The Orlando Magic should inquire about Markelle Fultz

The Orlando Magic look a solid outfit with a growing identity, but that doesn’t mean change is bad. Should Markelle Fultz be on their radar?

If you’re an Orlando Magic fan, you have to be happy with how the season has panned out so far. Blowout losses notwithstanding, there looks to have been progress made over the summer.

They have a head coach in Steve Clifford who, despite not being the most glamorous successor to Frank Vogel, might just be the Magic’s most consistent performer so far.

He is creating an identity built around defense, while also creating clearly defined roles for guys like Terrence Ross (sixth man), Aaron Gordon (go-to guy when healthy) and rookie Mohamed Bamba (defensive disruptor with the second unit).

They may be below .500 with a 6-8 record, but unlike previous starts, there is a feeling that they could hang around the playoff picture for longer than in years gone by. They may ultimately fall short, but just being competitive and winning tight games is refreshing to see.

While this is all positive, this still feels like a roster that has a trade or two in them. There are enough moveable assets like Nikola Vucevic and Jonathon Simmons for that not to be the case.

With the recent addition of Jimmy Butler to the Philadelphia 76ers, they look like an organization that is now ready to contend. In Butler, Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid and J.J. Redick, they have as good and as complementary a starting four as any team outside of the Bay Area.

They need that fifth man to round out their starters, however, and it looks more likely with each passing game that troubled point guard Markelle Fultz is not that guy. Given that Orlando is in need of a long-term floor general, should the Magic be picking up the phone to make an inquiry?

Beginning with why the Magic should be interested in going for a deal to get Fultz, and the obvious place to start is with the fact that D.J. Augustin is currently their starting point guard. He’s been really good too, with averages of 10.6 points and 4.6 assists per game so far (both his best numbers since joining the Magic).

He knows his teammates well at this stage, and plays well within the flow of the game offensively, knowing when to set up others or take shots himself. With that being said, he is 31 years old, and is a defensive liability given his height.

Despite those limitations, as it stands this season the Magic have a better defensive rating when Augustin is on the court (106.1), than they do as a whole (108.3), so Augustin can claim to be helping in this area too.

Where he could have even more joy with the Magic, though, is reverting to his old backup role, something he has done well at various stops throughout his NBA career. You can’t build around Augustin either, given his age and the fact he’s not likely to get much better.

He is what he is, and that is a solid veteran who has a purpose and future in Orlando. It just shouldn’t be as an integral part of their core.

Moving on to what they’d have to give up, it was highlighted here that a pairing of Fournier and Jonathon Simmons for Fultz and Wilson Chandler would work salary-wise.

Fournier borders on a great offensive player at times. Now imagine if he were the fifth-best individual on a starting unit? The Ringer‘s Bill Simmons touched on this in his most recent podcast as well, pointing out that Fournier would be the ideal kind of player to plug in as the Sixers’ fifth guy.

Simmons would then add the same toughness and glue-like qualities he once brought to a contending San Antonio Spurs organization a couple of years back. But why would the Magic want to part with two of their top right guys?

Fournier is arguably their best offensive player, while Simmons is a mentor and leader to the younger guys on the roster. It’s a tough sell when you look at it that way, but this could be an addition by subtraction move.

It would be fair to say that Simmons hasn’t quite been the defensive stalwart he was with the Spurs, while Fournier’s offensive antics — particularly when things are going wrong — have divided fans for years now.

Neither player is irreplaceable, and as this rebuild moves forward, guys like Bamba, Gordon and Jonathan Isaac are going to need minutes. So too are any potential draft picks or free agents that are added to make Orlando a playoff team again.

We haven’t even brought up Nikola Vucevic, an unrestricted free agent next summer who has been their best player so far this season and seems to really enjoy being in Orlando. Or Wesley Iwundu, the second-year player quietly thriving in Clifford’s system.

In gaining Chandler in the deal, the Magic would also be getting a player who could take the minutes of Simmons, and who will be coming off the books next summer as well. That’s some tempting cap space to have when combined with Vucevic’s expiring deal.

But why would the 76ers do it? Giving up on Fultz 18 months after trading up to the first overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft (and allowing the Boston Celtics to take the much more polished Jayson Tatum) would be an embarrassing admission of slipping up by their front office.

But it is hard to see a future, both immediate and in the long-term, where Fultz and Simmons share the court together. His shooting woes have reached infamous status, and there’s a negative feeling around him in the situation he’s currently a part of.

Every time he attempts a shot on the court, the city holds its breath, while his free throw attempts are on social media moments after they happen, with amateur shot doctors the world over dissecting his form and diagnosing the problem with his mechanics.

A fresh start for a rebuilding team in a smaller market with some other young guys figuring out their games would be the perfect solution for Fultz as a player to get his groove back. He’d have a head coach in Clifford who would refine his intriguing defensive potential as well.

For the 76ers, something else worth considering is that this may be the best deal available for them to move Fultz and go into complete win-now mode. Essentially every other organization has a point guard they are happy with; the Magic are one of the very few who do not have a long-term solution at that position.

To get a forward in Fournier who can put up points and have his defensive deficiencies covered by Embiid is enticing. Adding Jonathon Simmons to their second unit an added bonus. All it would take is admitting they got the Fultz pick wrong.

They’ve done this before, with guys like Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor casualties of “The Process.” For Orlando, a core of Fultz, Gordon, Isaac and Bamba would make them one of the more fun teams on League Pass. There would be less pressure on them to be great right away too.

There’s a lot to like about a potential deal such as this one. Staying the course is another option for the Orlando Magic too, but now that stability has been achieved, going out and getting a young and talented player like Markelle Fultz should be worth considering.