The Orlando Magic have decided not to pick up their option on former lottery pick Mario Hezonja, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Orlando has declined the fourth-year option on Mario Hezonja, fifth overall pick in 2015 Draft, league sources told ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) October 31, 2017
Hezonja has struggled to show Orlando why he’s worth the pick the team spent on him when he was selected fifth overall in the 2015 NBA Draft. In his first year in the NBA, Hezonja was given 17.9 minutes per game but averaged just 6.1 points on 43.3 percent shooting from the field. Already coming off a letdown rookie campaign, he saw a drop off both in minutes (14.8) and scoring (4.9), defining his sophomore slump.
The Croatian is having a mild success this season, albeit in an even smaller amount of playing time of 12.8 minutes per game, as he’s shooting 50 percent from the field and scoring 4.5 points per contest through the team’s first six outing. So long as Evan Fournier is healthy, Hezonja is going to have a hard time getting ample minutes on the floor.
With his option for the 2018-19 option declined, Hezonja is set to become a free agent next summer. The Magic could still trade the outside gunner and it was earlier reported by Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders that Orlando even explored trading him to the Sacramento Kings for Malachi Richardson.
Sources: Kings and Magic discussed a swap of Malachi Richardson and a second-round pick for Mario Hezonja, but trade talks stalled recently.
— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) October 31, 2017
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