Written by Taylor Odenat
After big man Dwight Howard jumped ship and linked with the Los Angeles Lakers then Houston Rockets, the Magic have never seemed to get over that hump of losing their superstar. Over the past three seasons, the Orlando Magic have remained at a consistent 5th in the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference. Never rising, never falling. In a weak Eastern Conference, the Magic have been unable to see the bright light of the playoffs, and haven’t improvements of getting to that goal.
Understandably, once Howard first left there was going to be a grace period where the Magic were not going to be a superb team. Subsequently, after that 2012-2013 season of steady losing the Magic drafted Victor Oladipo with the second pick in the 2013 NBA draft. Now by no means was he meant to be a savior of the franchise, however, he was meant to give the Magic life and lead to the road back to the playoffs. He’s an active defender can play both guard positions and is uber athletic so the Magic believed they had a star on their hands. Unfortunately, equal to the season prior the Magic finished 5th in the Southeast Division and once again were headed to the lottery.
Now at this point after the 2013-2014 season, the Magic weren’t stacked by any means; but they did have a roster that could compete. Victor Oladipo and Nikola Vučević showed a ton of promise and recently acquired forward Tobias Harris broke out of his shell and displayed himself as a player worth keeping around. Despite all of that, Victor Oladipo couldn’t really handle playing the point as much as the Magic desired, so they went out and drafted Elfrid Payton out of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He couldn’t much, but his playmaking and defense would presumably mesh well with Oladipo at the guard spots. As well as Payton, Orlando drafted Aaron Gordon to play the 4 next to Vučević down low. Gordon in Arizona was Blake Griffin athletic, was long and lengthy, played great defense and showed some signs of a post ability. So now with all this talent on their roster and players with so much potential just waiting to be developed, Orlando will definitely improve right?
That notion would be incorrect as yet another season completed and the Orlando Magic were in the lottery for the third straight season. Fast forward to the 2015 NBA draft, the Magic select Mario Hezonja a European guard who light up the scoreboard and played above the rim. Now Orlando has Elfrid Payton running the offense, Victor Oladipo at the two-guard, Tobias Harris on the wing, Aaron Gordon swatting shots at the four, Nikola Vučević grabbing boards down low, and now Mario Hezonja leading the second unit. Orlando can not afford to keep producing lottery finishing seasons with such talent on their roster. They’re a youthful team but they do have veterans in C.J Watson, Channing Frye, and Jason Smith; so they really have no excuse to improve.
Possibly believing they will slip into the lower end of the Eastern Conference playoffs is misguided, but for the pride of the organization they can’t finish 5th in the Southeast Division for the 4th straight season. Additionally, teams in the Southeast Division have downgraded their rosters with Paul Pierce leaving the Washington Wizards and DeMarre Carroll leaving the Atlanta Hawks. If that doesn’t give the Magic the opportunity to improve then they might continuously be doomed to mediocrity.
They’re definitely not a championship contender, but the Magic are loaded with potential and should be able to slowly creep their way back into the playoff conversation once the pieces come together.
