Orlando Magic Offseason Manifesto: Attacking free agency and the trade market

With the NBA Draft behind them, the Orlando Magic have a much clearer idea of what the rest of the offseason will require to put together a functional NBA roster.

The Orlando Magic began the process of reconstructing their roster with the selections of Mohamed Bamba, Melvin Frazier and Justin Jackson in the NBA Draft.

Taking Mohamed Bamba sixth overall was most notable for a couple reasons. First, investing that level of draft capital signals Bamba is undoubtedly one of the team’s core pieces.

Secondly, with the selection of Bamba, the Magic now employ three players who only play one position: Center (in Nikola Vucevic, Bismack Biyombo and now Mohamed Bamba). Truthfully, one could argue Khem Birch (whose contract became fully guaranteed June 30) should probably only play center as well.

To a lesser degree, the selection of Melvin Frazier adds another body to the wing spot which Orlando already owns quite a bit of depth in. The Magic currently have Rodney Purvis, Wesley Iwundu, Melvin Frazier, Jonathon Simmons, Evan Fournier, Terrence Ross and/or Jonathan Isaac or Aaron Gordon. Justin Jackson probably ends up just another body at the combo forward spot or a redshirt player for the Lakeland Magic to develop.

While the Magic do not have the most bodies available at the combo forward spot, they do have their largest investment there if you believe (rightfully) Aaron Gordon is about to get a fat payday to remain in Orlando. All this in addition to using the sixth overall pick last year on Jonathan Isaac.

The last spot to look at is at point guard. With the decision to waive Shelvin Mack made, the Magic currently employ only one point guard on the roster: D.J. Augustin.

With that in mind, there are some clear patterns that emerge.

Most glaringly, the team needs to address its point guard situation. Now because the Magic own so much depth at center and at the wing, it makes a lot of sense for the Magic to examine the trade market closely to improve the team.

Now, the difficult part about trades comes down to two teams agreeing on the value of the assets they exchange. This process kills a lot of trades from evolving past brief discussion phase.

Some ideas that have been floated out there in the Twitterverse include trades for Lonzo Ball, Kemba Walker and Dennis Schroder among others. While the Magic undoubtedly need a point guard, it is the Orlando side of the equation that muddies the waters. It is difficult to figure out how much their centers are worth.

As we saw the other day, the Washington Wizards swapped Marcin Gortat to the LA Clippers for Austin Rivers. While Nikola Vucevic’s contract is more attractive than Marcin Gortat’s deal, Gortat is probably the better player when you consider his defensive prowess. Now, in contrast to that, you have Bismack Biyombo. He probably has less value than Vucevic on the market because of his contract and production.

If Rivers is considered a decent rotational combo guard on a slightly better contract than Gortat, a few places stick out as places where the Magic can explore deals involving Vucevic.

The team that most comes to mind is the Brooklyn Nets. With Jeremy Lin, Spencer Dinwiddie, Isaiah Whitehead and D’Angelo Russell on the team, the Nets employ a plethora of point guards and only one center in Jarrett Allen. Coincidentally, Lin owns nearly the exact same contract as Vucevic and was previously a player under current Orlando Magic coach Steve Clifford with the Charlotte Hornets.

That reunion makes a lot of sense for both teams. Especially since Lin had one of his best seasons in that make-good year in Charlotte.

The next team that makes a lot of sense is the Milwaukee Bucks. In this scenario, the Bucks would take on Nikola Vucevic in a swap for Eric Bledsoe. The Orlando Magic could throw in some picks (the future Oklahoma City Thunder pick or second-round picks).

To be honest, the Bucks have plenty of centers on their team. But none of them are as consistent as Vucevic. Nor do they fit as well next to Giannis Antetokounmpo as Nikola Vucevic does. The Magic get Eric Bledsoe and finally have their primary shot creator issue handled.

In Biyombo’s case, there are far less realistic options available.

In reality, Biyombo’s contract makes him nearly untradable. Not unless the team is taking back an equally crippling contract.

In this scenario, the Magic would look at the terrible contracts Dennis Schroder and Brandon Knight. Schroder, while more talented, has off-the-court issues that might scare the Magic away. He also has a contract that lasts longer than Biyombo’s.

Knight, on the other hand, lasts the same amount of years as Biyombo. He is not much of a point guard and more of a shooting guard. That might mean he has the length for the position that president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman seems to covet.

The Magic could choose to explore free agency options, but the market is pretty thin.

Their options include Isaiah Thomas and Elfrid Payton. That is pretty much it as far as unrestricted free agents go within the Magic’s price range.

As far as restricted free agents go, there are plenty of options out there. But Orlando’s max contract offer will likely be the non-taxpayer MLE that starts at around $8.4 million per year. A full MLE offer for Dante Exum, Marcus Smart or Fred VanVleet is likely not enough for their respective teams not to match that offer.

So in that case, it probably makes more sense for Orlando to explore the trade market for point guards.

As for the MLE that Orlando can offer, there are plenty of guys to look at including; J.J. Redick, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Avery Bradley and Will Barton. All of these players are potentially obtainable with the full MLE.

But, as mentioned earlier, the Magic have plenty of depth on the wing. The solution here is to trade a wing away. Possibly in combination with a center to land a starting-caliber point guard. All without tying the Magic’s books up further or paying the tax.

This is why it is extremely important the Magic aggressively attack the trade market for a point guard.

The value the Magic can get out of the full MLE this season thanks to the lack of space available to most teams due to the disastrous 2016 cap spike puts Orlando in an enviable position. They can use that to bolster their depth rather than fill a need if they find that point guard in a trade.

Next: Orlando Magic free agency to-do list

This offseason should include a lot of movement for the Magic if they intend to balance out their roster. There is a clear attack plan laid out here for the Magic if they want to make the best of their assets.