Orlando Magic Daily Mailbag Volume 23: Draft to the Future!

From Jonathan Leonard, via e-mail

"Got a couple of questions for you to pick from: 1. Which current player, on the roster, is most likely to be traded at the NBA draft? 2. Since the team needs lots of help at all positions, which player is most likely to be drafted at #6?"

I have answered a few of these questions in the course of this mailbag. But let’s put it all in one place.

I will start with No. 2. The Magic do need a lot of help at all positions. As I said, the team does not really have any positional needs. It just needs to get better.

So I cannot say then what player is most likely to be drafted at No. 6. I cannot tell which direction the Magic want to go. Except to say they will take the best player available. That part makes the most sense. And it is the direction the team should go.

At this point, the three players most likely available at No. 6 are Dennis Smith, Malik Monk and Jonathan Isaac. Jayson Tatum might slip to sixth. De’Aaron Fox might slip to sixth. There are a lot of different moving parts. It is the draft after all.

I think any of those options will be fine for the magic. They all have star potential and all can fill a role pretty immediately for the Magic. The only players I would avoid at the top of this draft are Lauri Markkanen, Zach Collins and (maybe) Frank Ntilikina. I think around pick seven or eight there is a significant drop-off in talent to the middle of the draft.

I am very confident the Magic will get a good player at No. 6.

But the Magic will need more to get over the hump. A draft pick alone is not going to change the Magic’s fortunes completely. They need an influx of talent too.

And the best way for Orlando to improve — aside from internal improvement, which for many players seems increasingly unlikely to the degree the team needs — is to make a deal.

As I described above, the three trade candidates between Evan Fournier, Nikola Vucevic and Elfrid Payton are not going to be easy to trade. Not without taking a bit of a sacrifice.

I think Payton is ultimately the easiest to trade because he is on a rookie deal. Someone somewhere has to give him some value — although not as much as the Magic do.

But I think the easiest player to trade (outside Aaron Gordon) is off-board. I think it is Terrence Ross. Ross still has a fair amount of mystery and hope in his development — judging by the way Magic fans talked about him when he came over. And he is on a very affordable contract — $10.5 million per year the next two years.

Unlike Vucevic, Terrence Ross’ skills still have significant value throughout the league. Someone somewhere will believe they can make Ross into the best, 50-point scoring Terrence Ross. The Magic are probably not ready to deal him immediately. He is one of their best shooters at the moment. But Ross would have a market if the team makes him available.

Next: How the Orlando Magic should handle their free agents

That will do it for this edition of the mailbag. There were a lot of questions, so I will be back again next week to answer more of your questions!