The Orlando Magic must shake off the sting of missing out on a higher pick — particularly the No. 1 spot — for the NBA Draft and turn their attention toward their pre-draft work.
It’s about to ramp up.
The Magic were dealt a disappointing — but somewhat unsurprising — blow during Tuesday’s NBA Draft Lottery when they fell in the selection order and wound up with the fifth overall pick.
With the third-worst record in the league, Orlando had a 14.0% chance — the same as Houston and Detroit — to win the top pick, but also a 43.1% chance to finish outside the top four. Unfortunately for the Magic, those are the odds that found them.
Still, they hold two top-eight picks (the No. 8 selection conveyed from the Bulls as part of the Nikola Vucvic trade) in a draft that has some depth beyond the top tier of Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green, Jonathan Kuminga, Evan Mobley and Jalen Suggs.
Orlando must now take advantage of the hand it has been dealt. It very well could land two players who make a significant impact on the franchise for years to come.
While player evaluation work already is under way, the Magic now have a clearer picture of their draft position. They will begin to bring in prospects for workouts after the NBA Draft Combine concludes, president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman said.
“I’ll look at it now as we have a lot of work to do, and we get to put a finer point on the work,” Weltman said after Tuesday’s lottery. “So we kind of are looking just to put this day behind us and really drill down on the two picks that we have now. Knowing that we have two top-10 picks, that part of it’s very exciting.
“And then the other part is the draft, and it very seldom works out in the way that you prognosticate it. You look back on pretty much any draft, and it doesn’t go that way so it’s our job to find the players in the draft and we will. Now that we know where we’re picking and how many picks we’ll have, we’ll be able to kind of get to the next layer of that.”
Ultimately, the Magic will be affected by the teams that will pick ahead of them and thin out the pool of top players. So what’s the best way for Orlando to use its picks? Perhaps the team will look to package its selections with a veteran like Gary Harris or Terrence Ross to move up in the draft.
In the coming weeks, Weltman expects to hear from teams above and below the Magic in the draft order.
“We always explore all options and it’ll be interesting to kind of start to engage with teams [with the Magic] having two top-10 picks,” he said. “Sometimes it ends up in deals that get done and sometimes it’s a lot of close but no calls. So we’ll see how that goes but we will be busy and the busyness starts with evaluating these two draft picks.”
The fifth pick doesn’t always yield a high return, as Magic fans well know. Orlando selected Mario Hezonja with the fifth overall selection in 2015 but chose not to re-sign him after his rookie-scale contract expired in 2018.
Here are the last 10 players taken fifth in the NBA draft (listed chronologically): Isaac Okoro (Cavs); Darius Garland, (Cavs); Trae Young (Hawks); De’Aaron Fox (Kings); Kris Dunn (Timberwolves); Hezonja (Magic); Dante Exum (Jazz); Alex Len (Suns); Thomas Robinson (Kings); and Jonas Valanciunas (Raptors).
But there have been some notable players who were No. 5 picks, including Ray Allen, Charles Barkley, Vince Carter, Kevin Garnett, Kevin Love, Scottie Pippen, Mitch Richmond and Dwyane Wade.
The Magic would like nothing more than to add a player who goes on to join the second list.
