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This is what happens when a rebuilding process is forced on you, and you fail to recognize as much. The Orlando Magic walked away from the Dwight Howard trade as the clear winners, but that’s not saying a whole heck of a lot. Worse, because the Magic’s previous front office convinced itself (and, for a time, Dwight Howard) that the center would be staying past the end of his contract, the team missed out on early chances to blow it all up in more progressive ways. It’s true that the squad would have probably been saddled with Andrew Bynum just as the NBA washout began dogging it, but that only would have made this attempt at reshaping go much faster. As a result the Magic played a very bad year in 2012-13 with no rookie lottery pick to give minutes to. They played a very bad season in 2013-14 while handing minutes to a very raw rookie pick taken near the top of the weakest draft in decades. They’ll play a very bad year this season with a mish-mosh of a roster, this time handing minutes to two lottery-bred rookies that may have been a reach at their selection point. They’ll also, sooner rather than later, have to give up some of their earned salary cap flexibility in order to extend the deals of two players – Nikola Vucevic and Tobias Harris – that it smartly acquired prior to and then during its first post-Dwight season. There are no fast tracks, here, and we’re still waiting for a star to emerge. This was the hand and very bad timing forced on new’ish Magic general manager Rob Hennigan in the wake of the end of the fitful Otis Smith regime. He can stress patience and a slow culture-creating all he wants, but the raw truth is that the Magic are likely ready to hit the lottery once again after 2014-15, turning in three terrible seasons and no guarantee that a future All-Star will emerge from its cadre of draft selections and acquisitions. Of course, this pessimism is hitting its stride before rookies Aaron Gordon and Elfrid Payton even have a chance to suit up, with second-year guard Victor Oladipo potentially about to love life while placed alongside a floor-spacer in Channing Frye. Young big men Kyle O’Quinn and Andrew Nicholson may not be stars (and Nicholson, in particular, struggled last season), but they could use 2014-15 to confirm their clear rotation-level talent. Oladipo and Frye will be starting the campaign on the pine with an MCL sprain, scary injuries that could have turned out far worse, but injuries that can still linger throughout a season and hinder a player’s training camp attempts to get into game shape. Payton and veteran pickup Luke Ridnour will have to take on a significant early-season burden. The Magic hired a young coach, they haven’t splurged on any high end free agents, and they’ve embraced the long rebuild that they were forced into. Even amongst all the losses, though, the team has to show some signs in 2014-15. It has to.
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