Building depth positions the Orlando Magic for their future

The offseason the Orlando Magic just had, has confused many observers. Why tie yourself to a low playoff seed? But it makes sense, you just have to think about it a bit.

This offseason was a critical one for the Orlando Magic.

The team stood at somewhat of a crossroads.

They had just made their first playoff appearance since 2012. But some of their main contributors to that success — Nikola Vucevic, Terrence Ross and also Khem Birch were free agents.

In the cases of Terrence Ross and Nikola Vucevic, both players were going to command lofty contracts that would financially bind this team in the long term.

Orlando had to choose whether to bring these guys back or let them walk for next to nothing.

Ultimately, the Magic chose to run it back. They kept all those players no matter the price.

In addition to bringing back all of their meaningful contributors last season, the Magic surprisingly drafted another combo forward in Chuma Okeke and signed combo forward Al-Farouq Aminu.

While Chuma Okeke, probably is not expected to contribute this year, Al-Farouq Aminu will immediately step into a role where he will back up both Jonathan Isaac and Aaron Gordon (and start if one of them is injured).

But long term it does not appear there will be enough room for all four of those players.

Another curious decision the Magic made was to stretch Timofey Mozgov in order to re-sign Khem Birch. The Magic decided to take on the financial hit of Mozgov for the next three seasons in order to bring back a third center in Birch.

Birch proved to be quite a valuable contributor last season and easily could have been a backup for many NBA teams.

Many have argued these moves locked the Magic into mediocrity. Orlando is making moves to stay under the luxury tax line for a team that barely made the playoffs last year.

Using figures reported by Josh Robbins of The Athletic, Vucevic signed a four-year, $100-million deal that is descending from a starting salary of $28 million. Ross signed a four-year, $54-million deal that is actually only guaranteed for $50 million with $4 million in unlikely incentives. Aminu signed a three-year, $30-million deal with a player option on the third year.

Of those deals, only Vucevic stands out as one that will significantly hamper the team moving forward.

What is interesting about the offseason the Magic have compiled is they deepened the roster significantly. Orlando suddenly has a bench to play with.

The roster is now full of players who are capable of being replacement-level NBA rotation players. That is a luxury this team has not always had.

But these moves still raise some questions.

Do the Magic intend to move forward with logjams at a bunch of their positions? Most notably, the Magic frontcourt is loaded with talent. Why pay Terrence Ross that much when Evan Fournier is already making a ton of money at the same ideal spot for both players?

The answer to me is simple. The Magic are going to be very active in the trade market this upcoming season or in the near future.

Orlando is set up with several players who will be fighting for playing time. And when the time comes, they will have the resources to consolidate them and go after the big fish.

This is the power of depth.

It is fairly clear Mohamed Bamba and Nikola Vucevic cannot co-exist on the court. On the team, Mohamed Bamba can continue to back up Nikola Vucevic, but one of the things Bamba needs to do in order to fix his problems is to play a lot of minutes.

Okeke will not be an issue this year as the Magic are going to take it slow with him. But next season, there is no current path to playing time for him. The Magic still do not have any future at point guard outside of the enigma that is Markelle Fultz.

The Magic have loaded up their frontcourt in an effort to preserve value, but also to complete trades that will force Orlando’s depth pieces to become rotation players. Even by bringing back Terrence Ross, the Magic made Evan Fournier expendable. Wesley Iwundu appears to be a legitimate rotation player on the wing.

Who will the Magic go after?