Orlando Magic: 5 key players that got away

2. Tobias Harris

So much of the move that sent Tobias Harris to the Detroit Pistons back in 2015 still rubs Magic fans up the wrong way. At the time he was coming off a season of averaging 17.1 points and 6.3 rebounds, and the belief was that he was a key piece to their rebuilding roster.

Many were convinced he didn’t have the talent to build an entire team around, and while that is still true, he has gone on to play the best ball of his still young career in Detroit.

Then there is the return the Magic got for the then 23-year-old. Ersan Ilyasova (another guy doing relatively well in Atlanta now) and Brandon Jennings. Neither guy is with the team anymore, and what this represented was a panic move by Hennigan with his job coming under increased scrutiny.

To give away a player so young and with considerable upside and receive so little in return hurt then, and continues to hurt now.

Harris is posting career highs this season in points (18.4 per game), effective field goal percentage (54.7 percent), and 3-point shooting (a hot 43.8 percent).

He is doing this despite taking two more 3s per game (5.8) than last season, which is a ton more than the 2.9 per game he averaged in three and a half years in Orlando.

Harris has become the kind of modern forward teams need: a little undersized to play the 4, but with real shooting ability and a varied offensive game. His 106.6 rating in this category the highest mark of his career to date. Interestingly, the 107.2 he is posting on the defensive end is a career-low.

Regardless, it is clear now that Harris can be a driving force on a team chasing a top-four seed in the East.

Leading the Pistons in scoring and averaging the second-highest amount of rebounds per game on the team is proof of this. How the Magic could do with him now and over the coming years….