Orlando Magic use up almost all cap room, so how about 2016?
The Orlando Magic’s roster is almost completely full and so is their cap room, with just about $1 million left. Where does that leave the team financially?
The Orlando Magic did not go on a crazy spending spree this summer. They certainly could have with the cap room they had entering the offseason.
Now that the offseason maneuvering is more or less done — the Magic have 14 players under contract after signing Melvin Ejim on Tuesday — where are the Magic at money-wise?
They more or less spent all their cap room on re-signing Tobias Harris and acquiring C.J. Watson, Jason Smith and Mario Hezonja. The Magic have about $1.9 million in cap room according to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders. That leaves them with little more to add to the roster except for guarantees to camp invites they are trying to convince to spend the year in Erie.
"The Magic have a little bit of breathing room under the cap, but not enough to make a splashy move. The more likely scenario is Orlando uses some of the cash to guarantee some money to camp invites with the intention of stashing them in the D-League like they did a last year with Seth Curry, Peyton Siva and Kadeem Batts.The Magic currently have 14 players under contract not including second rounder Tyler Harvey or guard Keith Appling who they were reported to have reached a contract with, so there isn’t much room on the roster for more.The Magic could trigger a trade or two to open up spots, but the general belief is this is the group that’s going to open the season. How the parts fit together will tell if it stays that way throughout the season."
Yes, entering the summer the Magic had a bit of cap space. Enough to offer Paul Millsap the max. And, yes, the Magic would still have all their exceptions if they wanted to use them.
With the roster pretty much full, the Magic are not going to be making any more moves in free agency or use any of those exceptions available to them — the nontaxpayer mid-level exception is for about $5.5 million. There just is not a ton of room for them, nor any free agents worth using it on.
The only major move the Magic could make is a trade, but as Kyler reports, that is not likely at this point. Something can always emerge, but it is safe to assume the Magic are settled for the summer minus those D-League/training camp signings (Keith Appling should be one, as the Magic have reportedly agreed to a deal with the Erie point guard).
The Magic’s roster is more or less set again.
So now that the Magic have spent almost all of their cap room for 2015 — an estimated $29 million including Mario Hezonja’s rookie contract, but not including the unconfirmed guarantee for Melvin Ejim. Where does that leave them for 2016?
The first preface is the salary cap will increase once again next summer. This year’s cap came in at around $70 million. Next year, the cap is expected to increase to $88 million at a minimum. That is another monumental increase.
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According to Eric Pincus’ salary database on Basketball Insiders, the Magic have $45.7 million committed to next year’s team. Add in $13.5 million in options for Victor Oladipo, Elfrid Payton and Aaron Gordon and the total comes to about $59.2 million. That comes before accounting for any contract for Evan Fournier, Dewayne Dedmon or Andrew Nicholson (all restricted free agents). Remember too, Tobias Harris’ deal increases to its highest amount in the four-year deal in 2016.
So if we work on $59.2 million for next year (not including whoever the Magic draft), the Magic would probably have about $20 million in cap room. Everyone will get probably at least a $10 million cap boost thanks to the rising cap. And a max contract worth about 30 percent of the cap — $24 million per year as a base salary.
It would seem the Magic will not have max salary space next season. When Kevin Durant is going to be a free agent, mind you.
The Magic could certainly free up some cap space through trades or by renouncing some of the restricted free agents or options they have (the team has until the end of October to pick up the team option on Shabazz Napier for his third year). But saying what will happen at this point is only pure speculation.
This is not to say the Magic cannot make any major free agent moves next summer to improve the roster after this season’s play. Thanks to the salary cap increase, $20 million is a lot of money to throw around. And because the Magic are still below this year’s cap, well below the luxury tax line and hold a portion of a $1.6 million trade exception acquired for Maurice Harkless, the Magic can still take on some money in a trade for a bigger name player (so long as the result of the trade does not take them over the tax line, which is at $83 million this year).
Orlando still has a bit of flexibility to make moves and acquire players this season. And they still have plenty of flexibility to supplement the roster next season.
However the Magic are not likely to be players for any max players next year unless the cap takes an unexpected jump. That is just not how the cap sets up with Tobias Harris’ contract set to increase to $17.2 million, the highest of his four-year deal.
Once again, Orlando seems to have put its rebuild behind the young talent it has collected already. They are going to rely on their internal improvement to push the team forward. And, as they sort through what they have, they will remain opportunistic in exploring trade ideas to support and supplement the players on their roster as they develop.