Orlando Magic: 3 cheap options to boost team’s scoring
By Luke Duffy
The Orlando Magic are in dire need of some scoring as their season begins to drift, but there is affordable help out there.
The Orlando Magic have proved to be a tough watch in recent games. Their defensive intensity, usually reliable in keeping them in contests, appears to have deserted them. This despite actually having one of their better Januarys in years.
More from Hoops Habit
- 7 Players the Miami Heat might replace Herro with by the trade deadline
- Meet Cooper Flagg: The best American prospect since LeBron James
- Are the Miami Heat laying the groundwork for their next super team?
- Sophomore Jump: 5 second-year NBA players bound to breakout
- NBA Trades: The Lakers bolster their frontcourt in this deal with the Pacers
Offensively they have been as bad as ever, failing to get any kind of consistent scoring from anybody, with key players such as Nikola Vucevic struggling.
This is a big problem for the Magic, with so much of what they do offensively orbiting around their one-time All-Star big man. Others such as Markelle Fultz and even Khem Birch have helped, but Fultz continues to come along at his own pace and there is only so much Birch can do when given the opportunity.
It has been said for a while now, but some player movement seems obvious to jolt the franchise back to life. They could yet make the playoffs without making any moves, but a first-round matchup against one of the best teams in the East wouldn’t end well. That makes the trade deadline even more important to the Magic.
They have time to make changes, the hard part is knowing what to do and who to cut ties with. A dramatic trade in the form of letting Aaron Gordon or even Evan Fournier still brings with it plenty of risk and in actual fact it is around the fringes where they may find the answer to some of their problems.
Defensively they’ll pick back up again; their head coach’s philosophy and roster makeup dictate that. Offensively, however, there is no internal solution, which makes a trade — one which will not put the league on notice — their best chance at injecting some scoring punch. Here are three guys who would provide such a boost, and would not cost a lot to acquire.