2014 NBA Redraft: A tale of two big men and two missed picks
By Corey Rausch
#4 Pick: Zach LaVine (Originally: Aaron Gordon)
Say what you will about his game, but Zach LaVine would have brought plenty of excitement to the Orlando Magic. This is the kind of move that would shape plenty of other moves the franchise made, not the least of which is the fact that the team traded up in this lottery to select a point guard to play alongside promising rookie Victor Oladipo.
Imagining Oladipo and LaVine learning from each other and growing together is extremely promising. Oladipo would cover some of the defensive liabilities that LaVine brings to the lineup and LaVine would provide another dynamic scorer to ease the burden on Oladipo.
Aaron Gordon has yet to hit his true potential in Orlando and the fit has always been complicated given the makeup of the roster. With him not in the mix, it would be interesting to see rookie LaVine, second-year Oladipo and third-year players Tobias Harris and Nikola Vucevic take their lumps together.
Would this have worked? Maybe not given how much of a mixed bag LaVine’s first four years were. Would he have performed much better in an equally messy Magic organization? If the Magic were able to get anything like his past two seasons, they would be in a much better place and may not have moved on from some of their young players in the ways that they did.
With the fifth pick in the 2014 NBA Redraft, the Utah Jazz select…