Piecing together the inaugural Lakeland Magic, a long way to go
With the Orlando Magic roster pretty much complete, the Lakeland Magic are next on the docket as the team puts together its G-League strategy.
The Orlando Magic roster is more or less done this summer. Orlando currently has 17 players under contract. The league will only allow teams to carry 15.
That might be bad news for Marcus Georges-Hunt and Patricio Garino. Both are on non-guaranteed deals for the upcoming year. Recent signee Khem Birch also might have to fight for his roster spot. He seemed to intimate during his media availability that his contract is non-guaranteed too.
The Magic may still look for ways to improve the roster as the trade market picks back up before the season begins. But this appears to be the roster the team will head into the season with.
The feeling among Magic fans is this is a deep team. There are several players everyone would like to see play who probably will not get very many minutes. Young players like Mario Hezonja, Wesley Iwundu, Marcus Georges-Hunt and Khem Birch are going to be hard pressed to find minutes on this roster. Even rookie Jonathan Isaac could get fewer minutes than anticipated.
There is an outlet for these players needing playing time. And an opportunity for the Magic to continue finding and developing young players.
It is something the Magic are more than willing to explore.
This year will mark the first year of the Lakeland Magic as the team moves its G-League affiliation to the nearby Central Florida town. President of basketball operations Jeff Weltman expressed his excitement for this tool nearby during his introductory press conference.
Weltman said he plans to use the Lakeland Magic extensively. And Magic CEO Alex Martins said when introducing Weltman fans in Lakeland can expect to see Magic roster players from time to time.
Orlando Magic
While the general manager of the Toronto Raptors, Weltman used the G-League extensively with the nearby Raptors 905 in Mississauga. First round pick Bruno Caboclo played 34 games for the 905 last year as he continues to develop. Pascal Siakam played 55 games including 38 starts for the Raptors, but also logged five games at the G-League and plenty of other practice time.
Their Basketball-Reference pages for these two players are a constant log of shuffling back and forth between the two teams.
For sure, the Magic likely still view practice time with the main team and playing for the NBA team to be more valuable. But if there is a stray Saturday or a period where a young player needs to get some playing time, the Magic are likely to send that player down to get a game in before rejoining the Magic.
It seems very likely with the lack of playing time on the main roster, Wesley Iwundu could see a lot of time in the G-League this year to get game experience and continue working on his offensive skills. There will almost assuredly be some time where the Magic would like to get Jonathan Isaac a bigger chunk of playing time and send him to Lakeland for a game or two.
Who else might go remains a mystery. In fact, much of the Lakeland roster remains a mystery.
The Lakeland Magic technically are transferring all the personnel from the team’s previous G-League affiliate, the Erie BayHawks. But, it being the G-League, rosters around the league are not quite set. The 2016-17 BayHawks roster is still listed on the BayHawks’ Web site rather than the Magic’s Web site.
Lakeland will also have to hire a new coaching staff with former coach Bill Peterson taking a job as a director of basketball operations with the Baylor Bears.
For sure, the remaining personnel moves the Magic make will be to add players to the G-League pool. About the only moves the main roster can still make is to use their two two-way slots. Both of those are still open with Summer League standout Derrick Walton Jr. signing a two-way deal with the Miami Heat.
At this point, it is unclear whether the Magic will sign anyone to one of these two-way slots.
The two-way contract creates some limits on how many days a player can spend at the NBA level. With few roster spots likely to be free, it may not make sense for a player to volunteer for that designation with the Magic. It may not make sense for the Magic to spend the extra expense to bring in that kind of player.
The Lakeland Magic from top to bottom is a complete mystery. They are a dream more than a reality at the moment. That may be on purpose. No team in the G-League has fully formed this roster.
Next: The Orlando Magic are embracing positionless basketball
A lot of the Magic’s final preparations for the offseason will be spent squaring things away for the G-League team. And then in the future the Magic will likely use the team to get spot starts and major minutes for young players struggling to crack the rotation.