Orlando Magic: 3 takeaways from 2019 NBA offseason
By Luke Duffy
After a campaign which resulted in a first playoff appearance since 2012, the Orlando Magic continued building quietly during the frenzy of free agency.
Coming into the 2019 offseason, the Orlando Magic hadn’t been in such a positive position as a franchise since 2012. Although bigger moves were made elsewhere with superstars landing in new cities seemingly every day, the Magic also had reason to feel good.
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They got no meetings with top tier players, but were coming off of a first postseason berth in seven years, proof that the vision of a front office that was put in place two years ago was beginning to take shape.
With injury to Klay Thompson and the departure of Kevin Durant, not to mention Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Anthony Davis arriving in Los Angeles, the Golden State Warriors are no longer the presumptive favorites to win a championship next season.
With that in mind, many teams pushed all of their chips into the center of the table in pursuit of the Larry O’Brien trophy. Future first-round picks being thrown about like expiring contracts.
The Magic are on a different timeline however, and did well not to get caught up in the hysteria around the league.
They continued building around the young core already in place, while adding through free agency shrewdly.
In fact it may come to be that the moves that they did not make, and the areas which were not added to significantly, may end up being the most important of all as they let the players already on the roster continue to grow. Here is what we know about the Magic now.