The Orlando Magic have some needs on the wing to improve their depth and 3-point shooting. As the offseason looms ahead, the Magic have options to get one.
The Orlando Magic are a playoff-caliber team in the Eastern Conference.
Maybe that line is not saying a whole lot. At 30-35, the team was on track to finish with a worse record than last year’s 42-40 season but still finish as the 7-seed. The season as a whole is viewed as a disappointment, although nobody should reject the reality of a playoff series even if it means a sweep from the Milwaukee Bucks.
The other thing no one should deny is the Magic are not satisfied with finishing seventh once again. The Magic might still be a fairly young team. But with two playoff appearances under their belt, they have to want more and look for ways to break through to the upper tiers of the Eastern Conference.
A lot of that will take internal development. They need that youth — especially in Aaron Gordon, Jonathan Isaac and Markelle Fultz in the short term — to crystallize into something bigger. That is what a lot of people saw in this Magic team at the beginning of the season that did not come to complete fruition.
So there is a bit of emptiness. The team is searching for answers to get better. And that is going to be the difficult task ahead.
Orlando has a clear need for this offseason. The Magic have settled in at 10th in the league in defensive rating as the league hit the coronavirus hiatus. That is lower than last year’s number and the defense has slipped considerably.
But part of the reason the defense has struggled so much overall is the offense has been so poor. The Magic had the top offense in the league in the 10 games since the All-Star Game, showing that the team has plenty of offensive potential when it ramps up the pace. But the team overall has been one of the worst offensive teams in the league.
The Magic are 24th in the league in offensive rating this year, scoring 107.5 points per 100 possessions. That is with a 50.3-percent effective field goal percentage, the third-worst mark in the league.
To be sure, the Magic’s biggest need this offseason is shooting. If the team wants to take another step, it needs to get the shooting respect to run their offense more cleanly. Everything the Magic do this offseason has to have shooting in mind.
Diving through the depth chart, it is clear the Magic need to find some wing help. There is a ton of uncertainty with Evan Fournier’s potential free agency and questions about the Magic’s wing depth. Additionally, James Ennis, Wesley Iwundu and Melvin Frazier can become free agents on the wing too.
The Magic seem set at forward with the grouping of Jonathan Isaac, Aaron Gordon, Al-Farouq Aminu and Chuma Okeke in the fold. They could use another point guard somewhere with the likelihood they will not be able to keep both Michael Carter-Williams and D.J. Augustin in free agency.
A lot can change still. Trades will open up and the Magic could look to make changes via the trade market, shifting where they look in the draft and free agency.
For now, we will assume the roster stays fairly static and look into the early targets to shore up their wing depth.
The Draft Option
The first option the Orlando Magic have to fill their shooting and wing needs will come in the draft. We already detailed several of the shooters the Magic could target. There are plenty of players who could be available at No. 15 should the Magic want to use the draft this way.
Florida State Seminoles guard Devin Vassell is at the top of everyone’s radar. The 6-foot-6 sharpshooter averaged 12.7 points per game and shot 41.5-percent from beyond the arc for a Florida State team that would have likely gone deep into the NCAA Tournament.
Other players to look out for include Vanderbilt Commodores guard Aaron Nesmith and Villanova Wildcats forward Saddiq Bey.
Orlando Magic
Nesmith was one of the best scorers in the nation last year, averaging 23.0 points per game and shooting 52.2 percent from deep before a fracture in his foot ended his season in December.
Bey is a bigger forward — 6-foot-8, 215 pounds — but he averaged 16.1 points per game and hit on 45.1-percent of his 3-pointers. He has great size although there are questions about his ability to stick with the quicker guards on the perimeter. He is really an undersized stretch 4 or small forward.
The Magic have plenty of those.
The options in the draft are going to be fairly slim. And drafting at 15 (or thereabouts), there is no guarantee the Magic can get a player that can contribute immediately. And that is what the Magic want from this position. it is an immediate need.
Since Jeff Weltman took over the team, he has been willing to be extremely patient with rookies. The Magic have used their draft picks to this point to take the best player on the board and the player who best fits their overall philosophy. They do not seem to waver on this.
The Magic have not drafted on need. Even their pick last year after making the playoffs was one that had an eye on the longer-term future. Chuma Okeke was deferred a year simply because they thought he was the best player on their board and they could afford to wait a year for him to recover.
That is to say, the Magic have never really used the draft to fill any immediate needs.
The Free Agents
The Orlando Magic will face some difficult choices this summer as they look to remake their roster. The biggest one centers around Evan Fournier and whether he will opt-in to the final year of his contract. That more than anything probably sparked this debate.
At this point, it is unclear what the NBA’s salary cap structure will look like following the financial losses from China in the fall and now the season hiatus in the spring. Optimistic estimates have the salary cap staying static. And those are extremely optimistic.
The Magic have $96 million committed to next season before any options and rookie contracts (including Chuma Okeke). That would give the team a max of roughly $13 million in cap room. Okeke’s contract along with whomever the Magic draft will eat up almost of that space.
Orlando will once again operate as a team over the cap. They will have about $9 million to spend from the mid-level exception (the same deal that Al-Farouq Aminu got).
It got them Aminu last year, a low-end starter quality player. And if the Magic lose Evan Fournier, they are probably looking for someone to fill starter minutes so they can give way to Terrence Ross to close the game.
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That would leave the Magic looking at players like Wesley Matthews, Kent Bazemore and Bryn Forbes among others. None of those names may jump off the page. They could also look at Jae Crowder, Pat Connaughton or Maurice Harkless as potential options too.
It is not likely the Magic could muster the money to go after Gordon Hayward (if he opts out), DeMar DeRozan (if he opts out) or Bogdan Bogdanovic (a restricted free agent this offseason). Those might be the top-end targets.
Bazemore is coming off a contract that paid him $19 million. He was averaging 8.7 points per game on a 45.3-percent effective field goal percentage this season with the Portland Trail Blazers and Sacramento Kings. His shooting has been inconsistent throughout his career but he has always been a great teammate and solid contributor.
Wesley Matthews has found a second life with the Milwaukee Bucks, averaging 7.5 points per game and shooting 36.5 percent from beyond the arc. He is a career 38.1 percent 3-point shooter. After rupturing his Achilles in 2015, Matthews has bounced around the league some but has continued to be a solid veteran presence and shooter.
Especially if the Magic lose out on Fournier, Matthews would be about as good as the team could do to add a starter-caliber player who can play a role and still defend at a high level. He would be the best overall option to add to the team — either as a starter or off the bench.
Magic fans are certainly familiar with Maurice Harkless.
The former Magic forward has bounced around the league and has carved out a spot as a solid wing defender. But his shooting never came around. He was averaging 5.8 points per game on 34.7 percent 3-point shooting for the LA Clippers and New York Knicks.
Bryn Forbes is intriguing as a shooter especially — 38.8 percent 3-point shooting for the San Antonio Spurs this year and a career 40-percent 3-point shooter. But at 6-foot-2, he is undersized as a shooting guard.
It is a thin free agency pool. No matter whether the Magic re-sign Fournier or not, if they go through free agency, these are the kind of players the Magic should look at for wing help.
Matthews would especially be a strong guy to chase. But with so few quality free agents available, the whole league might be after him with at least a part of their mid-level exception.
The Unknown
The truth of the matter is, it is still really difficult to project much about this offseason.
The Orlando Magic likely has only its draft pick and the mid-level exception (along with minimum contracts) to add new players this offseason. Even if Evan Fournier picks up his option, the Magic are going to want to use these tools to add some depth to the roster, especially on the wing.
Fournier’s decision remains the great unknown for the entire offseason. That will have major effects on roles and the kinds of players the Magic chase after. It will also affect how much the team wants to spend — Orlando is dangerously close to the tax level as it is and nobody wants to pay the tax for a 7-seed.
The other unknown, of course, is the trade market.
Orlando is still likely biding its time to push in for the right star to put the roster over the top. The Magic can afford to wait because of their youth for internal development to push them to the next level. But they are certainly going to hunt the trade market for ways to make the team better too.
Orlando will not be limited to limited free-agent or draft options to get better. But it is too hard to say which direction teams will go. The playoffs play a big role in setting player values and team priorities as they get put through the test of the postseason — just on the Magic front, a good playoff series from someone like Mohamed Bamba could make them feel ready to move him into the starting lineup, etc.
The team though will have some options to sort through to bolster the roster.
Shooting will undoubtedly be an important skill to hunt out. With the Magic’s shooting weakness, it feels like every move the Magic make this offseason will have to have an eye on improving this skill.
But the Magic have always sought out players that fit their style, believing they can improve shooting. The big move the Magic have to make is the big one to improve internally or add a star from outside the team. And that is still too hard to predict.
Whether Orlando goes through the draft or free agency, there are a few options the Magic can pursue to improve their wing depth.
And that is where I would expect them to spend some of their capital.