Oladipo, Payton, Gordon, Hezonja hope to change Magic’s lottery luck
The one truth for the Magic during this rebuild is self-evident: The draft hasn’t saved them and it isn’t coming to the rescue with a superstar anytime soon.
And there’s another truth: The rather glamourless kids that the Magic did pick have a chance to rise and do something unique.
They can buck franchise tradition.
The thing that the Magic could always count on through the years — the lottery — has let them down.
The post-Dwight Magic have been betrayed by those once-friendly ping-pong balls, whose fortuitous bounces erected eras by delivering Shaq and Penny and Dwight — all via No. 1 picks. They were the cornerstones upon which 11 of 14 playoff appearances were built.
Frankly, the Magic probably used up their ridiculous supply of draft luck.
Karma simply moved on to bless Milwaukee with Jabari Parker, Minnesota with Karl-Anthony Towns and Cleveland with Andrew Wiggins (later
traded to the T-Wolves for Kevin Love).
Heaven knows the Magic tried, losing with the best of intentions.
The swings and misses left them with some pretty good players, just not the sort of elite building blocks that leap out of their yearbooks.
They can’t take that shortcut, their well-worn path to paradise. The Magic are taking the long way home to respectability, which is a relatively new journey for them and their fans.
They are all venturing into the great unknown.
The only guarantees are found in the players’ contracts.
“Shaq in his prime is not showing up for us anytime soon…,” said coach Scott Skiles, who played with The Big Diesel in Orlando’s first instant era.
No superstar is expected to magically materialize like in a scene from an old sci-fi movie. And therein lies the rub.
The tiny window to land those coveted lottery picks the last two years has opened and closed on the Magic, slamming down on their fingers.
The Magic have just enough talent and coaching now to, theoretically… avoid being just lousy enough to position themselves for the next wave of top college/ foreign stars.
They could find themselves in the least favorable spot for an NBA franchise — the middle.
Nothing worse than being in that gray area, where 30-40 wins might get you in the playoffs but also gets you scraps in the draft.
This also is where the Magic’s four lottery choices since Dwight’s exit have a shot to pull off something special.
It’s up to Victor Oladipo (No. 2 in 2013), Aaron Gordon (No. 4 in 2014), Elfrid Payton (No. 10 in 2014) and Mario Hezonja (No. 5 in 2015) to help make a difference.
Oladipo is the old man of the group at 23, followed by Payton at 21. Gordon and Hezonja are 20.
The kids need to show that the Magic didn’t lose all these games for nothing. They have the opportunity to make GM Rob Hennigan look good as a talent scout. But mostly, they can prove to restless fans that Orlando has a future – and a foundation finally built without the potluck drawing of a franchise player.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you’re the No. 1 pick, 2, 3, 25 or 30. It’s all about winning games,” Oladipo said. “We’re tired of losing. We can’t use the excuse we’re young anymore.
“We realize we’ve got to come in here and win games. If we don’t, they’ll find somebody else to come in and do it.”
Gordon might be joining Oladipo and Payton in the starting lineup at some point. Returning to fullcontact practice on Monday for the first time since sustaining a broken jaw this summer, Gordon could be the defensive linchpin the Magic so desperately desire.
“As a group, we just want to prove we can win in this league and that hasn’t been proven here lately,” Gordon said.
The kids get it. With no No. 1 pick among them, they’ll need to make their own luck to change franchise history.