USA SOCCER IS IN ORLANDO
Magic rebuild comes into sharper focus
for its annual meeting, and today’s National Council Meeting will decide which of eight candidates will succeed longtime president Sunil Gulati.
Jeff Weltman has worked as the Orlando Magic’s president of basketball operations for eight full months, and for most of that time his publicly stated plan for improving the Magic has lacked specifics.
He has said he wants “talented players who play for each other” and has said he will use his first season to evaluate every aspect of the team. Those comments are true, but they also are truisms. All NBA team executives want quality players who prioritize a team’s welfare. All team executives evaluate the rosters they inherit.
Actions, not words, show what executives really think of their teams, and the decisions Weltman made leading into the trade deadline brought his overall strategy into clearer focus.
The choice not to pursue a quick fix at the expense of trading away
Aaron Gordon, Jonathan Isaac or draft picks indicates Weltman likely will attempt to rebuild the Magic incrementally, most likely with Gordon, Isaac and the team’s 2018 first-round draft pick as the team’s foundational pieces.
Weltman and his trusted friend and confidant, general manager John Hammond, would not discuss any trade offers they received. But logic suggests the Los Angeles Clippers offered 28-year-old power forward Blake Griffin to teams throughout the league before they settled on sending Griffin and two others to the Detroit Pistons for Avery Bradley, Tobias Harris, Boban Marjanovic, a protected 2018 first-round pick and a 2019 second-round pick.
The Magic almost certainly could have exceeded the Pistons’ offer if the Magic had been willing to trade Gordon or Isaac and draft picks. Griffin would’ve given the Magic an immediate oncourt boost, but he also would’ve added a massive contract to the Magic’s already crowded payroll.
Acquiring him also would’ve drained the Magic of most, if not all, of their best long-term assets, leaving the rest of the Magic’s cupboard starkly bare.
The wisdom of not pursuing Griffin can, and should, be debated. Despite his lengthy injury history, Griffin is a proven star, and neither Gordon nor Isaac have proven themselves as cornerstone-level players.
Indeed, it’s noteworthy that Gordon often stalls Orlando’s offense by taking illadvised shots and that Orlando has won four of the six games it has played recently while Gordon has been injured.
Isaac, on the other hand, has shown potential on defense but his offensive game is raw, and he has missed most of the season with a right ankle injury.
While Weltman is bullish about Gordon and Isaac, he clearly did not consider Elfrid Payton as the Magic’s point guard of the future.
Having seen Payton struggle as an outside shooter and struggle as a defender and knowing the Magic will have to pay Gordon in restricted free agency in July, Weltman determined he would not resign Payton in restricted free agency this summer. Instead of losing Payton for nothing, the Magic traded him to the Phoenix Suns for a 2018 second-round draft pick.
D.J. Augustin has outperformed Payton most of this season, especially in recent weeks, but Augustin is already 30 and isn’t the Magic’s long-term answer at point guard.
Weltman may look to the 2018 NBA Draft, and Oklahoma sharpshooting point guard Trae Young likely would be considered. Or Weltman could attempt to construct a trade using some of the Magic’s veteran players to fill the spot.
But if the Magic use the draft to find their long-term answer at point guard, the team’s pick probably will need extensive time to adjust to the NBA and develop.
That would correspond to a steady but slow rebuild — a timeline that could frustrate fans who are enduring a sixth consecutive losing season.
Weltman took over a difficult situation. He inherited Bismack Biyombo’s bloated contract, which will cost the Magic $17 million per year through the 2019-20 season if Biyombo exercises his player option for 2019-20. Adding major differencemakers through free agency will not be an option in the year ahead.
In other words, Weltman has no clear and easy path to move the Magic forward.
The route he probably will take will require patience.