Playoffs still within reach
Magic still fighting for position with trade deadline upon them
Will the Orlando Magic make a move before Thursday’s NBA trade deadline? If so, will they be buyers or sellers?
Regardless of what the front office chooses to do — or not do — by the trade deadline, the Magic remain on the periphery of the playoffs. While Tuesday night’s 132-122 loss to the Thunder somewhat slowed their pursuit, the Magic continue to focus on catching the teams in front of them in the Eastern Conference standings.
Magic coach Steve Clifford wants to keep the postseason fresh in his players’ minds, and he gave them a goal earlier this week: “Let’s be in the hunt at the all-star break.”
The Magic should be unless they fall apart in the run-up to the all-star break.
The Magic entered Wednesday night’s play four games behind the eighth-place Miami Heat. The Magic are 2.5 games behind the ninth-place Detroit Pistons and just half a game behind the
10th-place Washington Wizards. Even the seventh-place Charlotte Hornets are within range, leading the Magic by 4.5 games.
The Heat began a precarious five-game Western road trip that will take them into the all-star break with a 118-108 win Tuesday night in Portland.
The Magic’s five remaining games before the break include road contests at Milwaukee, Atlanta and New Orleans, and home games with Minnesota and Charlotte. But only Milwaukee has a winning record among the five opponents.
Magic center Nikola Vucevic recognizes the sense of urgency.
“We have to make sure we take care of business and try to get some wins and go into the break feeling better,” he said before Tuesday’s game.
Vucevic, the Magic’s longest tenured player at seven seasons, said missing the playoffs would be the biggest disappointment of the season. In defeating such teams as the Raptors, Celtics, Spurs, Rockets and Pacers, the Magic have shown they can compete with — and beat — the best in the league.
“We know we have what it takes to get there. We’ve played at a level that’s allowed us to believe that we deserve to be in the playoffs and we just haven’t been consistent with it,” Vucevic said. “Even with all that, we’re still right there fighting for something.”
Vucevic continues to insist the Magic are more than capable of stringing together victories, and his teammates agree.
“He’s not wrong. This team definitely has a run, but we’ve got to do it pretty soon. We’ve got to start putting it together,” power forward Aaron Gordon said. “The teams that make the playoffs deserve to make the playoffs. We’ve got to start playing in a way that is consistent every single night because that’s what playoff teams do. They play consistent. Once we get there [with consistency], we’ll make our run and we’ll be right there in contention.”
As far as the trade deadline, which is Thursday at 3 p.m. Eastern time, the Magic haven’t indicated which way they will go, if they go at all.
The stress fracture injury to rookie Mohamed Bamba subtracts a depth piece from the rotation at the center position and makes it unlikely the team will trade Vucevic, if they had considered it at all.
Vucevic is playing in the final year of his contract and is set to hit free agency after the season. Vucevic leads the Magic in scoring, rebounding, field-goal percentage and double-doubles and this season became the team’s first NBA All-Star Game pick since Dwight Howard in 2012.
Swingman Terrence Ross also is playing on an expiring contract. He leads the Magic in 3-pointers made and 3-point percentage, and continues to play at a high level in the coveted sixth-man role. Some NBA insiders have suggested the Magic likely would receive a secondround pick if they choose to deal Ross.
The trade market as a whole likely has been slowed in part by the number of teams still in contention for playoff spots. As of Wednesday, teams occupying the sixth through 11th spots in the Eastern Conference were separated by just 5.5 games.
The Western Conference is even tighter. The teams from No. 5 to No. 12 are separated by 6.5 games as of Wednesday.
Those logjams can create less clarity for teams, like the Magic, who are either fighting to hold on to a playoff spot or are on the bubble. The choice here is whether to move players for the future or bring in players for the short term to make a run.
The Philadelphia 76ers, meanwhile, ramped up their win-now mode when they completed a multiplayer trade early Wednesday with the Los Angeles Clippers to acquire power forward Tobias Harris.
Harris, who played for the Magic from the 2011-12 season to the 2015-16 season, is having an all-starcaliber year, averaging 20.9 points per game and shooting nearly 50 percent from the field.
Trailing the 76ers by 12 games, it’s highly unlikely the Magic would catch them in the standings. So Philadelphia’s second bold move of the season — trading for Jimmy Butler being the first — doesn’t directly affect the Magic.
At this point, their sights are set more on the teams closer to them in the standings. The Heat acquired former Magic forward Ryan Anderson from the Phoenix Suns in exchange for guards Tyler Johnson and Wayne Ellington in a trade Wednesday.
In addition, the Pistons traded backup shooting guard Reggie Bullock to the Lakers for small forward Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk and a second-round pick. Multiple reports indicate the Hornets are trying to acquire center Marc Gasol from the Grizzlies.
The teams in front of the Magic are moving their chess pieces around.
Will the Magic be next?