Orlando Magic Are Primed For Quick Rebuild
While some are considering them “losers” of draft night because they fell outside of the Top-4, I truly believe that the Orlando Magic was one of the biggest “winners” of draft night. Having the 5th pick is not bad at all, even though they shared the best odds for the top pick with the Rockets and Pistons, and they also kept Chicago’s first-round pick.
Orlando originally received the Bulls’ 2021 1st Round Pick as part of the Nikola Vucevic trade deadline trade, but this pick came with Top-4 protections on it, meaning that Chicago would have retained their pick if it had landed inside the Top-4 of this year’s Draft Lottery.
It did not and it ended up being the 8th pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, which means the Magic now owns the rights to the 5th and 8th picks in this year’s draft. This is a great position for the Magic to be in because now, they can not only add two young, high-level prospects to their roster, but they could potentially package these picks together and add a key “face of the franchise” type of player.
The second option seems a little over zealous given that the Magic do not have the best trade assets in the NBA, but adding two lottery picks to their roster is definitely beneficial to the Magic’s long-term rebuild.
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Initially, it was thought that the Magic would spend the next several seasons rebuilding since they really do not have star-like players to build around on their roster, but with several young, key guys in Cole Anthony, Markelle Fultz, Jonathan Isaac and Wendell Carter Jr., this team is in a really good position now to turn things around within a matter of years.
Adding two of the Top-8 players in this draft class to their roster gives the Orlando Magic everything they need in a young core to not only begin building for the future, but turn things around rather quickly. They may still be looking for a new head coach, but Orlando has suddenly become a somewhat attractive destination, as they are set to become one of the youngest teams in the league with a ton of potential and upside.
