J.J. Redick has carved out quite the career for himself. He was drafted 11th overall in 2006 by the Orlando Magic. He came out of Duke, a university known for consistently churning out fresh basketball talent. His NBA days got off to a rocky start with Orlando in his first few seasons, and he struggled living up to the hype that he garnered out of college.
Now, Redick has turned his career around and is labeled as one of the premier snipers from three-point range across the NBA. He has undoubtedly been enjoying his success the previous few seasons playing under Doc Rivers for the Los Angeles Clippers, but he is scheduled to hit free agency come the end of this season. Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel reports that Redick may very well return to where it all started:
Asked if he would consider returning to the Magic, Redick told me, “Come back to Orlando? I definitely wouldn’t rule it out, for sure. Chelsea (J.J’s wife) and I have a lot of great memories here.”
Redick has certainly become quite the different player since his Orlando days. Of course playing alongside a legendary point guard such as Chris Paul and being paired up with the frontcourt talent of Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, makes his job as a long-range marksman relatively easier. Giving up the chemistry that that Clippers core has come to build over the years would certainly be difficult to give up, but at 33, Redick knows he only has one major contract left. Orlando has never been shy of making an offseason splash, as evidenced by the acquisition of Serge Ibaka just this previous summer.
A Redick-Orlando reunion certainly would make sense from a basketball standpoint as well. The Magic are sorely in need of shooting from the wing position. Evan Fournier has done his part as the full-time shooting guard but Aaron Gordon has struggled immensely to produce from the small forward position. A Redick-Fournier wing combination could prove to be deadly with the distributing prowess of Elfrid Payton and the bruising play of Ibaka, Bismack Biyombo and Nikola Vucevic in the lane. Redick would provide Orlando with a tremendous outside punch and could potentially thrust the Magic into the Eastern Conference playoff picture.
