Orlando Magic: 5 players they could regret letting go

3. Jonathon Simmons

Despite Jonathon Simmons inking a three-year deal to come down to Orlando during the offseason to much fanfare, it hasn’t quite gone according to plan so far.

Simmons is taking time to adjust to having a bigger role on a rebuilding team, although his commitment on both ends can never be questioned. It feels like he is the type of player that a contending team might inquire about before the deadline.

Given how this season has gone for the team, if they could get something of value back, they might consider letting him go as well.

Simmons is averaging career highs in most statistical categories, and he’s turned into a more of a starter for this team too, playing 27 of his 46 games with the starting lineup.

But it is the advanced numbers that look more concerning. Simmons is posting a Player Efficiency Rating (league average 15) of 12.3 — a poor number. Even worse, his defensive rating is a horrendous 110.4, clearly the worst mark of his career so far.

The Magic as a team can be blamed for some of this. They’re certainly not the San Antonio Spurs in that regard, but Simmons was brought in to help change that.

Instead, the poor habits of this team have rubbed off on him, but if he moved to a playoff team and came off the bench again, it is likely he would return to the guy the Magic thought they were getting.

That would be a problem though, as he would be doing this elsewhere while the Magic are forced to ask themselves why it didn’t work out in Orlando.