Magic focused on adding free agents next 2 summers, says CEO

The Orlando Magic have made no secret of the fact they're itching to move onto the next phase of their development.

The Magic just wrapped their fourth season since trading Dwight Howard and committing to a long-term rebuild, and, though this one showed more progress than the three previous, it ended in familiarly dispiriting fashion. Orlando went just 16-34 after a 19-13 start, traded promising forward Tobias Harris for a puzzling return, and saw head coach Scott Skiles resign his post after his first season. The club now faces an offseason of uncertainty, with decisions to make on impending free agents Evan Fournier, Brandon Jennings, Andrew Nicholson, and Dewayne Dedmon.

The Magic, though, appear less concerned about the future of those incumbent players than about the ones they might lure in free agency this summer and next.

"The first part of the plan and the process is to develop your own (players) and grow your own (players)," Magic CEO Alex Martins said, according to Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentenel. "And when you inject veterans at the wrong period of time, it has an impact in the way that you're trying to develop your corps of young players. It can't just happen immediately. It's got to happen at a certain point in time - after your players have matured and developed.

"And we always believed that this summer and next summer were going to be the two summers of free agency for us that we needed to focus on after developing our young guys."

Some of the homegrown talent the Magic have been grooming the past four-odd years has indeed started to come into its own, namely Victor Oladipo, Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon, Elfrid Payton, and Fournier. Each of those players has glaring holes in his game, but each is also 25 or younger, with plenty of room to grow in the right environment.

The Magic just replaced Skiles with respected coach Frank Vogel, a defensive-minded tactician who maximized the talent on the Indiana Pacers' roster for years. They also are primed to have scads of cap space this summer, which they can use to add a seasoned veteran or two (if not an out-and-out star) to pair with their young core.

"I think we're being very open about the fact that in order to take that next step we have to inject veteran leadership," Martins said. "Our young guys are talented; they're continuing to develop.

"But the one thing that virtually none of them has is playoff experience, and you just don't wake up one morning and understand what it takes to get to the playoffs. People have to help you through that, and it's going to be a coach like Frank Vogel, and it's going to be experienced veterans that we would be able to obtain in free agency."

Orlando took a big swing last summer, too, but ultimately came up just short in its pursuit of Paul Millsap. Now Millsap's teammate, Al Horford, is set to hit the market as part of a loaded free-agent class. Come July 1, the Magic will get to try again to take that next step.