Orlando Magic: 3 reasons front office are losing the fans
By Luke Duffy
The Orlando Magic have had a horrendous season, and fans are now asking serious questions of the front office.
When you break up with somebody, it can go one of two ways. The first is that there is an element of “rose-tinted glasses” whereby you look back fondly on the time together, likely ignoring many of the signs that the relationship was doomed to fail in the first place while doing so.
It’s time to ask some tough questions of the Orlando Magic front office
For the Orlando Magic, this encapsulates the mood around one-time franchise cornerstone Dwight Howard well. Once he left in 2012, and with the subsequent mess that followed, it was easy to look back on a run to the NBA Finals and guaranteed success each year, while ignoring how he held the franchise to ransom for roughly 18 months before the end eventually came.
The second way, however, is what the Magic were experiencing up until recently with their front office. Previous General Manager Rob Hennigan was the man who oversaw the transitional period away from Howard, and he did so horrendously.
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Lowlights including trading away Victor Oladipo (and the draft rights to Domantas Sabonis) for Serge Ibaka, drafting Elfrid Payton and Mario Hezonja with top 10 picks, trading for Brandon Jennings, letting Tobias Harris go, and signing center Bismack Biyombo to a four year, $72 million deal while Nikola Vucevic was ascending to the player he is now.
When he left and the current front office took over, because of how badly the previous relationship had gone, they were given a pass for basically everything. It’s easy to be thankful when you know how bad things can get, and that is something that should not be forgotten as we trudge our way through this season with the Magic as well.
But as the franchise shows no clear direction once more, while wasting Vucevic’s best season as a professional to date, the spotlight is firmly on GM John Hammond and President of Basketball Operations Jeff Weltman. Here are three reasons fans are growing tired of the people in charge.