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Magic Will Select Fifth in 2015 NBA Draft

Josh Cohen
Digital News Manager

By John DentonMay 19, 2015

NEW YORK – Big winners of NBA Draft Lottery three times before, the Orlando Magic’s luck seemingly has run out at the fickle event that sets the order for the June NBA Draft.

However, not all was lost on Tuesday night and the Magic are delighted that they will have the option of adding another top-five talent to their blossoming roster in the coming months.

A Magic franchise that won the top pick in the draft lottery in 1992, ’93 and 2004 failed to move up on Tuesday and will select fifth in the June 25th NBA Draft. It was the Magic’s third straight year in the lottery and their third consecutive swing and miss at nabbing the top prize.

Still, the Magic were relieved that they didn’t fall to eighth, seventh or sixth – all nightmarish scenarios that were possible – and they are confident that they can cull a difference-making player from the draft from the fifth slot.

``We’re really happy with where we ended up,’’ said Magic CEO Alex Martins, who represented the Magic on the dais for the televised portion of the lottery. ``The last two years we fell backward and this year we were hoping that we’d be able to hold our position at the very least and we were able to do that. It is an incredibly deep draft at the top and we believe that we’re going to be able to add another very good cornerstone piece to our roster.’’

The Minnesota Timberwolves, which had the best odds because of their 16-66 record, won the draft lottery and will pick first. The Los Angeles Lakers (second), Philadelphia 76ers (third) and New York Knicks (fourth) will pick ahead of the Magic (fifth).

It’s the first time since 2004 that the team with the worst record – the T-Wolves – won the first pick. Orlando was the last to do so, capturing the top spot in 2004 with a 21-61 record. The Lakers were Tuesday night’s biggest risers, going from the fourth-best odds to the second selection. The hometown Knicks fell from the second-best odds to the fourth pick.

Orlando, which finished 25-57 this past season, entered Tuesday’s lottery with the fifth-best odds (8.8 percent) of winning the first pick. The Magic were the owners of 88 four-digit combinations derived when four ping-pong balls were culled from a hopper.

Orlando could have dropped as low as eighth, but the lottery held true to the odds from picks 14 through five. That meant that the Magic would retain their top-five selection.

``We feel good about (the fifth pick) and we stayed where we expected to stay,’’ Magic GM Rob Hennigan said. ``Luckily we didn’t move back. We’ll take the hand that was dealt to us and certainly make the most of the pick that we have.

``As it started to follow form, we felt pretty good about it and then when we saw our logo come up fifth we knew where we’d be slotted,’’ the GM continued. ``Now, we can prepare accordingly. We feel good that we’ll be able to get somebody who can contribute. It’s our job now to pick out who that right person is to help us push forward.’’

A Magic team that has yet to hire a full-time head coach is hoping that the addition of another dynamic young player to go along with a solid core of Nikola Vucevic, Victor Oladipo, Tobias Harris, Evan Fournier, Elfrid Payton and Aaron Gordon will make the team a playoff contender again. Adding a rim protector and a solid shooter from the perimeter are positions of need and Hennigan said the Magic will spend the next six weeks deciding whether the team should pick for need or sheer talent.

``That will be a hot topic of debate over the next five or six weeks with our scouting group,’’ Hennigan said. ``We’re confident that we’ll make a good decision, but I’m not sure that we have an answer to that yet, whether it’s best available or a specific need. We have a little time to figure that out, but I’m confident that we’ll make a good decision.’’

Minnesota (16-66), New York (17-65), Philadelphia (18-64) and the Los Angeles Lakers (21-61) entered Tuesday’s lottery with better odds at the No. 1 pick than the Magic. An audible groan reverberated through the midtown Hilton ballroom when the Knicks – owners of a 19.9 percent chance of getting the No. 1 pick – plummeted to the fourth pick.

Centers Jahlil Okafor and Karl-Anthony Towns, guards Emmanuel Mudiay and DeAngelo Russell and forward Justise Winslow are just some of the players considered to be top picks in the June draft. All five players were in attendance at Tuesday’s NBA Draft Lottery – a process that could decide their futures in professional basketball.

Hennigan, the architect of the Magic’s rebuild the past three seasons, said that the NBA Draft Lottery is an anxious time for him because the process is totally out of his control and there is way to improve through hard work and preparation. Hennigan said it’s a somewhat helpless feeling knowing that the fate of your franchise could be riding on the finicky bounce of a ping pong ball.

``The one vivid memory that I can recall from the last two lotteries is that I was sitting there, feeling helpless, and just counting the minutes until it was over,’’ Hennigan recalled. ``You just want to know the final order – whether it’s move up, move back, or stay the same.’’

The Magic were hoping to recreate the incredible lottery success from 1992, 1993 and 2004 when they nabbed the first pick and ultimately landed franchise fixtures Shaquille O’Neal, Penny Hardaway and Dwight Howard. Those players were perfect examples of how a dynamic player can shape the future of a franchise by leading Orlando to NBA Finals in 1995 and 2009 and Eastern Conference Finals in 1996 and 2010.

The Magic hadn’t been quite as lucky in the past two years, getting the second and fourth picks from the 2013 and 2014 lotteries. However, Orlando made the best of those situations by landing Oladipo and Gordon and trading for Payton. Those solid selections give the Magic faith that they will once again be able to find an elite talent at the No. 5 draft spot.

``I have an incredibly high level of confidence in our Basketball Operations team because they have drafted very, very well over the course of the last several drafts,’’ Martins said. ``We know that they’ll do the same this year to add another core piece that we’ll be able to build around for many years to come.’’

The Magic mixed up their usual rotation for the event, placing co-founder and Sr. Vice President Pat Williams in the sequestered room where the actual lottery took place. Martins sat on the dais for the televised portion of the draft and had in his possession the winning ping pong balls from the 1992 and ’93 lotteries as good-luck charms.

Martins said is plenty for Magic fans to be excited about with a promising core of players already in place, a new head coach about to be hired and another top-five talent from the draft on the way. Also, the Magic plan to be extremely active in free agency in July in hopes of adding pieces that will further round out the roster.

``There’s a lot of reason for excitement with a new leader, the right leader for this young core and adding another critical piece to the foundation and then what we’re going to be able to accomplish in free agency,’’ Martins said. ``Next year is going to be a very exciting year for us. We have high hopes for the team on the floor next season.’’

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