Can The Orlando Magic Break Out Of The Dreaded NBA Middle?
The National Basketball Association is, more than perhaps any other major North American sports league, a place of extremes. As a franchise, the ideal seems to be to occupy one of two positions around the league. One is at the apex, one of the franchises that boasts a dominant superstar (or two, or three) and contends every year for the NBA championship- such as the Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks, and Los Angeles Clippers.
The other end of the extreme is seen as the means by which teams get to that high level in the first place- by entering harsh rebuilds, or (less charitably) “tanking.” This has been personified in recent years by the Philadelphia 76ers’ infamous “process” under General Manager Sam Hinkie, where the team was stripped bare of any productive veterans and deliberately assembled with the purpose of losing as many games as possible. This is now viewed as the blueprint for how a team can acquire- through the draft- the superstars needed to propel it into that upper echelon of championship contention.
There is, of course, a third category of teams in the league, one that is universally diagnosed by analysts as the worst place to be- the middle of the pack. These teams have no superstar- they may make the playoffs, but have virtually no chance to even win one round, let alone make it to the NBA finals or win a championship. On the other hand, they are not poor enough as fringe playoff teams to have the high draft picks that are the easiest means by which to acquire the superstar of the future. So fans have, essentially, nothing to look forward to in the present or future besides, at best, an ignominious first round exit in the playoffs.
The Orlando Magic have personified this mushy middle of the league for the past couple of seasons now. For the last two seasons, they finished seventh and eight in the Eastern Conference, making the playoffs but losing in the first round both times. These were their first playoff berths since the departure via trade of their last homegrown superstar, Dwight Howard, who had led the team to the NBA finals in 2009. Since that time, the team lost consistently, but never had the worst record in the league (or luck in the NBA’s draft lottery), and as a result only picked in the top three of the draft once (in 2013, when they drafted Victor Oladipo).
General manager John Hammond found himself in an unenviable situation. The team’s fans were sick of the constant losing, but had no stars in the draft to show for it (Oladipo did eventually develop into a star, but only after having been traded twice). At best they had a collection of players who would, at best, be secondary players on championship caliber teams, such as forward Aaron Gordon and center Nikola Vucevic.
The team improved from near bottom-feeder to middle of the pack partly due to the system brought in by new head coach Steve Clifford, brought in to star the 2018–19 system. But no coach could bring the Magic any further than what they have achieved the past two seasons- in fact their previous coach, Frank Vogel, would go on to win the NBA championship in 2019–20 with the Lakers- the issue in Orlando was clearly in the talent on the court, not the bench. But, for Hammond, a Philadelphia-style tank was out of the question, so what could be done to break his team out of the dreaded middle in which it has found itself?
Hammond has done his best to try and find a difference-making player or players for his team by more unconventional means than winning the draft lottery and drafting a can’t miss superstar first overall. He did acquire a first overall pick however- trading with Philadelphia to acquire Markelle Fultz, the top selection in the 2017 NBA Draft. Fultz had come into the league with tremendous fanfare after one year at the University of Washington, frequently compared to Houston Rockets superstar James Harden. However, upon entering the league, Fultz’s shot completely deserted him, with his catastrophic “yips” becoming a viral internet meme.
With Fultz seemingly well on his way to becoming one of the greatest NBA draft busts of all time, Hammond decided to take a chance on trading for him. So far, that gamble has paid off well enough- last season, Fultz was one of only seven NBA players to average 12 points and five assists per game. In the Magic’s first two games of the new season, he may have emerged as the best player on the team, albeit not at the level expected of a typical first overall pick.
Hammond does have experience in managing an NBA franchise that improbably broke itself out of the middle of the league- the Milwaukee Bucks. He was their GM when, in 2013, they took a flier on a mostly unheralded Greek teenager at fifteenth overall- Giannis Antetokounmpo. Giannis has, of course, since blossomed into a two-time MVP and one of the best players in the entire league.
If the Magic are to return to the status of contending for a championship, they will need to improbably pull a superstar from out of nowhere, as Hammond’s Bucks did seven years ago. That drive was likely the motivating factor behind the Fultz trade, and almost certainly informed some of the team’s approach to the 2020 draft.
With yet another fifteenth overall pick, the Magic selected Cole Anthony, who was originally considered a top three talent in the draft before falling due to an injury plagued, COVID shortened season at the University of North Carolina. Is Anthony the next Giannis-type draft discovery? Almost certainly not. However, the Magic will need to pull that kind of rabbit out of their hat in order to become a legitimate contending team, and taking shots wherever they can to find the next overlooked future NBA great is the only way that they will do so in the foreseeable future.
