Assessing The Orlando Magic’s Front Office Hires
There’s hope in Disneyland, but new Magic President Jeff Weltman and GM John Hammond will have their work cut out for them.
In the wake of the Rob Hennigan era, the Orlando Magic find themselves in an uncomfortable position: bad team, little talent, and a strong desire to put together a winning season as quickly as possible. Part of that is bad luck, a combination of never moving up in the lottery and having their best picks in the worst draft years. Part of it was a dismally poor return on a handful of “win-now” moves that may have been well-intentioned but poorly executed.
The other complicating factor: the Magic’s leadership situation has been in a bad place for a while now, balancing an aging owner, Rich DeVos, who rarely gets involved with the team’s decision-making; his proxy, Alex Martins, ostensibly the CEO of the team who perhaps meddles in basketball decision-making too often; and before his firing, the youngest GM in the league in Rob Hennigan.
Perhaps it’s good news that, despite these issues, the Magic were able to hire two experienced, respected executives to head their basketball operations. Still, it doesn’t erase those issues, and Jeff Weltman and John Hammond will have to figure out how to take control of that situation if they hope to salvage this team.
Let’s start with their titles, then. For a while the Magic have worked with the GM as the head of basketball operations, but they’re shifting to an increasingly popular arrangement, the President-GM combo, not unlike what Weltman left behind in Toronto working as GM under President Masai Ujiri.
It’s not entirely clear why they chose to shift their structure. Perhaps they’re seeking to rebuild their basketball culture, and they need multiple experienced leaders at the top to make that happen. Maybe they just want to divide the duties more evenly across a couple different positions, to have someone who handles personnel moves while the other handles big picture decisions. A big part of it is likely just an investment in and expansion of the front office, and as Keith Smith notes, the Magic’s front office staff has probably been among the smaller ones in the league up till now.
Weltman’s contributions to the Raptors’ success are unclear, but every indication is that he was involved in most player decision-making, even if Ujiri had the last say. Toronto’s success in recent seasons comes on the back of several savvy, efficient moves to build up the team, starting with swindling the Knicks with the Andrea Bargnani trade. From there, it was all about making successful moves on the margins, like trading Greivis Vasquez for Norman Powell and a 2017 pick, the kind of trade GMs dream about, netting both the more valuable player and the draft pick.
Their signings were solid as well. Aside from resigning DeMar DeRozan, it was rarely about big splashy moves. Instead, they found smaller victories with players like Cory Joseph and Bismack Biyombo, guys who became solid contributors off the bench, capable of filling in the starting lineup when necessary. Those smaller moves became a big part of their success, especially this last season when the Kyle-Lowry-plus-bench unit famously tore up the league.
Milwaukee’s progress under John Hammond was defined similarly, especially in the draft, and even more particularly in the mid-to-latter parts of the draft, including a particular Freak of Greek origin. Some of his successes in the second round (early in his career) were players like Luc Mbah a Moute and Jodie Meeks. More recently, it’s been guys like Malcolm Brogdon and Patrick McCaw.
Those histories are a pretty good explanation why the Magic would covet these executives. With four picks in the 2017 draft, including three in the 25–35 range, the Magic really need to nail at least one of those late picks to begin the long road back to relevancy. Given the relative success of their new execs in that regard, they might have a shot at finding a gem.
If I had to level a critique of the hirings, it’s that I’m not an especially big fan of Hammond’s trades in his time with Milwaukee. Magic fans should remember one of them well, when he traded Tobias Harris for a couple months of J.J. Redick. Trading for Michael Carter-Williams hasn’t exactly paid dividends either. Perhaps his best deal was stealing Jared Dudley from the Clippers and getting a 1st-round pick for the privilege, but overall he hasn’t made a killing on the trade market.
The biggest mistake they can make is trying to rush things, no matter the pressure they get from Martins, DeVos, or whoever else is in a hurry to pick up the Ws. Short of a miracle superstar pick, the Magic need to hit those marginal moves, building up their assets and talents in tandem until they’re really ready to make their big time move. Until then, I preach patience for the fans and the franchise.
