The Orlando Magic put together an interesting and potentially dangerous front line with their recent trade — Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon, and now Serge Ibaka. There’s skill, versatility, defense, and a lot of options and combinations for new coach Frank Vogel to play around with.
The price for that was a quality two guard in Victor Oladipo.
How will the Magic look to replace that offense? How about the veteran Jamal Crawford? So reports Sam Amick of the USA Today.
The kind of free agency tidbits you can hear on the latest A to Z pod: After the Oladipo exit, Orlando is very interested in Jamal Crawford
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) June 28, 2016
Crawford has hinted he is looking for a change, although Doc Rivers wants to bring him back to the Clippers.
Crawford averaged 14 points a game last season, racking up a lot of those points thanks to his love of pull-up jumpers, plus he has one of the best crossovers in the game. He can be a streaky shooter, but the guy will get buckets. The problem is, at age 36 he is showing declining efficiency at age 36, and he is not a good defender. How much do the Magic (or any other team) want to invest in that? And for how many years?
Of course, this will come down to money. Like always. But you can see with their deadline trade and this move, the Magic are thinking like a team that wants to make the playoffs and turn the corner with their rebuild sooner rather than later.