Considering how badly they dropped the ball on the Dwight Howard trade, the Magic actually had about the best year they could have hoped for. They had some young players show promising talent—Tobias Harris and Andrew Nicholson. Played well, at times. And still found a way to finish with the leagues worst record—which we all know is the only way to significantly improve your team (unless your stadium is in LA or Miami). The bad thing for the Magic? By all accounts, this is a star-lacking draft. Even worse? Next year is supposed to be the best draft since 2003 when LeBron, Melo, Bosh and Wade rounded out the top 5.1
Since you can't draft a player that's still in college like the Celtics did with Larry Bird, the Magic might end up being a year off like they were in 2003 (1st pick in 2004).
Unless...
The Magic are lucky enough to fall into the perfect storm. Nerleans Noel is the consensus #1 overall pick despite coming off a late season ACL tear. So lets say the Magic land Noel with a top 3 pick this year. He's not gong to be ready for game 1 next season, and if he's smart, he'll pull a Derrick Rose and take the whole year off (maybe let him play the last 10-20 games if he's 100%)
What better way to start a season of tanking for a draft pick? And hey, Turk and Jameer's contracts come off the books next summer too! It's conceivable that the Magic could grab Noel, get Jabari Parker or Andrew Wiggins and land a decent free agent with that cap room.
That would be the perfect storm....but Orlando has been in a drought lately.
1 And Darko. Good call Dumars!
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