Orlando Magic Trade Value Column 2020: Big decisions on the horizon

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Terrence Ross, Orlando Magic, Charlotte Hornets

Terrence Ross has regressed a ton in the first year of his new contract with the Orlando Magic. (Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images) /

Category IV — If you keep twisting my arm, I might say maybe

7. Terrence Ross (4 years, $50 million)

The Orlando Magic’s ace up their sleeve is Terrence Ross. Whenever the team feels like it needs an offensive jolt, they put Ross in the game, run him off a few screens and watch the momentum and tenor of a game change. More than any other player on the roster, teams have to specifically game plan for Ross.

As expected after a stellar 2019 season, Ross has regressed to the mean some. He is shooting just 32.7 percent from beyond the arc in averaging 13.2 points per game. That might roughly be just two fewer points per game than last year, but it is his lack of efficiency that is hurting the team.

One of the issues the Magic have faced this year is a lack of ingenuity and creativity offensively. Some of that is how the team runs plays specifically for Ross and the whole offense shifts to set him up. Some of it is that Ross has a perpetual green light to take even contested shots.

This is a down year for Ross, the worst 3-point shooting season of his career. He will learn to adjust to the defenses teams have thrown at him. And the Magic certainly can try to build a rotation that will get him better looks and more space to operate.

Ross is in the first year of his four-year deal. His salary takes a bump up next year to $13.5 million before decreasing in the final two years. It is simply too early to find much of a trade market for Ross.

Orlando needs his scoring off the bench way too much to consider trying to move off his deal quite yet.

6. Mohamed Bamba (4 years, $29.3 million, team option for 2022)

The first two years of Mohamed Bamba’s career have been frustrating.

He was a project when the team acquired him, to begin with, and they knew it would take time for him to gain the strength to play major minutes in the NBA.

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Injury cut his rookie year short and deprived him of that valuable playoff experience. It also did not help that Orlando’s best player played his position. There were already too few minutes for him to play and get on the floor.

An injury in the summer slowed things down too. The Magic have seemingly gone out of their way to make sure Khem Birch plays. And this further depresses Bamba’s playing time.

But Bamba is starting to figure things out on the floor. The Magic were always patient with his development. They were always going to be patient with him.

So teams looking to pluck a young player from a playoff team are probably going to be disappointed. The Magic are not anywhere near ready to give up on him. And Bamba is starting to reward them for it. He is showing a lot more patience and understanding where to be.

Orlando still has very high hopes for Bamba. The hope is still that he can add strength and make a push to start at some point next season. That might be a time to cash in on some of the other chips they have on the table.