Elfrid Payton. Aaron Gordon. Mario Hezonja. Nikola Vucevic. Evan Fournier.

Say any of these names to the average basketball fan, and you might hear a murmur of a compliment for one name, Aaron Gordon. That recognition will somehow be related to how the people’s champ, #AirGordon🛫, got robbed in his first dunk contest. To a die-hard Magic fan, though, these names mean so much more. If there were ever a mark of the quote unquote “worst era in franchise history” left on this team, it lies in the potential of these five young players brought in by Henny. Shoutout to Terrence Ross for being the bigger man after unknowingly being snubbed from this list; although he has quickly won over the hearts of Magic fans city-wide, he’s only played in the blue and white pinstripes for 23 not-as-important games after the All-Star break when teams are likely to play young players and cash in games for lottery balls, rather than try to win. T-Flight has to be here a little longer to pull the same strings of the heart as the five core guys left on the team, even if Terrence did theoretically replace Victor Oladipo in the rotation; R.I.P. Orlandipo.

#RIPOrlandipo

Now, with new upper management at the helm, Magic fans will have to be realistic. Depending on the outcome of the conversation between new President of Basketball Operations Jeff Weltman, returning Head Coach Frank Vogel, and incoming General Manager John Hammond, any or all of Henny’s core-five guys, fan favorites of The 6th Man, could become available.

For example, Nikola Vucevic is a dominant scoring big man in a league trending away from his skill-set, though regarded as a strong asset due to his bargain contract for a center of $12M/yr. As the first scoring option in Orlando this season, Evan Fournier showed out with shooting percentages and stats not to dissimilar from former Magic savior, Victor Oladipo, who was plauing off of weird opportunities as the second fiddle to the one man “MVP” show in OKC. Though Evan is a relatively sound investment on the Shooting Guard market at only $17M/yr, Oladipo’s potential to put up relatively the same offensive stats while posing an All-Defensive team level threat on the other end might be worth ponying up the extra $3M/yr. Even moreso if Ola keeps fans happy through bleak times…