Magic are taking a big risk by breaking up the team

Sporting News, The, August 23, 1999 by Dave D'Alessandro

If the NBA rebuilding process has a sound, it would be that of a drill bit grinding into metal. It irritates the ear and startles the other senses, and just when you think it's starting to soften a bit, the noise grows louder than a jackhammer. Inevitably, when you pull the forefingers out of your ears and pry open your eyes, your team is a demolition site.

This is what the Magic resemble today. People throughout the organization seem to agree with the decision to dismantle the team, wearing the same what-me-worry look with their faces covered in a thick, gray dust.

There are some very capable people there, folks who have been around long enough to know that they would get hammered for this mess they're creating. John Gabriel, chief wrecking ball, has never let anyone or anything influence his ability to make sound management decisions and he is trying to enact a plan that only he seems to grasp. For now, call it Clippers with a Clue.

It is not a pretty operation, but frankly, we're not sure we'd go about it any differently. At the same time, however, there is always the nagging suspicion that Gabe's route is laden with mines.

The Orlando G.M. is using the Chicago method, of course, which entails dumping every high salary you have for an endless chain of short-term contracts and draft picks, with the hopes of making major gains in the lottery and in the free-agent market. Sounds like a plan.

When you do this, you ship out your starting center for four players with contracts that expire next season, which was the case with moving Ike Austin to Washington. When you do this, you swap your $10 million defensive cornerstone for a 19-year-old who is a few years away from being pro quality, which was the case with shipping Horace Grant to Seattle. When you do this, you dump your only star for an aging warrior on his last contract and a guy who won't make your rotation, which was the case with Penny Hardaway being dispatched to Phoenix.

Upshot: The Magic will have a very young, very small, very flawed team next season, after maintaining the best record in the Eastern Conference for most of last season.

Of course, nobody was fooled by that team. It was mostly a confluence of veteran experience, a career year from team MVP Darrell Armstrong and a typically brilliant coaching performance from Chuck Daly. It was not a fluke, but it wasn't something you thought had any permanence, either.

Hence, the fire sale. The last holdovers from the 1995 conference title team were moved. In their places come a group of role players like Ben Wallace, an aging Danny Manning and the aforementioned teenager, Corey Maggette. Still around are Armstrong, Bo Outlaw and role players such as Michael Doleac and Matt Harpring. All of them will be under the direction of first-year coach Doc Rivers. It will probably be a good defensive team. It will show occasional juice on the fast break. And it probably won't win more than 20 games this season or 25 the one after that.

This has been deemed acceptable by owner Rich DeVos, who had grown tired of $44 million payrolls, tired of incurring $10 million losses and tired of Penny's mercurial disposition.

You can't keep your fan base satisfied without a star, and though Rivers maintains that Maggette "has the same athleticism of Dominique Wilkins," the young man won't show star power for a few years. Second, the notion that younger is better has been refuted since time immemorial.

Most important, the open market isn't the talent bonanza it once was. The Magic, as they learned with Hardaway, already know that sign-and-trade deals are impossible to make. They should also know that in the future, big stars are going to change teams less than ever. Unless Grant Hill and Tim Duncan have an irrepressible urge to golf 12 months a year, they're not likely to relocate to Orlando.

Again, the Magic are more right than they are wrong. It should be interesting how it plays out over the next three years, which is probably how long it will take for the Magic to shake off the dust and build their new foundation. But given the new and harsher realities of the business, in a time when hoarding cap space doesn't mean what it used to mean, reconstruction is a very risky proposition in a market that has never been particularly patient.

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