The Erie BayHawks announced the affiliate players from the Orlando Magic. These are likely the players the Magic will watch in the D-League this year.
The Erie BayHawks roster will get finalized Sunday during the D-League Draft. The core of the team though will consist of several players the Orlando Magic will have a special eye on.
The BayHawks announced Branden Dawson, Cliff Alexander and Ramon Galloway will join the team as Orlando Magic affiliate players.
Both Branden Dawson and Cliff Alexander joined the Magic for training camp. Ramon Galloway was signed following the preseason and cut the next day so the Magic could retain his rights and send him to Erie.
The D-League allows each team to designate up to four players cut after training camp as affiliate players for their D-League team. This does not give the Magic any special rights. These players sign with the league itself. Any team can call them up.
But this does suggest the Magic want to keep a close eye on these players. They will likely get an invite back to Summer League next year with another chance to impress and get a training camp invite or a contract next year.
There is still the possibility too that the Magic direct the BayHawks to acquire Nick Johnson‘s D-League rights and make him their fourth designated player. Johnson played for the Austin Spurs last year. The BayHawks would have to acquire him — likely using one of their draft picks — from the Spurs to have him on their roster.
The Magic direct the basketball operations for the BayHawks, including the coaching staff. So it serves as a minor league system of sorts. The BayHawks will run sets similar to the Magic under coach Bill Peterson’s direction.
The three players the Magic assigned to the BayHawks certainly are intriguing.
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Alexander is an intriguing prospect who was one of the top high school prospects when he arrived at Kansas. He struggled his freshman year and has been in and out of the NBA after going undrafted. He averaged 15.0 points and 7.3 rebounds per game with the Santa Cruz Warriors in four games last year. Alexander is still looking to unlock his talent as a traditional power forward.
Dawson is a bit more of a tweener. Dawson averaged 10.3 points per game and 4.4 rebounds per game on 51.8 percent shooting last year in the D-League. That includes averaging 19.9 points and 8.3 rebounds per game in eight appearances for the BayHawks. Dawson at Michigan State played like a power forward. But at 6-foot-6, he has still had to work to develop his shot to stay on the field.
Galloway played in Italy last year after a strong career at LaSalle. He is a bit of a tweener too as an undersized shooting guard. He averaged 11.7 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game last year.
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These are the players the Magic are going to be watching closest most likely in Erie this year. There is the chance that some of them may get called up to the main roster in January (provided the Magic cut one player off their roster — both Damjan Rudez and Arinze Onuaku are on non-guaranteed deals).