The Magic would like to turn the season around and make the playoffs and GM Rob Hennigan said the team would look to be aggressive in its attempts to improve. Hennigan said the front office was disappointed by the team’s play on the defensive end and added that he wouldn’t rule out trading anyone on the roster.
So that leads us to tonight’s topic: How would you fix the Magic if you were sitting in Rob Hennigan’s chair? What moves would you make to improve the team?
Orlando’s defense ranks in the middle of the pack, giving up 105 points per game. That’s an area which could use some help, but it’s the offense that’s in dire need of reinforcements. The Magic are scoring just 99.9 points per game, which is the sixth-worst mark in the league. They have the third-worst shooting percentage from behind the arc and they have the sixth-worst shooting percentage overall. Evan Fournier being sidelined certainly hurts the team, but the problem goes beyond missing the shooting guard’s play-making ability.
The team fell to the Bulls tonight to bring its record to 18-29 on the season. Orlando is 5.5 games behind Chicago for the eighth seed in the conference. However, the team is also just 7.5 games ahead of the Nets for the worst record in the East. The Magic could rally and make a run at the eighth seed, but they could easily fall in the standings and end up with another high-end lottery pick.
Be the GM in tonight’s shootaround. Let us know what moves you would make to get the team into the playoffs in the comment section below. We look forward to what you have to say!
Trade a one of the many big men for a wing player to give depth at that position. Payton seems to have shown up finally, and they have Bismack and Ibaka in the front court. But after Gordon, with Evan injured, they have practically nobody there. They can give up Nikola for someone at the wing.
Moving Gordon back to power forward imo should be a priority. Gordon is not a small forward no matter what anyone says, he should be playing a Jabari Parker/Julius Randle kind of role in an offense. My first move for Hennigan would be to continue to look to trade Vucevic for Dragic, or do a three team trade with Phoenix to obtain Knight and Tucker. I’d also look to trade him to the Celtics if they were willing to part with picks however, Knight and Tucker would bolster this rotation with shooting leaving more space for Gordon and Payton to operate. I would also use Ibaka more at the five and Gordon at the four. Keeping Ibaka close to the rim is beneficial towards his skill set and Gordon can easily guard stretch fours or low post guys. I’d ship out Jeff Green for anything I can get. I’d look at guys like Will Barton or Gary Harris from the Nuggets and probably would have to part with Herzonja and second rounders. I would even look to add guys like Rondae Hollis Jefferson or James Johnson to add a more defensive presence.
Knight could be a nice target for the Magic.
I would strip down the entire team
Well first of all, neither Elfrid Payton or DJ Augustin are starting point guards for a playoff team in the NBA. Go out and acquire a solid starting point guard. Dragic, Bledsoe, Jrue Holiday, and Ricky Rubio are all possible options. Also, the small forward position is nonexistent in Orlando. Nick Young or a middle-class playmaker of his type would fit for nothing too expensive. Maybe even ship Serge to Chicago for Mirotic, McDermott and a pick would boost the offense.
Maybe I’m too bias for this, but I’d love to see an ibaka for Mirotic
And McDerrmott. Not sure why that got cut out
you gotta think the only way to get really good would be to blow it up. trade ibaka and just treat that as a sunk cost, there would be no reason to re-sign him unless you want to resign yourself to mediocrity. try to lose as many games as you can this year & pick up one of the good PG prospects in the draft. that’s all you got to hope for, see if you can trade Payton or Vucevic. you HAVE to play Gordon at the 4 and build around him. hopefully he and your lotto-PG can turn into Baby CP3 & Blake. (Pick)-Fournier-Gordon-Biyombo/Vucevic isn’t that bad of a starting place.
Build around Gordon???? You gotta be kidding. You’ve been suckered by all that talk of “potential” and “athleticism”.
The quick fix for Orlando in many people’s eyes is to make a trade. The issue is, it’s hard for the Magic (17-28) to bargain in a trade when other teams know they’re desperate. So instead, Orlando right now will need to harness what they currently have, and work towards a more respectable record come the trade deadline. It is inevitable, come time of the trade deadline that the Magic will need to move one of their big men. Vucevic, Biyombo, or Ibaka have to go. Vucevic has a very good contract, and could garner Orlando a decent piece in a trade. Ibaka is probably the best among that group, and can net the Magic the most, however he is in a contract year and an opposing team’s fear of being able to re-sign him could hurt. Biyombo is on a big 17 mil a year contract, however there are a handful of struggling teams in search for a rim protector.
Regardless of who Orlando trades, they need to in return receive a reliable scoring wing who can play alongside Aaron Gordon. In this case, Aaron Gordon should be moved to his more fitting position at Power Forward. The other piece Orlando should search for in a trade, is an offensively talented guard who can play the 1 and the 2 alongside Elfrid Payton. It’s hard to say which wings, and guards to go after since we don’t know which players are available on the market currently, or who will become available. The biggest way the Magic can win in a deal is netting a guy like CJ Mccolum from the Blazers, where the Magic would give the Blazers Serge Ibaka, a much needed upgrade rim protector. The Blazers also went after Biyombo in the summer, there could be interest there. Magic would obviously have to include more in this deal than just Ibaka, but Portland is a struggling team currently that may start to feel like Mccolum is expendable due to also having Damian Lillard, rim protection needs to be addressed. The Celtics are another team looking to add a big, perhaps they can be entertained in an Ibaka-Crowder exchange.
A smaller scale deal, could be one that involves Brandon Knight who is being undervalued in Phoenix playing behind guards Bledsoe and Booker. The question is who does Phoenix seek from Orlando. Another smaller scale deal could involve Wilson Chandler or Gallinari, who can boost Orlando’s needs at the wing. Denver has picked it up of late though, currently sitting in the 8th spot in the West. They might not be exactly looking to trade.
A minutes increase for Mario Hezonja also seems overdue, the team should trade in favor of finding Mario a bigger role and more playing time.
No way Ibaka for McCollum or Crowder gets done. One year of Ibaka was worth one year of Oladipo, and a first rounder. At this point, you’re looking at a fringe rotation player with some upside and a decent first rounder, unless he agrees to an extension, which I don’t see happening.
Who are they building this team around? If it’s Payton and Gordon then they need to get Payton a mentor and Gordon more minutes. Biyombo isn’t going anywhere as long as the current GM is there…
For a quick fix for a playoff push if like to see them….
Trade Ibaka for Rondo or Rubio
Green for Deng and a pick
As much as everyone likes Vucevic they need a solid SF (ironically Tobias Harris is what they need). Need to trade Vuc for a young SF or a top 10 pick 2018 pick.
Off-season moves have failed. Ibaka needs to be moved. We need to cut our losses while also improving our draft pick. Trade him to Milwaukee for Brogdon, Thon Maker, Teletovic (for salary reasons) and possibly a 1st.
It seems like Vucevic’s trade value is low. I’d take an offer of draft pick/ good young player.
Our goal needs to be to restock young talent. Outside of Gordon, Fournier & Payton (questionabale) we have no one to count on.
Brogdon looks like a very solid all-around guard. Maker has a similar skill set to Ibaka. High risk/ high reward prospect. If we do that then our team will have some solid young players to build around.
Still tho, obviously a star wing and/ or pg would be needed. We’ll have a couple more high picks to work with the next 2 years plus if possibly philly’s protected future first and the lakers protected 1st. And I’m pretty confident we’ll get one if not both of those..
This, in my mind, is our only option. Trade away the old for young players and get high picks to hopefully find a stud in the draft.. however Hennigan needs to do that.
Do you think the bucks are stupid
I think the bucks are getting Middleton back this year and would love to dump teletovics garbage contract for proven 3/D big with experience.
I don’t think think the Bucks will trade Brogdon or Maker, they seem like they’re apart of their future. Especially for potentially a one year rental in Ibaka.
Just stack pile a bunch of draft picks threw trades and build threw the draft.
Right now unless we can trade for a star then we should be looking to add pieces either young talent or picks as unless we have a star we are still rebuilding theirs no point in getting good to get the 8th seed we need to get good enough to compete with the guys at the top.
Theirs a load of sf and pg’s in the draft that could help us in the long run and fill are biggest weaknesses, Issac and Tatum could be great alongside Gordon for us we could do with a pg as Payton has been up and down but as sf is are biggest weakness I’d fill that spot.
Gordon should be a Pf he’s is perfect for this small ball league and Ibaka would be great at C but we haven’t even tried it yet. People put Gordon down but his defence has limited some of the best players this season like harden and the Greek freak all saw dips against Gordon, His offence is better then anyone expects and if you watch he scores of the rotation against Pf and shoots better their too.
So to sum it up we should be looking for a star I’m not sure theirs one on are roster yet theirs too much pressure to get back into the playoffs we should be building to win no matter how long it takes look at how long the Cavs took from the moment they drafted Lebron till when they won success isn’t always done in a few seasons we need to be patient.
The season has turned into saving Hennigan’s job. He’ll try to make the playoffs at any cost. Probably costing the magic their future
Really what they need to do is trade For and then stockpile picks. This team isn’t going anywhere no matter what. If miraculously they make it they’ll get swept by the Cavs. But think about it , their GM traded the 12th PICK and OLADIPO for Ibaka. Their not going to trade him they’ll end up signing him to a max so I imagine they end up trading something like VUCEVIC and DJ Augustine and a 2 round pick for RUBIO and SHABAZZ MUHAMMAD. They need a defensive PG and a small forward
I’m really worried we’ll go after Rondo…
And why aren’t we talking about Rubio? Not saying I love it, but he is being shopped around
Rubio for Ibaka straight up.
I’m a lifetime Magic fan… that being said… after offseason trades and signings I was really positive and even trading away ‘Dipo, Ersan (look how’s he doing in Philly) and 1st rounder (not saying young Sabonis ‘coz Orlando wouldn’t have picked him) and Tobias before didn’t bother me much… considering growing pains of a squad with like 10 new players and a new very demanding new coach I still say STRIP IT DOWN!!! Keep Elfrid and Aaron becouse od the high celling if possible, but everyone else is expendable, Vooch is a starting C only with likes od Draymond Green next to him and we’re not getting DryG anytime soon if ever, Serge is still great player, but not on rebuilding team and he won’t resign with us anyway, Biz plays D against anyone PG through C, Jodie, Evan, DJ, Mario, hell even Jeff… they all have some value to better teams, but not to Orlando, not at this point at least…
The real question is this – which team values them?
Serge – Toronto, Boston, Portland, New Orleans, basically every team locked to the playoffs or struggling to get there in need od help up front…
Vooch – again Boston, New Orleans, Chicago and any number od teams in need od some offensive production from center position…
Biz – again Portland, Boston, New Orleans, to pair up with Davis or Horford would be great for them and their teams…
Teams like New York, Sacramento and more need any help they can get, so DEAL AWAY ROB HENNIGAN… we need to net 2-3 future 1st rounders and whoever else we can get (young prospects, veteran mentors, cap fillers, fringe rotation players), becouse we won’t be done wheeling and dealling after this trade deadline anyway – Orlando constructed the way they are just won’t go anywhere…
1.Fire Rob Hennigan and hire a experienced GM .
2.Try to make a deal for CJ McCollum and Reggie Jackson for anybody not name Gordon , Biyombo or Ibaka.
If Ibaka won’t commit to signing long-term here, I would trade him for a SF. Jae Crowder and Terrance Ross are two SFs on cheap contracts that I would like to see us get if they are available. This move would allow AG to move back to the 4-spot where he has played his best basketball.
I’m not saying this would revive our playoff hopes, but it gives us a solid starter at the 3 for the next couple seasons and leaves cap space to sign a big name free agent in the offseason. It also makes sure we do didn’t trade for Ibaka and end up with nothing.