The Orlando Magic may be on the verge of taking the next step in their franchise’s rebuild. The team has hired Frank Vogel as the next head coach to lead them along the way and former Pacers lead man has set expectations high with a guarantee of making the playoffs in his first season on the job.
In order to do that, however, the Magic may need to add a little more talent and it appears like they are willing to do so. In fact, Magic CEO Alex Martins said just as much to Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel:
“Because that’s what we need at this point in time to take the next step,” Magic CEO Alex Martins said. “Secondly, this has been a plan, this has been a process. The first part of the plan and the process is to develop your own [players] and grow your own [players]. And when you inject veterans at the wrong period of time, it has an impact in the way that you’re trying to develop your corps of young players. It can’t just happen immediately. It’s got to happen at a certain point in time — after your players have matured and developed.
“And we always believed that this summer and next summer were going to be the two summers of free agency for us that we needed to focus on after developing our young guys.”
The Magic have a nice core of young players. Victor Oladipo has already cemented his spot as one of the top young guards in the league. Aaron Gordon is ever-improving, and Elfrid Payton has some discernible, useful skills.
But the Magic management is right. If the team is to make the playoffs as they seem intent on doing, they will need veterans and better-fitting pieces. Orlando can look for trades do so, but more likely is that the Magic will look to free agency to add the pieces they need to vault themselves into competing for the postseason.
The Orlando Magic may not attract free agents on the regular, but the team now has plenty of young talent and a great coach to make it all work. It would not surprise me if they could add an impact free agent or two to the mix this summer.
