy like that on your team at the veteran minimum. But is he ultimately going to take minutes and a rotational spot from guys like Iwundu?

Grade: C

Return Of The Prodigal Son

In a surprising move, Arron Afflalo then returned to the Magic on a one-year deal, again for the minimum. Without rehashing what has been said about Speights, the reasons for adding Afflalo to this team are similar.

The key difference is that he enjoyed the best stretch of his career to date on this team, before bouncing around three teams and returning. Afflalo can be another leading voice in the locker room, with the added weight of having been on the roster when it was in worse shape before.

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Perhaps he can get through to Payton and Hezonja, and bend their ear with tales of what happened to guys like Victor Oladipo and Tobias Harris — once cornerstones of this team.

On the court he’s not going to usurp Terrence Ross from the starting lineup, and Evan Fournier doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere either. So again this looks like a move to motivate the kids, while also padding out the end of their bench.

Previous iterations of this roster have been troubled by a lack of experience off the bench to hold onto leads and close out games. Both Afflalo and Speights can help with this, and Afflalo also shot 41 percent from 3-point range with the Sacramento Kings last season.

That number was an even more impressive 42 percent during his second season with the team, his career year — this despite playing with guys inferior to those he’ll suit up beside next season in the pinstriped blue.

Notice a trend developing yet?

Grade: B

The Nothing To Lose Long Shot

You probably don’t know a ton about Khem Birch. Truth is, not many people do, and that may be the beauty in what he can bring to this team.

As yet another big man who played overseas with European power Olympiacos last season, Birch returns to the NBA with confidence restored and a point to prove. Whether or not he can make an impact in the league, or even with the Magic, remains to be seen.

But he cost next to nothing ($815,000) and the second year of his deal in non-guaranteed until the end of June next year. Again, with uncertainly around Vucevic’s future with the team, this move makes sense.

The team may also be looking to unearth a diamond in much the same way their neighbors the Miami Heat found Hassan Whiteside.

Anybody who claims they know what exactly this guy will bring to the team is lying, but the words associated with him most often are hard work, grit and defensive tenacity. If he can provide exactly that in short bursts, then his signing will be deemed a success. That is if he can make it through likely pitstops over with the Lakeland Magic.

Another low-risk, potentially high reward player to add to the ranks. What’s not to like about that?

Grade: C

Magic bring the Payne

The Magic welcomed Adreian Payne into the fold by signing him to one of the league’s new two-way deals.

This means the former Minnesota Timberwolves big man can spend up to 45 days during the season with the Magic, with the rest of his time spent in the G League with their Lakeland affiliate.

At 25 years old, however, the move is a puzzling one. Why did the team decide to sign a player who hasn’t done much in his three years in the league to one of these two-way deals? After all, the team only gets two.

Wouldn’t that contract have been better served going to a younger player with more upside? A guy who may not pan out and who is a bigger risk, but who could provide them with a larger return in the future?

Birch already figures to be a project center for the team, and Speights isn’t going anywhere this season. Why then did they use this deal to bring in Payne? Especially when these deals can be turned into minimum contracts the following season?

After such a strong summer where the team was proactive and realistic, it seems a strange move by the front office. It will be some time before we see if it has any positive impact on this team.

Grade: D

Overall

It might not look like much, but this was undoubtedly the best summer the Orlando Magic have had in a long time.

No terrible contracts taken on, plenty of youth, a draft pick with real potential in Jonathan Isaac, not to mention the right kind of veteran leaders this team sorely lacked in recent years.

Yet despite all of those positive moves, it may yet come to pass that shaking up the front office was the best decision the team made overall.

They’re no closer to getting meetings with big name players, but they now have their best attempt yet at a young core in place, with the right kind of experienced players to lead them.

It’s hard to know what more they could have done this offseason, especially since they didn’t even give in to the temptation of overpaying a player whose star was fading like many small markets fall into the trap of doing.

Becoming a top-10 defensive team seems possible as well, when you consider the players added and the head coach in Frank Vogel who will be leading them.

Next: Atlanta Hawks - Complete 2017 offseason grades

They still won’t get near 40 wins and being in the playoff picture after the All-Star break will be deemed a success, but finally, this team looks like it has an identity and a direction.

Grade: B