Orlando Magic: 3 reasons trading for Kemba Walker wouldn’t work

1. We’ve been here before

More than anything else pointed out here, were the Magic to acquire Walker, it would put a ceiling on how good they could be in the not too distant future. As we’ve seen in Charlotte, when Walker is your best player, you can be a 7- or 8-seed at best.

The argument could be made that he’s never had top quality players around him, but plying his trade in Charlotte means free agents aren’t going to be rushing to sign with you each offseason.

The Magic are perceived the same way around the league. Orlando is not a top free agent destination and it will only become one again when the team looks closer to being considered a true contender.

By adding Walker, the Magic would find themselves in the worst position in the NBA: not good enough to truly contend (with no clear path on how to get there either), but not bad enough to really hit rock bottom and tank properly.

Orlando’s inability to lose as much as others, combined with the fact GM Rob Hennigan was in charge, is why they’re still struggling to find their way back to relevancy more than half a decade after Dwight Howard skipped town.

On top of all of this, Steve Clifford is the Magic’s head coach this season, having come over from Charlotte this offseason. He’s looking for a fresh challenge and has the young and impressionable players on this roster to surprise some people with how hard they can play defensively.

Why would reuniting Clifford and Walker, when we’ve seen for years now what they can do together, make sense? Their run together in Charlotte had fleeting moments of note, and Walker has had some great days in a Hornets jersey with Clifford watching on.

But in terms of real success, they made the playoffs together only twice, and they never got out of the first round. Is running that back with a younger supporting cast and no second star to pair with Walker (his problem in Charlotte) in a different shade of blue really what Orlando should want to do?