Orlando Magic: NBA Draft Lottery brings more disappointment

If you’re an Orlando Magic fan, chances are you’re probably feeling a lot like this right now. Yes, why always us? Tied with two organizations for the best odds at nabbing the first overall pick in what looks to be a special NBA Draft class, the Magic instead fell to fifth. Once again just outside of the sure-fire hits that await the likes of the Detroit Pistons, because of course, they did.

We’ve been here before. The previous front office bumbling their way through a rebuild that yielded them plenty of lottery picks, but no first overall selection and more crucially, no superstar. Victor Oladipo with the second pick in 2013 was as high as it got, and he was out of Orlando before it was time to pay him beyond his rookie deal.

Mario Hezonja. Elfrid Payton. Aaron Gordon. All lottery picks who came just after much safer bets, who have gone on to have a significant impact on the teams who drafted them. That’s not what hurts the most, although that is certainly the word to describe watching that fifth pick get assigned to the Magic: It is that this front office did everything they were supposed to do in order to get as high a pick as possible.

The Orlando Magic once again had a disappointing lottery, as they ended up settling for the fifth pick in July’s NBA draft.

They traded away Gordon, Evan Fournier and Nikola Vucevic at the deadline, thus committing to being really bad the rest of the way. Which they were. They even moved on from head coach Steve Clifford as well, parting ways with an individual who is capable of getting the best out of limited groups.

You might argue that they tried to skip the queue in having half a season of being really bad, with hopes of bouncing back right away. Really we should be calling that a smart approach. The Philadelphia 76ers went through a half-decade-long “process” to get to where they are now, and they are about to have as tumultuous of a summer as any organization out there.

This was supposed to be the Magic’s moment. The opportunity to add somebody like Cade Cunningham to an already intriguing group of young players. Instead, it is unclear which direction they are going to go with the pick because they have young players with a lot of upside all over the roster already.

Yet it is not all bad, and we have to remember this. The fifth pick in this draft is still a valuable commodity, and the Magic also have the eighth pick as a result of the trade that sent Vucevic for the Chicago Bulls. It could have been a lot worse, had that picked landed in the top four the Bulls would have kept it.

The front office has done well with the picks that have been at their disposal so far during their tenure as well. They selected Jonathan Isaac with the fifth overall pick before, and although he has had his fair share of injuries, it is still hoped they will build their defensive identity around him one day.

The Orlando Magic also selected Mohamed Bamba fifth overall, and although he hasn’t exactly worked out to this point, there were flashes after Vucevic was traded and he got more game time. It is not quite the same, but they also unearthed Wesley Iwundu in the second round, while Chuma Okeke and Cole Anthony were not high lottery picks either.