Southeast Notes: Magic, Hawks, Heat

Magic GM Rob Hennigan told reporters, including John Denton of NBA.com, that some of the motivation behind the Magic’s buyout of Glen Davis was an attempt to open up more playing time for developing young players. Here’s more from the Southeast Division:

• Per Denton, Hennigan also said that the Magic is considering signing one or two players to 10-day contracts now that they have just 12 players on the roster, one shy of the league minimum. The team already has agreements in place with Adonis Thomas and Dewayne Dedmon, so presumably he’s referring to those guys. Hennigan can’t mention them by name until the signings are official.
• Hennigan also said that the decision to waive Davis was not based worries that Davis wouldn’t respond well to giving Magic youngsters more playing time, as Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel notes. “I don’t think it was a concern,” Hennigan said. “I think it was more about when we’re moving in a different direction and we have a player who probably doesn’t fit the long-term plan. We want to make sure we do right by all of our players.”
• The Magic players were told that the rest of the season would be focused on youth, and that roles will change, according to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders (via Twitter).
• Matt Moore of CBS Sports finds the trade deadline inactivity of the Hawks puzzling, and wonders if GM Danny Ferry is comfortable coasting for the rest of the season. The Hawks have fallen to the eight seed and could drop into the lottery, but without shipping out any of their talent it’s unlikely that they will lose enough to wind up with a high draft pick. And without adding any talent, the team is probably doomed to a swift first-round exit should they make the playoffs.
• James Ennis, the Heat‘s second-round pick from the 2013 draft, will play professional ball in Puerto Rico this spring now that his season in Australia is over, according to Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel. Winderman thinks the odds are long that Ennis gets any chance with the Heat before next offseason.
• In the same article, Winderman says that the Heat‘s deadline inactivity was less illuminating for Miami than the moves that other teams in the East did or didn’t pull off, including the Pacers, Bulls, Raptors, Wizards, Knicks, and Pistons.