Magic coach Frank Vogel thought he walked into a much better situation than he’s encountered, as John Denton of the team’s website relays. Orlando is 13 games under .500, much to the chagrin of its first-year coach. “I anticipated being as far over .500 as we are under .500 right now,” Vogel told Denton and other reporters. The additions of veterans like Serge Ibaka and Bismack Biyombo have not made the desired impact and Vogel admits the pieces haven’t fit as well as expected, Denton adds. “I thought it had the potential to be a lot better than we’ve shown this year. But in basketball, the names, the faces and the contracts that are put together don’t always equate to a great mix and the pieces fitting,” Vogel said. “What you do is do the best job you can assembling it and hope the pieces fit. Sometimes, it really fits and the rhythm is there and sometimes it’s not there.”
In other developments involving the team:
- Trade rumors involving Nikola Vucevic and Ibaka show how poorly the team’s roster rebuild has gone, David Whitley of the Orlando Sentinel opines. The club cannot stand pat before the trade deadline but another major reboot is in store for the franchise, Whitley continues. Missing out on star talents like Andrew Wiggins and Kristaps Porzingis, while drafting Aaron Gordon, Elfrid Payton and Mario Hezonja in the lottery, has put the Magic in this predicament, Whitley adds.
- Gordon has the potential to be a future Defensive Player of the Year, Denton writes in a separate piece. Gordon has the ability to guard any position because of his 6’9” length, his strength, his superior athleticism and his lateral quickness, Denton continues. Gordon realizes Orlando has to become a winner before he gains more notoriety around the league for his defensive ability, Denton adds. “To be D-POY, you’ve got to get more wins,” Gordon told Denton. “I don’t care how good of a defender you are, if your team isn’t getting wins, you aren’t going to get D-POY.”
Someone shut down PG last night, and I am thinking it was Gordon.
How has “missing out” on Wiggins and Porzingis hurt the Magic? They never had the opportunity to draft either of them. Come on, Whitley! I’ll give you they could’ve done way better than Payton and Gordon, but you can’t blame them for not selecting players that didn’t fall in their range, and you can’t blame them for the way the lottery turns out, unless the argument is that they should’ve Hinkie’d it and tanked every year, hoping to snag the first pick.
Right one thing ik is they missed devin booker
Everyone missed Booker. Everyone had him labeled as the guaranteed lottery bust.
They had Oladipo so Booker didn’t really have an obvious spot.
Wait. How could they have done “way better” than Gordon and Payton? The next 8 guys after Gordon were:
Exum
Smart
Randle
Stauskas
Vonleh
You could make an argument for Lavine and Rodney Hood but your argument would apply to a lot of teams that passed up on them.
There is some argument about trading Payton for Saric although there isn’t a clear cut winner in that deal just yet.
Trade Tobias Harris to open up cap space and sign Byombo and Jeff Green after trading Oladipo and Sabonis for 1 year of Ibaka, while still having a defensive liability big like Vucevic signed for 12+ million on the roster, as well as a young 4 that has shooting questions that will have to play out of position, and a non shooting PG? Say those things again to yourself, and try to say it makes sense…I don’t know what drugs Henningan has been taking since last year, but they must be crazy. The Hezonja pick isn’t helping either. He hasn’t been anything close to what he was supposed to be.
Most accurate assessment I’ve read all day. They had zero potential to be good this year.
Dario Saric and a first round pick for Elfrid Payton?
Never. The Sixers didn’t want Payton to begin eith and his value has continuously dropped. That’s why they traded back for Saric and let Orlando draft him. Payton is worse than projected 3 years ago and has less team control than Saric. Plus McConnell is arguably just as good as Payton at this point in his career and Simmons is going to play the 1. Makes zero sense
Statistically Vucevic is far from being a defensive liability this season. Our defense has been better with Nik on the court vs Biyombo.
While Bismack is the better shot blocker, defensively they’re close to being the same. Bismack isn’t playing defense well enough to offset his non existent offensive game which often times puts the team at a 4 to 5 disadvantage.
Ibaka needs to be traded.
Hennigan can redeem himself if he can get that BOS/BKN that every team is after. Ibaka is exactly what the Celtics need to take them over the top. Although he’s a FA, Celtics should be able to re-sign him.
Are you suggesting the Celtics would trade a BKN pick for expiring Ibaka? That’s insanity. Orlando is one of the only teams dumb enough to over trade for a declining Ibaka that looks nothing like he did in the beginning of his career in OKC