The Orlando Magic have been quiet as free agency officially opens up. Jeff Weltman said the team is taking a long-term approach to improvement.
The Orlando Magic have waited patiently in free agency. They have bided their time and kept very quiet. With little cap space to work with and some difficulty moving players around, the Magic were always going to be a bit more constrained this summer.
Even as the free agency moratorium ended Thursday, the Magic had not made any moves to change the team or transform the roster. That seems odd for a 29-win team.
It is the situation Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman has found himself in. Instead of rushing headlong to free agency to rescue the roster, he has promised to take the long-term approach and view.
Weltman has promised to be strategic and patient. That is not what some Magic fans want to hear. But it is the direction he is taking the Magic’s roster considering the cards he has to play.
"“I think our approach hasn’t changed a lot,” Weltman said following the Magic’s final Summer League game Thursday. “We’ve really looked to take a kind of long view, cautious approach. There is a lot less money in the free agent market this year than last year. The approach we have taken is to kind of wait and see how some of that shakes out toward the next phase of free agency and see what players we can get into discussions with at that point.”"
Weltman said the team has kept in touch with some players they are interested in as they continue to gauge the market.
Orlando is certainly open, it seems, to use their available cap space in trades to absorb salary. That may be part of the reason the Magic have sat tight and let the market play out some. They have been attached only to a few names in free agency.
The Magic are not about to make the splash they made last year that put them in the cap hole they face now.
Of course, last year, then-general manager Rob Hennigan had max cap room to spend during the league’s summer cap spike bonanza and a seeming edict to build a Playoff team. It forced him to spend to bring in the talent he believed would take them over the top.
Obviously, the Magic did not make it there. The team won 29 games and fired Hennigan at the season’s conclusion.
Weltman is left to pick up some of those pieces, ladened with $77.9 million in guaranteed salary and roughly $11 million in cap room to use to improve the team. He still has four years of Evan Fournier ($17 million per year) and three years left of D.J. Augustin ($7.3 million) and Bismack Biyombo ($17 million) to deal with.
It is understandable for him to be patient and frugal as he tries to resettle the Magic’s roster and future flexibility. Unlike Hennigan, it does not appear Weltman has the same expectation to deliver a Playoff berth immediately.
"“I think being reckless is never the right answer,” Weltman said. “I think that when I say being cautious, we’re trying to read the market and where ethe market becomes a value proposition and that stage.“I think that’s what every team tries to do. I would say that’s the overriding process that teams have in place. Some of that depends on where you are as a team and how much money you have to spend. But, as an overriding principle, I think it’s always wise to understand where you can enter the market at a valuable point.”"
The Magic just have not found the value they would like to enter the market yet.
With limited cap space to spend, Orlando was not going to be able to throw money around at big-name free agents. They are waiting to see what shakes down from the trees, so to speak, at their desired price point as they look to add depth to the roster.
Orlando, in free agency, is simply looking to create flexibility. The team is looking for one- or two-year deals to maintain that while finding contributors. But Wetlman said the Magic would go longer if the deal makes sense.
So far nothing has shaken free — although maybe fans would dispute that.
Orlando Magic
And again, the options for trades are still on the table for the team if it wants to take on more salary for a team looking to dump cap. It all points to a season where the Magic will sit back and evaluate their roster and let the season happen with few expectations. That just may be how the Magic have to play their cards.
In reality, Weltman is still getting settled into his new job with the Magic too.
While the team has made some important decisions in the Draft and free agency in the last week, Weltman said he is still familiarizing himself with the Magic roster as people and with the Magic staff that remains.
Players will trickle in and out of the Amway Center for the next several months. Weltman will get his chance to meet with and discuss the team with them from there as he learns the nuances and relationships within the organization.
That information will help him shape the franchise moving forward. It seems some players and staff will get their wish to see how far they can take the positives at the end of last season.
But the calendar does not wait. Free agency is ongoing. And Weltman and the Magic will assess ways to improve their team for both the short and the long term.
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As frustrating as it is after five years of a rebuild, Orlando is keeping an eye on the long term more than the short term. And so the Magic are being cautious with their free agency and how they look to add to the team moving forward.