Rebuilding: It's Magical

[jonathanlambert33]

Throughout the years of the Associations existence, weve seen numerous ways of how teams choose to rebuild. Of how they go about attempting to bring their teams from positions of mediocrity or consistent failure, and into the elusive contender field that is rarely occupied by more than five or six teams from year-to-year.

There are different methods, for sure. Blowing it all up and starting from scratch by building through the draft (dont make me say tanking), as of recently at least, seems to be the most common way.

Some teams are able to rebuild through free agency. Others are just unintentionally bad, catch a few lucky breaks, and manage to land a high lottery pick who works out, and theyre able to build around that player.

Then theres what were seeing the Magic do right now, which we may have seen a similar version of before.

Back in October of last year, Magic Basketballs Nate Drexler wrote about the issue surrounding Arron Afflalo and Glen Davis still being on the Magic roster, for they looked as if they would get in the way of developing the young talent. He wrote that dealing them was probably for the best a near-consensus opinion at the time as they were both believed to be decent players on relatively fair contracts, therefore they each had solid trade value.

We know what happened after that: the season began, Affalos trade value went up, and Davis down. Big Baby was, as expected, proving to be nothing but a potential trade piece eating up minutes that should have been going towards the development of the future of the Magics roster at his position: Tobias Harris, Kyle OQuinn, and Andrew Nicholson. On February 21st, Big Baby and the Magic agreed to a buyout shortly after the trade deadline expired.

Arron Afflalo, on the other hand, was everything the Magic couldve hoped for and more after a disappointing first year with the team. He put up near All-Star caliber numbers in the first half of the season, was providing a positive veteran presence in the locker room, and was helping the Magic stay away from the embarrassing Philadelphia-level of bad.

Trade rumors circulated about him throughout the season, but at the deadline, Afflalo was still on the Magic roster. This decision was questioned, but I couldnt help noticing it wasnt the first time a team had kept a close-to-All-Star level player around as they built their way back up into contention, instead of trading him away for young talent.

http://www.magicbasketball.net/2014/04/04/rebuilding-its-a-magical-thing/#more-18449

 

[jonathanlambert33]

in case you missed it

 

[Pugz]

i still may have looked to deal arron, or look to deal him in the off season. hes not on a cap killer contract and seems to be a good locker room presence though, can't really do wrong in keeping or dealing him.

 

[jonathanlambert33]

They need to look to deal Afflalo. Oladipo is obviously the guy with the future, and he plays better when Afflalo is off the court, and the same goes for Afflalo when Oladipo is off the court. They just play better without each other.

That team has a couple good young pieces. Oladipo, Vucecic, Harris, among others. Plus Oladipo, Harris, and Vucecic make up one of the better trios they can put on the court.