The Orlando Magic are keeping the band together for the foreseeable future after re-signing Terrence Ross to a four-year, $52 million deal.
Some free agency periods tend to drag out with teams waiting a couple of days to do their business and spend all of their cap space.
This time around, the money is flying around already as the tampering rules have all but been eliminated.
And the Orlando Magic wrapped up the main parts of their free agency only 10 minutes into the official time to sign players.
The Magic have agreed to terms with their two biggest free agents, Nikola Vucevic and Terrence Ross, to four-year deals shortly after the 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time official period to talk with players opened up.
Marc Stein of The New York Times first reported the Magic agreed to a four-year, $100-million deal with Nikola Vucevic.
Orlando and Nikola Vucevic, as first reported Friday by @NYTSports, have reached agreement on a four-year deal worth an estimated $100 million, league sources say
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 30, 2019
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports the Magic and Terrence Ross agreed to a four-year, $54-million deal.
Free agent Terrence Ross has agreed to a four-year, $54M deal to return to the Orlando Magic, CAA agent Aaron Mintz tells ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 30, 2019
Like Vucevic, Ross had a career year this past season in Orlando, developing into one of the best bench players in the league as the Magic made their first postseason appearance since 2012. When the Vucevic deal was reported, bringing Ross back for the same amount of years made complete sense.
Before re-signing Ross or Vucevic, the Magic had roughly $18 million in cap space. Re-signing Vucevic put Orlando over the cap with his agreed deal, limiting their options to add talent.
Ross was likely to have plenty of suitors. The Magic had to strike a deal for him to keep the team afloat in the playoff battle in the Eastern Conference. Orlando really had few other options.
The alternative would be to let Ross sign elsewhere and use the $9 million mid-level exception to add to the roster, or bring Ross back and maintain the mid-level exception to improve your team, as they did with Al-Farouq Aminu.
This was the best move for the Magic after re-signing Vucevic. And Ross agreeing to return without testing the market much shows he enjoys his current situation in Orlando.
In fact, Ross recorded an Instagram story of himself and his family wakeboarding at a lake near Orlando before confirming his decision online.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BzWaYxKnLip/
Fans were certainly split on whether the Magic should let both players walk and return to irrelevancy with a full-blown youth movement or re-sign the pair and continue to push for bottom-half playoff berths, and the team chose the latter.
The immediate reaction from the Nikola Vucevic deal was focused on Mohamed Bamba, who is coming off stress fracture to his left tibia. Mohamed Bamba came off the bench for the Magic this season, spelling Nikola Vucevic. That looks to be his role for the remainder of his contract barring a trade.
While that may be frustrating, it points to the Magic choosing to instill a winning environment over throwing Bamba into a role they feel he is not ready for. There is no reason to speculate or consider Bamba not remaining part of the young core, and it is a positive to play behind a player like Vucevic for an organization where the plan is clearly to get Bamba valuable postseason experience.
Bringing back Ross furthers that stance to value making the playoffs and trust their ability to identify talent in the middle of the NBA Draft.
Without re-signing Ross, the Magic had limited options to improve their team, and now have the seventh-highest bench scorer from last season back to lead their bench. His 15.1 points per game were 42.3 percent of the Magic’s 35.7 bench points per game, highlighting his importance to the second unit staying afloat.
Ross is a flamethrower who can get his shot off in a multitude of ways. He was the team’s best shooter and is instant offense simply by running him off screens or through dribble hand-offs. He spaces the floor for everybody he shares the floor with, and his ability to get hot in an instant impacts games in a positive way for the Magic.
The agreed deals for Vucevic and Ross signal the team is primed to make the playoffs for the next couple of seasons. it keeps the youth movement at bay, for now.
But these are positives for the young players. They get to take their time evolving into larger roles, have some continuity with the players around them (an underrated aspect in development) and consistently play postseason basketball.
The years and money for Ross would always go hand-in-hand with Vucevic if they brought him back. The four years do seem long, but there is something to be said with roles and happiness within an organization.
Both players were pleased with being the focal points of the bench and first units respectively. They chose to stay in Orlando, which cannot be overstated.
The Ross and Vucevic deals do not put Orlando over the top, but keep them as solid bets to continue making the postseason.
Bringing both players back was the best they were going to do this summer with limited cap space. There is nothing wrong with betting on chemistry to continue this team’s upward trajectory as their youth develops.