Orlando Magic should trade second round pick and move up

This NBA Draft will be pivotal as to whether this Orlando Magic rebuild will be a success.

Draft Lottery night did not go the way president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman, or Magic fans, had hoped. Keeping the pick acquired from the Chicago Bulls in the Nikola Vucevic trade was important, but falling outside of the top four in a draft with four top prospects was a huge blow.

But while the dream of landing a Cade Cunningham or Jalen Green is slim and will likely only be realized with a trade up in the draft, Orlando still has a lot of opportunity to land some extremely talented players. In a deep draft, the Magic should try and maximize the opportunity to pick the highest it can.

This is where the number 33 pick comes into play.

The Magic could still land an exciting prospect by staying at that spot. Some star players fall to the second round, whether it be Nikola Jokic, Draymond Green or Marc Gasol. But using the pick to try and move up a few spots to the late first-round makes a lot of sense for a team that desperately needs more talent.

The Orlando Magic have a third chance to bring in a talented player with their 33rd pick and the chance to trade back into the back end of the first round for another shot at a talented player.

Weltman shared a bit of his philosophy on this front, saying there is a certain line in the draft where the team no longer feels the pick has value. And that line might be a bit higher this year because the team has so much youth and two first-round picks already set to come in.

The Magic seem to have every intention to take the pick if one of the players they like is still available. What is unclear is if the team is willing to pursue anyone speciically late in the first round.

There has even been talk of the Magic trading away the 33rd pick as the front office would not want three rookies from the same class. But this NBA Draft should be seen as a chance to accumulate as much talent as possible.

Using it to move up would give Weltman and the front office another go at picking in the first round, and could land the team a difference maker as it looks to get back on the path towards contention.

Building through the draft has to be the way forward for this team, much like the Atlanta Hawks have done.

The case for a trade up to the first round

Moving up from No. 33 to 25, for example, might not sound like much of a difference. Not much attention is paid to the late first round and second round, given the vast majority of the players that go on to become All-Stars will have already been taken.

The biggest difference it might seem between those picks is the contract first-round players are guaranteed — two years with team options on the third and fourth year. Drafting in the first round is a bit of a financial commitment.

But for a team in a rebuild like the Magic, these few spots could make all the difference.

This draft is extremely deep.

At the top, any of the top four could be considered a number one pick in another year’s draft, and this carries through the rest of the class too. Many of the players who will be picked in the late lottery and just outside would have been top-10 picks last year.

The Magic have to take advantage of this deep draft class. By the time Adam Silver is reading out picks in the late teens and early to mid-twenties, there will be guys who will still offer tremendous value.

Orlando Magic /

Orlando Magic

And given the strength of this draft and the contrasting skillsets of the players, there will be guys that fall far deeper than they should because of teams’ individual needs and desires.

Yes, Orlando could wait until 33 and hope to get someone that can help out the team — or not bother at all and trade it for future assets or someone that can bolster the roster more in the short-term.

But this would be a waste. The team needs more talent, and having another go in the first round would be an added bonus to having two top ten picks.

How could it be done?

There are a lot of ways the Orlando Magic could potentially move up.

The later the draft goes, the more teams there are that are looking to strengthen in the short-term to bolster their hopes of contending for a title. Interest in taking a rookie that needs time to develop is lessened the further down the order.

Take the Los Angeles Lakers at 22 for example.

With LeBron James and Anthony Davis back next season, the focus will be fully on winning another title. The Magic, albeit a very young team, could potentially try and move up by offering the 33rd and a veteran player that could make the Lakers stronger in a certain area — and offer them a bit of salary relief by getting out of the guaranteed contract a first-round pick brings.

This is where it gets complicated, however.

The Magic would probably want more back for a Terrence Ross, for example, than just moving in the draft. A deal would have to be constructed that makes sense for the team’s rebuild, which would include moving up as a part of it.

Perhaps a move that makes the most sense would be Orlando organizing a deal whereby another team looking to free up cap space sends back more salary to the Magic and trades down. We have already seen a big salary dump in the last few days.

This, of course, is dangerous ground. The Magic do not want to cap themselves and limit what can be done in free agency and in the trade market as has been done in previous years.

But given where the team is currently at, it is not making any big free agency moves for some time. Jeff Weltman could exploit an opportunity to move up by taking on slightly more salary and getting another first-round talent through the draft.

It also gives Orlando an opportunity to re-work the roster, and perhaps get a player who is more suited to the existing team while sending one back that does not really fit the project that is being built.

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There are also two Houston Rockets picks at 23 and 24 the Orlando Magic could target should the Rockets feel trading down for one of them and getting something back be of more interest than picking twice in the 20s.

Who could the Magic take?

What is more important than moving up for moving up’s sake is targeting a player the Orlando Magic have to have. The player they acquire is far more important than anything else.

Who the Magic could grab by moving up to the first round really depends on where the pick is.

Moving up to the late teens would be an excellent movie, but given what it would take to get there and the amount of talent that will still be available at that point, it looks unlikely.

But landing a pick in the early to mid-20s would be well worth it. There is a good chance the Magic could take a player who addresses a weakness at this point.

The Ringer’s latest mock draft, for example, has players like Jared Butler, Tre Mann, Jaden Springer, Ziaire Williams and Shariffe Cooper all going in the 20s. All of these players would be worth taking for the Magic.

Tre Mann, especially, is intriguing. He has a ton of ability as a shooter, something the Magic need more of, and could go some way to addressing the lack of scoring on the roster.

Butler would be an excellent pick too. He recently received medical clearance to enter the draft and can also shoot well as handle the ball too.

ESPN’s latest mock draft also has Cooper and Springer going in the 20s too. While undersized, he showed great potential as a playmaker and scorer at college, while Springer is a terrific on-ball defender and plays with a lot of intelligence.

Any of these players would be an upgrade on what would be available at 33 and all have the potential to become good NBA players, something the Magic cannot get enough of right now.

Some mock drafts even have players like Corey Kispert and Jalen Johnson falling that far. You just never know what will happen on draft night.

What the team really needs is a star. Getting it in this draft would go a long way to getting the team back to contending for a title, but if it does not happen, the Magic must make sure that it gets talented players that can lay the foundation for success and pave the way for a future star.

Next. Josh Giddey's size deserves a look. dark

Getting another first-round player boosts the chances of doing that.

Orlando Magic should trade second round pick and move back into first round

By Dan Bennett | Jul 28, 2021