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Orlando Magic NBA Draft, NBA Offseason calendar and facts and figures

By Philip Rossman-Reich

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 16: Deputy Commissioner of the NBA, Mark Tatum announces the Orlando Magic's 6th pick during the 2017 NBA Draft Lottery at the New York Hilton in New York, New York. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - MAY 16: Deputy Commissioner of the NBA, Mark Tatum announces the Orlando Magic's 6th pick during the 2017 NBA Draft Lottery at the New York Hilton in New York, New York. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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The Orlando Magic offseason really begins with the NBA Draft Lottery on Tuesday. Here are the important dates for the rest of the offseason calendar.

The NBA offseason is set to begin.

Yes, the Playoffs are still going on. The NBA Finals will not start until May 31 and then take a few weeks from there. The actual calendar does not flip over until June 30 anyway. But the offseason begins nonetheless.

The NBA Draft Lottery will put the first piece into place. The final draft order will get set Tuesday night.

And that will start the process of the offseason in motion. The focus on adding new players to the team will take primacy for most of the teams in the league. There will be workouts and interviews and all that good stuff to follow.

The NBA Draft Lottery might as well be the official beginning of the offseason — for everyone not in the NBA’s final four.

Yes, the Orlando Magic are still looking for a head coach. They would typically have one in place before the NBA Draft Lottery. But then again, three other teams are still searching for a coach.

So what is on the calendar for the Magic this offseason? What are the dates they need to watch?

The first one is obviously today…

May 15, 2018 — NBA Draft Lottery

Yes, things start off today with the NBA Draft Lottery. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. from Chicago on ESPN.

You can also tune in to our Orlando Magic Daily Draft Lottery Google Hangout to interact with myself and Ricky Scricca of Orlando Magic Daily, Aaron Goldstone of Orlando Pinstriped Post and Andy Harrington and Steven Garlick of Orlando Magic Podcast. We will discuss the Magic’s season and coaching search and look ahead to the NBA Draft too.

All before we watch the Lottery live.

Of course, what you really want to know is the odds if you do not know them by hear already.

The Magic will have an 8.8 percent chance to win the top pick and a 29.1 percent chance to get into the top three. The team still has the greatest chance of landing sixth. But if one team can jump into the top three, why not the Magic?

Magic executive vice president Pat Williams will represent the Magic in the actual Lottery room that occurs off camera. President of basketball operations Jeff Weltman will represent the team on the dais on the broadcast.

It is all a Lottery after all. Chance is the only thing at play.

Orlando will use the information they get from the Lottery to get themselves ready for the next big even later on this week.

May 16-18, 2018 — NBA Draft Combine

Yes, the NBA pulled a little bit of a trick this year.

In an effort to prevent some of the top prospects from skipping their NBA Draft Combine event, the NBA is holding the NBA Draft Lottery in Chicago and the same week as the NBA Draft Combine.

Many of the top prospects will be in Chicago for the Lottery. And many of them will remain there at least for measurements and interviews the rest of the week.

This is the event that many people believe is why the Magic need to have their head coach in place.

Indeed, most of the top prospects outside of Luka Doncic and Deandre Ayton will be in attendance for the Draft Combine. More important than their measurements or any of the drills, they will meet with the teams for the first time for short interviews. Each team gets the opportunity to sit down with selected prospects for a short period.

This is more of an introduction. But it helps the team begin to organize its dossiers and profiles of the prospect as people. This is their first interaction. And it is a big one.

June 21, 2018 — NBA Draft

Between the Combine and the NBA Draft, of course, teams will put players through workouts and give them the job interview of a lifetime. Each team will be gathering information. But they ultimately will have to make a decision.

That decision day comes June 21, 2018. A little bit earlier in the calendar year than usual. But that is how things go thanks to a calendar quirk.

The Magic will be fairly active on draft night.

They have the fifth-best odds to win the Lottery on Tuesday. So they will pick anywhere from pick No. 1 to pick No. 8. It is mostly like to be pick No. 5 or No. 6.

But they will have plenty of other work to do. The Draft is a time for a lot of action in the trade market. Orlando is likely going to explore the trade market to flip over some core pieces and create some change on the roster.

The team will have a few additional assets to do that. Orlando will have two second-round picks in this draft. The team will pick 35th (their own pick) and 41st (the pick they received from the Phoenix Suns in the Elfrid Payton trade). It is possible the Orlando Magic could use those to get a second first-round pick late in the round or they could use that in another trade.

Or they could just take a player. There still should be valuable and strong players in that area of the draft.

To be sure, Orlando will have some options available to them on Draft night. It will be a busy evening.

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Orlando Magic

July 1, 2018 — Free agency begins

As usual, the NBA calendar flips over June 30 and the offseason really begins July 1. That is the official beginning fo the 2019 season at least.

Free agents will become eligible to negotiate with other teams at the beginning of the month.

Orlando will not have much room to work with. They have roughly $24 million of cap room to work with, but $16 million of that goes to Aaron Gordon‘s cap hold. And that space also assumes they renounce their rights to Rodney Purvis, Khem Birch and Shelvin Mack. That is not likely to happen.

It essentially means the Magic have minimal cap room. Have to spend most of it on Aaron Gordon — or sign whoever they want to sign before signing Gordon because Gordon would then eat all their cap room.

At least there is still the mid-level exception of about $8 million to spend in free agency. If the team wants to. Which . . . who knows?

July 6-17, 2018: NBA Summer League

There is no more Orlando Summer League. The smaller venue setting was fun for the local media and for NBA executives, but the team has bitten the bullet, gotten rid of the expense and jumped ship to Las Vegas.

So the Magic along with the other 29 teams will descend upon Las Vegas for this Summer League tournament.

Fans who have wanted the Magic under the spotlight of Vegas will finally get it. And the team will not only debut their new draft pick during this event, they will also get a good look at Jonathan Isaac ahead of his second year. Judging by his early offseason work, those results should be promising.

Next: Orlando Magic Daily Mailbag: New Beginnings

That will be the Magic’s offseason. By September, we will be back to preparing for the 2019 season to begin in mid-October!