NBA Offseason Reports: Orlando Magic

Dwight Howard continues to cast a shadow over the future of the Orlando Magic. (Getty Images)

Over the next month, CBSSports.com's Eye On Basketball will take a team-by-team look at the 2012 NBA offseason. Next up: the Orlando Magic.

For more on the Magic's offseason, check out the latest edition of the CBSSports.com NBA podcast with host Matt Moore and guest Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel.

I. How They Finished 2011-12

When demolitionists prepare to take down a massive structure, they often set off a series of smaller explosions in advance of the big kaboom. That's where the Orlando Magic find themselves on August 1: in the midst of the preparatory wreckage as the big plunger continues to malfunction every time they try to blow things up.

Recapping the minor explosions is gruesome work. Former coach Stan Van Gundy and All-Star center Dwight Howard held one of the most memorable press conferences in league history, with Van Gundy admitting to reporters that Howard requested that he be fired while Howard, who hadn't heard the comments, denied it minutes later. The episode sent Orlando's season into a tailspin. Howard fled for Los Angeles, where he underwent season-ending back surgery, and the Magic lost 10 of their last 15 games before being pushed out of the playoffs by the Indiana Pacers in five games. Shortly thereafter, the Magic fired Van Gundy, parted ways with GM Otis Smith and began work on a new era, sort of.

II. Needs Entering The Offseason

The Magic's needs this summer were bigger than simply filling roster holes. They were organization-wide demands, really: hire a GM, hire a coach, solve the Howard dilemma, ideally by blowing up the roster and starting from scratch. The Magic conducted a lengthy executive search and landed on Oklahoma City Thunder assistant GM Rob Hennigan as their new GM. A young, fresh face, with bloodlines in the San Antonio Spurs and Thunder organization, his hiring made a lot of sense. The Thunder are the "start from scratch" model franchise, after all. 

Hennigan finally hired coach Jacque Vaughn, who, at 37, will be one of the league's youngest head coaches. He too, brings Spurs experience and a fresh approach, so there's a general sense that this is heading in the right direction, eventually.

As for finally putting to end the years-long soap opera with Howard, no public progress has been made. Despite attempted reconciliations, extended multi-team trade conversations and rumor after rumor after rumor, Howard remains with the Magic, rehabilitating from his back surgery and entering the final season of his current contract. He still has no desire to remain with the Magic long-term after formally requesting a trade last season and he still hasn't budged much on his list of teams that he would accept being traded to. Only Magic die-hards and true masochists still care about the day-to-day unfolding drama. It's gotten so bad that NBA commissioner David Stern has outed Howard's agent as a source of anonymous leaks, something that the agent didn't even bother disputing. Pretenses don't matter any more, it's that ugly.

In sum, handling the routine stuff (getting a new GM and coach) won't be able to have a true impact until the heavy lifting (moving Howard) is finally complete. Orlando is stuck in purgatory for the time being, unable to keep both eyes on the future until the unsightly mess that haunts the franchise is finally passed off to another team.  

III. The Draft

By virtue of making the playoffs with a No. 6 seed, expectations for acquiring impact players through the Draft were muted. Orlando came away with forward St. Bonaventure forward Andrew Nicholson, who apparently pencils in as a replacement for Ryan Anderson, and Norfolk State's Kyle O'Quinn, a second-round center and you know how those usually turn out. Hennigan was hired a little more than a week before the Draft, though, so perhaps fireworks shouldn't have been expected. Regardless, this team isn't likely to get significantly better -- now or later -- based on this haul.

IV. Free Agency

The Magic had their hands tied in free agency thanks to a host of big-dollar contracts signed during the previous regime -- Hedo Turkoglu, Glen Davis and Jason Richardson, to name three -- but the moves Orlando did make were still questionable.

First, the Magic agreed to pay starting point guard Jameer Nelson more than $8 million per year for three years, although the third year is not fully guaranteed, according to a HoopsWorld.com report. Keep in mind, Nelson, 30, was coming off an atrocious year in which his player efficiency rating was 35th among point guards in the NBA and he shot a career-low 42.7 percent from the field. For comparison's sake, the New York Knicks were slammed for giving Raymond Felton a 3-year deal worth roughly $10 million. The Magic gave Nelson more than twice that. Sure, the free agent alternatives at point guard were terrible this season, but this one was one of the summer's worst contracts.

To compound that signing, the Magic apparently felt they were unable to pay a reasonable $4 year, $36 million to emerging forward Ryan Anderson, who has shown the ability to score, shoot the three and be a productive rebounder at the age of 24. Locking him up to that type of deal seems like a no-brainer, especially with bigger contracts going to the likes of Ersan Ilyasova and Nicolas Batum, but the Magic instead opted to complete a sign-and-trade for Anderson with the New Orleans Hornets. Hennigan did well to get back cheap and productive big man Gustavo Ayon in that deal but, with the benefit of some distance, it certainly seems like Orlando would have been better suited, going forward, spending the money on Anderson rather than Nelson and figuring out a different point guard solution. 

V. Overall Grade

The only truly fair way to grade Orlando's offseason will be to assess the eventual terms of the inevitable Howard trade. Are they able to move out of an ugly contract or two? Are they able to get back salary cap relief, a talented player in his prime and multiple prospects and Draft picks? If so, the whole aura about the Magic will change overnight. Until then, though, Orlando is to be judged on the fact that they haven't moved Howard. Considering the circumstances, that's a disaster, and nothing else that happened over the last two months has eased the pain in any meaningful way. Grade (for now): F