Will the Magic’s latest reset work?

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The Magic have lurched since trading Dwight Howard four summers ago. They scored well on most of their key rebuilding moves, including the Howard trade, but they never picked high enough in the right draft to nab the tentpole superstar who would define their on-court style.

In trying to microwave the rebuild, Orlando blew cap space on veterans who contributed nothing and dealt away one young core player — Tobias Harris — for two retreads who stayed only as long as their shouting coach benefactor. (Other young players who didn’t fit Orlando’s vision — Ryan Anderson, Maurice Harkless — were tossed away for almost literally nothing).

The win-now moves got them only a little closer to pseudo-contention. Orlando is the only team to rank 16th or worse in both points scored and allowed per possession over each of the last four seasons, per NBA.com. Philadelphia’s old regime sees the star-less mishmash and thinks: “This is why we trusted the process.”

In related news, that regime — including deposed GM Sam Hinkie’s handpicked analytics crew — will be mostly gone by the end of August, league sources say. Even owners with high pain tolerance grow impatient. The Magic entered this summer with a mandate: Add defense-first veterans in their mid-20s who could lift their young core and grow under Frank Vogel — the team’s fourth head coach in 18 months, and a great accidental hire after the Vic Mackey debacle. Climb up to 45 wins, and perhaps an outside free agent will bat eyes at an intriguing team in a sunny state with no income tax.

“This is the longest period of time for our franchise not to be in the playoffs,” said Alex Martins, the team’s CEO. “Our fans deserve a winning product.”

To rival executives, the Magic still look aimless after a frenzy of transactions sloughed away 10 of the 16 guys who logged at least 200 minutes last season. They paid a backup center, Bismack Biyombo, starter money after sniffing around a similar deal for Joakim Noah, per several league sources. In a league low on two-way wings and oversaturated with big men, Orlando swapped Victor Oladipo for Serge Ibaka — even though they had Aaron Gordon entrenched at Ibaka’s position. Then they paid Jeff Green $15 million.

“It feels like a whole new team,” Gordon told ESPN.com.

“I guess the rebuilding process wasn’t going as well as they wanted,” said Nikola Vucevic, the presumptive starting center.

Magic brass know how it looks from the outside: too many guys jostling for minutes up front, and only a single proven full-time wing in Evan Fournier — re-signed, by the way, on a knockout five-year deal. But from that chaos, the Magic hope they unearthed an identity.

“If Serge Ibaka weren’t here, Aaron Gordon would be my power forward,” Vogel said. “But Serge is here. Aaron is going to be playing [small forward]. We are going to put the ball in his hands a lot. We’re going to use him like Paul George.”

That would make the Magic huge and mobile — especially when they have Gordon, Ibaka, and Biyombo on the floor together. Those three can switch on defense, pound the glass on offense, and form a six-armed rim-protecting hydra to fix Orlando’s glaring weakness. The Magic are plotting a counter-revolution. “In today’s small-ball NBA, we think we can beat the [expletive] out of teams in the paint,” Vogel said.

Gordon is stoked to stretch his skill set. “I’m gonna be like a third guard,” he said. “I’ll have a much bigger ballhandling responsibility, and I’m all for that.”

The notion of Gordon as primarily a wing is almost shocking, and a massive organizational risk. He can’t shoot (yet), and he has very little NBA-level experience as a primary ball handler. Playing Gordon and Ibaka at the forward spots takes them further from the rim on defense, reducing the fear factor of their shot-blocking.

Gordon’s limitations on offense didn’t matter as much when he played power forward, with three perimeter guys around him. He grew comfortable there last season as a hoppier and less refined version of Draymond Green; he finished better at the rim, drew more free throws, zipped canny passes and cut his turnovers.

There are people within the team who think that by midseason, it will be clear Orlando’s best lineups feature Gordon at power forward and Ibaka at center — sort of a problem given the $30 million per year invested in Vucevic and Biyombo.

Meanwhile, groups lumping Gordon alongside two traditional bigs and Elfrid Payton, perhaps an even worse shooter than Gordon, could barf up bricks as defenses strangle the lane. With the rim walled off, the Magic have settled for a ton of midrangers and struggled to earn foul shots.

“We might have to win games 68-65,” Vogel said, laughing.

The Magic are betting that the Ibaka/Vucevic combo brings enough shooting to open the floor for Payton and Gordon — and that sliding Oladipo’s minutes to Fournier and Mario Hezonja brings a major upgrade in shooting. They envision Gordon acting almost as a center at times, cutting for dunks as Ibaka and …

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