NBA Future Power Rankings: Magic #21

[Skin]

Magic are ranked #21 in ESPN's poll today while the Timerwolves are #5 and Sixers are #6 ahead of the Cavs at #7. Successful tanking and drafting have turned around the promise of 2 franchises who have been on the same rebuilding timeline as the Magic. To the Magic's credit, #21 is actually higher than I thought we'd get as a starless team. But this was an interesting read for a dead offseason period that we are in at the moment. Take a read of your own to see the rest:

http://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/20760622/nba-future-power-rankings-kevin-pelton-bobby-marks-project-best-teams-next-three-seasons

On the Orlando Magic...

Hoping to snap a four-year lottery streak last season, the Magic instead declined by six wins, costing GM Rob Hennigan his job. Orlando replaced Hennigan with the duo of president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman and GM John Hammond, whose task is to find a centerpiece for the next great Magic team.

Unfortunately, a series of lottery picks has yet to yield star talent, though Aaron Gordon and Elfrid Payton both showed promise in the second half of last season. Worse yet, new contracts for Gordon and Payton -- both restricted free agents next summer if they don't agree to extensions before the start of the regular season -- will likely take Orlando over the cap for the foreseeable future. So even if the Magic do return to the playoffs at some point in the next three years, the ceiling for this group appears limited.

-- Kevin Pelton

[Nemesis21]

Magic are ranked #21 in ESPN's poll today while the Timerwolves are #5 and Sixers are #6 ahead of the Cavs at #7. Successful tanking and drafting have turned around the promise of 2 franchises who have been on the same rebuilding timeline as the Magic. To the Magic's credit, #21 is actually higher than I thought we'd get as a starless team. But this was an interesting read for a dead offseason period that we are in at the moment. Take a read of your own to see the rest:

http://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/20760622/nba-future-power-rankings-kevin-pelton-bobby-marks-project-best-teams-next-three-seasons

On the Orlando Magic...

Hoping to snap a four-year lottery streak last season, the Magic instead declined by six wins, costing GM Rob Hennigan his job. Orlando replaced Hennigan with the duo of president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman and GM John Hammond, whose task is to find a centerpiece for the next great Magic team.

Unfortunately, a series of lottery picks has yet to yield star talent, though Aaron Gordon and Elfrid Payton both showed promise in the second half of last season. Worse yet, new contracts for Gordon and Payton -- both restricted free agents next summer if they don't agree to extensions before the start of the regular season -- will likely take Orlando over the cap for the foreseeable future. So even if the Magic do return to the playoffs at some point in the next three years, the ceiling for this group appears limited.

-- Kevin Pelton

They didn't have a dumbass owner and grease hair PR guy repeatedly get in the way or speed up the rebuild, as we did.

[p0peye]

We never committed to tank properly, always winning few stupid games in April. Like a teenage girl, never really sure about her outfit before going out.

Oh, and basketball gods.

[The Real Dalic]

Here we go with the tanking again. . .

[Skin]

Here we go with the tanking again. . .

But we got your way bro. We didn't commit to the tank so you should feel satisfied with our efforts and our current standing. Is that true?

[pepe1991]

Tank for Dončić lol

[UCFJayBird]

Before everyone loses their minds, people have expected the Wolves to be better for the last two years and Philly always disappoints. I understand maybe the teens, but i'm skeptical they're anywhere near that good this year.

[OrlandO]

Here we go with the tanking again. . .

But we got your way bro. We didn't commit to the tank so you should feel satisfied with our efforts and our current standing. Is that true?

We didn't really commit to anything, so imo both sides of the tanking argument should be disappointed about the last five seasons of half-assed tanking and half-assed trying to win.

[The Real Dalic]

Here we go with the tanking again. . .

But we got your way bro. We didn't commit to the tank so you should feel satisfied with our efforts and our current standing. Is that true?

We did tank, everyone even said we tanked the first 3 years. Now everyone wants to change the story because the tank didn't work.

I also want to point out that none of the current championship contenders tanked except for the Cavs for LeBron and Irving who was just traded. None of the other top teams drafted their core players in the top 5.

[fendilim]

Thats what you get when you are building around ep and ag

[JF5]

This team isn't going to tank... They're also not good enough to be a playoff team... AND if they do like Pelton said this team is most likely going to peak as an 7th or 8th seed (Which is worse than being a lottery team for a team like the Magic). They just need a clear direction...

[Xatticus]

Here we go with the tanking again. . .

But we got your way bro. We didn't commit to the tank so you should feel satisfied with our efforts and our current standing. Is that true?

We did tank, everyone even said we tanked the first 3 years. Now everyone wants to change the story because the tank didn't work.

I also want to point out that none of the current championship contenders tanked except for the Cavs for LeBron and Irving who was just traded. None of the other top teams drafted their core players in the top 5.

There is a difference between tanking and just being awful. Howard was on his way out regardless, so the team was going to struggle to compete in the aftermath of his departure. The decision not to match the Anderson offer is one of the only really obvious tank moves we made under Hennigan. Perhaps you could argue that his free agent signings in those first couple years were tank moves, but his free agent targets were lousy even when he was trying to save his job.

I think it's safe to argue that we were tanking in the first post-Howard season, but I believe we were trying to demonstrate improvement in every season thereafter. This undoubtedly cost us some lottery balls in each season.

I think the decision to tank should require very careful consideration and that consideration should absolutely consider the draft class that you are tanking for. The only year that we actually committed to undermining our chances of accumulating wins was a for a weak draft pool.

[Bensational]

Here we go with the tanking again. . .

But we got your way bro. We didn't commit to the tank so you should feel satisfied with our efforts and our current standing. Is that true?

We didn't really commit to anything, so imo both sides of the tanking argument should be disappointed about the last five seasons of half-assed tanking and half-assed trying to win.

This sums it up pretty accurately.

[Bensational]

Either way, I'm glad the NBA is looking to remove some of the motivation to tank. It will be interesting to see how teams adapt to becoming competitive other than via a lot of losing and a lot of young players who take several seasons to make an impact on the game.

[ralphie9898]

Here we go with the tanking again. . .

Yeah I don't think tanking is that bad or is that real of a thing. I think it rather the circumstances we were in. We were not a good team and also didn't fare that well in the draft. Bad drafts and picks that have slid a spot or two have hurt us. Also we haven't exactly been swimming in cap space. Hennigan really fouled that up in an effort to take a chance at making the playoffs but in the end there wasn't much out there that we could have done better. Someone has to be at the bottom. It is just a part of the way it goes. Everyone can't win. Someone has to lose and that has often been us.

[Skybox]

In recent years, there's been a lot of teams battling at both ends of the standings. That's the best argument against tanking...it's far from a sure thing. Lots of bad teams have had high picks ( including us) and haven't thrived (Oladipo #2, Gordon #4, Hezonja #5)...it's so lazy to say "Henny picked the wrong guy" like it's not a crapshoot with all the on and dones and foreign players getting 5 mins a game.Go back thru the recent drafts and find the handful of "sure things" who propelled a team to contention..meanwhile, your existing roster mentally deteriorates and your fan base dries up (it IS a business). Hinkie got laughed at, hated by his city, fired, very lucky with injuries to his own guys, and now heralded (btw PHI hasn't done anything yet and even if they do it was kind of a perfect storm of tanking along the way). It's like chaos theory...mental masturbation for the 5% of fans who think they know more than all the NBA execs.

Btw, David Robinson being hurt is not tanking. Boston had the strong odds on picking Duncan and they got ZIP in that draft with two high lottery picks. Can't demolish the team and then pray for ping pong balls...good organizations don't.

[Bigmagicfan82]

Call me old fashioned but how about we don't worry about the Power Rankings that ESPN puts out for click bate and just let the players play. Let's just see what happens. They may surprise us.

Sent from my SM-G935V using RealGM mobile app

[Blue_and_Whte]

But we got your way bro. We didn't commit to the tank so you should feel satisfied with our efforts and our current standing. Is that true?

We didn't really commit to anything, so imo both sides of the tanking argument should be disappointed about the last five seasons of half-assed tanking and half-assed trying to win.

This sums it up pretty accurately.

He who walks in the middle of the road gets hit from both sides. -George P. Shultz

Middle of the road rebuild, middle of the road players. Our roster is an exact reflection of the path our last front office took and its an embarrassment right now. We're so desperate we're constantly trying to hype up this roster as if the players are anything more than complimentary.

[Nemesis21]

Here we go with the tanking again. . .

But we got your way bro. We didn't commit to the tank so you should feel satisfied with our efforts and our current standing. Is that true?

We did tank, everyone even said we tanked the first 3 years. Now everyone wants to change the story because the tank didn't work.

I also want to point out that none of the current championship contenders tanked except for the Cavs for LeBron and Irving who was just traded. None of the other top teams drafted their core players in the top 5.

Who is everyone? We barely tanked for 1 season. We definitely did not tank for 3, not even close.

[Blue_and_Whte]

But we got your way bro. We didn't commit to the tank so you should feel satisfied with our efforts and our current standing. Is that true?

We did tank, everyone even said we tanked the first 3 years. Now everyone wants to change the story because the tank didn't work.

I also want to point out that none of the current championship contenders tanked except for the Cavs for LeBron and Irving who was just traded. None of the other top teams drafted their core players in the top 5.

Who is everyone? We barely tanked for 1 season. We definitely did not tank for 3, not even close.

Correct. We should've tried to tank for 3 years, instead we tanked one year and that was because we were so terrible it was inevitable that we were going to be bad. Even if management wanted to win more games it wasn't going to happen. Its more like we organically tanked year one then had three off years. There was no clear direction. We were kinda tanking, and you cant do that.