When you come into the NBA as the youngest GM, immediately there is a lot of pressure from the media and those paying close attention to the situation. In the case of 33 year old Orlando Magic GM Rob Hennigan, he’s been granted time to build his team, his way despite the number of big deals he’s made. The same big deals that saw a lot of talent get shipped out of Orlando. Outside of a mistake in coaching, that he rectified this season, it appears that the Magic are interested in keeping Hennigan around.
Following from Orlando Sentinel’s Josh Robbins.
The Orlando Magic soon will seek to extend general manager Rob Hennigan’s contract beyond the 2015-16 season, an industry source with knowledge of the team’s plans told the Orlando Sentinel.
The DeVos family and CEO Alex Martins are pleased with the job Hennigan has done since Hennigan was hired in June 2012.
Martins, who would not comment for this article, likes to maintain continuity in key leadership positions. Martins also believes it’s dangerous to have a key executive work in the final season of a contract because uncertainty about job status can prompt an executive to make risky decisions for short-term gains.
It’s really tough to analyze what Hennigan has done to this point. His rebuild with the team is finally starting to click as players like Victor Oladipo, Nikola Vucevic and Elfrid Payton seem to be the 3 guys to dictate the future of Orlando. It’s good to keep him Hennigan, especially being so young, he’s learned a lot during his time in Orlando.
His first big move was trading Dwight Howard out of Orlando. Talk about breaking ground. He’s turned the roster around by sending guys like Ryan Anderson, J.J. Redick, Jason Richardson and Arron Afflalo out of Denver to bring in younger and brighter prospects.
The future in Orlando might be brighter than the Florida sun. Hennigan will be at the helm to pick whichever coach he likes and decide the big future of Tobias Harris this summer. Outside of that, the Magic have players that will be major pieces in the second step of this revitalization in Florida. Payton, Oladipo, Vucevic along with guys like Aaron Gordon, Moe Harkless, Dewayne Dedmon, Klye O’Quinn, Evan Fournier and Devyn Marble will be great to watch develop and possibly succeed, as long as all goes right.
