ESPN panel ranks Orlando Magic's front office 18th in NBA

In a story published Tuesday, ESPN ranked the Orlando Magic's overall front office as the 18th best in the NBA.

The Magic's numerical rating of 5.22 ranks it just ahead of the Utah Jazz in this exercise. Among the 15 teams below .500 in the 2013/14 season, Orlando ranks fourth.

With the aid of assistant general managers Scott Perry and Matt Lloyd, Rob Hennigan has made some big moves with the Magic since taking over as general manager in 2012. In addition to acquiring Nik Vučević, the reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Week, in the Dwight Howard trade, Hennigan and his team also landed Tobias Harris for a trade package involving J.J. Redick and selected Victor Oladipo second overall in the 2013 NBA Draft.

Among the players Orlando still had under contract when it brought Hennigan aboard, only Jameer Nelson remains with the team, which fact attests to the depth and breadth of Hennigan's overhaul.

To date, the myriad changes haven't yielded great results on the court: Orlando's 41-115 (.263) record under new management is the league's worst since the beginning of the 2012/13 season, nine games behind the Philadelphia 76ers at 50-106 (.321).

For this story, the sports network invited its "ESPN Forecast panel to rate every owner, basketball decision-maker and coach" on a 0-10 scale. It promises to roll out individual rankings for ownership, general managers, and coaches in the days ahead.