Orlando Magic Daily
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Orlando Magic giving Chuma Okeke a redshirt year benefits everyone

By Philip Rossman-Reich

The Orlando Magic will give unsigned rookie Chuma Okeke a year to recover and get healthy. (Photo by Sean Berry/NBAE via Getty Images)
The Orlando Magic will give unsigned rookie Chuma Okeke a year to recover and get healthy. (Photo by Sean Berry/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Chuma Okeke, Steve Clifford, Jeff Weltman, Orlando Magic
ORLANDO, FL – JUNE 21: Orlando Magic President of Basketball Operations Jeff Weltman and Head Coach Steve Clifford introduce Cuma Okeke as the 2019 NBA Draftee during a press conference on June 21, 2019 at Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. 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 2019 NBAE (Photo by Gary Bassing/NBAE via Getty Images) /

Financial implications

Holding off a year would benefit Chuma Okeke financially too. Albeit a small amount.

Waiting to sign his rookie-scale deal by a year would allow him to sign under the 2020 rookie scale rather than the 2019 rookie scale. That would bump his salary up by $400,000 in the first year. That is a small amount — especially considering if he signed with Lakeland, his salary would top off at $35,000.

The other financial implication comes from the Orlando Magic’s end.

While the team has to keep a cap hold to retain Okeke’s draft rights, that does not count against their payroll for the luxury tax. The luxury tax line only deals with actual payroll and does not include any cap holds.

Okeke’s rookie-scale cap hold is $2.2 million. That would affect the Magic’s available cap space. But they have none at this point anyway, having spent it all.

Orlando’s guaranteed payroll for the 2020 season right now $128.8 million, according to Basketball Insider’s salary database. The luxury tax line is $132 million. Okeke’s salary would put the Magic right below the luxury tax line.

Orlando spent a lot of capital this offseason to stay under the luxury tax line — including waiving and stretching Timofey Mozgov’s contract. That is certainly a financial goal for the team.

Keeping Chuma Okeke off the books another year would allow the Magic to add another player to the roster — such as DaQuan Jeffries — without going into the tax.

That has been a guiding principle for a lot of the Magic’s moves after their big rush to start free agency. It appears that letting Okeke redshirt helps accomplish this goal.