The Orlando Magic are done with Summer League. They will get their schedule Friday and then everyone will wait for early September workouts (if those still happen) and training camp in late September.
This is the quiet time of the offseason. And there is not a lot to do.
As the team cleans up from Summer League, it will be weighing how to fill out these last spots and the last spots for the training camp roster (which can be as many as 20 spots). Summer League is a good place for the Magic to fill these spots and the Lakeland Magic’s roster in the G-League.
In all likelihood, the team will use its Summer League roster to fill out these last spots. The question is who will the Magic ultimately sign to that deal?
The Orlando Magic have one more roster spot and one more two-way spot to spend to complete their roster. The team has a few options off the Summer League roster to consider.
The Magic have one more roster spot to fill and one more two-way contract to sign — on top of adding players to the training camp roster with the Exhibit 10 contracts that follow.
There are still a few more players to add to the final roster and a few more spots to fill.
Orlando currently has 13 players under contract with one of their two-way spots filled. The team is reportedly set to sign Moritz Wagner to a two-year deal for that 14th spot, but it has not been formally announced yet.
The team has also signed Ignas Brazdeikis to a two-way contract, filling up one of those spots.
This is a rough sketch of the depth chart to get a visual sense of where the roster currently stands:
| PG | SG | SF | PF | C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Markelle Fultz | Gary Harris | Chuma Okeke | Jonathan Isaac | Wendell Carter |
| Cole Anthony | Jalen Suggs | Terrence Ross | Franz Wagner | Mohamed Bamba |
| Michael Carter-Williams | R.J. Hampton | Ignas Brazdeikis* | Moritz Wagner | Robin Lopez |
The question for the Magic is threefold: Who do the Magic spend that 14th roster spot on? Does the team carry 15 players on the roster? And who gets the final two-way contract spot?
The answer to the first question appears to be Moritz Wagner, although that move has not become official. there still seems some hope that a veteran player like Janis Timma might get the nod for that spot.
It still seems very unlikely the Magic choose to carry 15 players and use a guaranteed contract on that player. That extra spot gives the team flexibility to convert a two-way contract into a full contract in January before the deadline for new two-way contracts passes.
That extra spot also gives the team the flexibility to add an extra player in a trade at the trade deadline, something the team almost certainly wants to maintain.
That leaves the two-way contract. And right now, the only information fans have to assess is what happened at Summer League. And that is where we will start.
With the Summer League team disbanding and the Magic making their final considerations for that final spot, we are going to make our power rankings of the Magic’s available two-way options from the Summer League roster:
Orlando Magic fans instantly fell in love with Janis Timma the moment he stepped onto the court. It did not hurt too that he hit a couple of 3-pointers in pretty quick succession, filling a huge need for the team.
Timma ended his Summer League averaging 7.0 points per game and shooting a 58.6-percent effective field goal percentage. The Magic played him in all five games, but his minutes were limited in the last two games. They sure played him like they saw all they needed to see from him.
At 29 years old, Timma is probably not interested in a two-way contract. He is probably looking for a place where he can play consistently too. That may not be the Magic. But he has proven himself as a capable player and one who should either get a roster spot or find a place in Europe where he can be a featured player.
The player who stood out most as the kind of player the Orlando Magic might look to add was Hassani Gravett. He certainly left a good final impression, leading the Orlando Magic to a near victory in their final game against the Detroit Pistons.
Gravett averaged 8.0 points per game with a 58.3-percent effective field goal percentage. He showed a good 3-point shot throughout the week. And on top of that, he was solid defensively. Pesky at the very least.
Gravett stood out to the team and seems like the perfect player to fill a two-way contract.
"“Hassani, he plays hard,” coach Jamahl Mosley said after Monday’s loss. “He is a natural scorer. His ability to create his own shot is big. Defensively, he is really trying to crawl into the basketball which is going to be big moving forward for him. It can change the tempo of the game, the speed of the game. He has a great level of toughness about him.”"
That was all on display in Monday’s loss to the Pistons where he finished with 19 points on 7-for-11 shooting. It was a solid close to the Summer League and enough to get him at least a camp invite.
Gravett has been hanging around the league for a while. He averaged 11.7 points per game and shot 38.6-percent from deep in his first run with the Lakeland Magic in the 2020 season. He was the top scorer among the full-time players in Lakeland.
Last year, he averaged 12.1 points per game for Macedonia’s MZT Skopje. Not exactly a league that is known as one of the best leagues in the world.
But Gravett looked effective enough to get a serious look. He should at least be in camp with another run in Lakeland very possible.
The Orlando Magic’s biggest weakness is at small forward right now. The team does not have a traditional forward. The team already picked up a forward with the first two-way contract in Ignas Brazdeikis. So turning to another wing would not seem to make a ton of sense.
But D.J. Hogg played really well in Summer League. And he seems like he would be a great fit for the Lakeland Magic at the least.
Hogg averaged 7.2 points per game and shot 45.5-percent from beyond the arc during Summer League. He was a solid shooter and was active around the basket too. Hogg was genuinely impressive.
Last year he averaged only 8.9 points per game for the Lakeland Magic. But Hogg appears to have signed a deal with Cholet in France earlier this week. He may not be available to sign a two-way contract if one is offered.
The Orlando Magic certainly tried to give Tahjere McCall a lot of opportunities to show off. McCall was named to the all-defensive team in the G-League last year and was a key part of the Lakeland Magic’s run to the title.
He averaged 6.0 points per game and shot 35.3-percent from the floor. His play was a bit inconsistent in Summer League. But his G-League run was solid — 11.9 points per game, 48.5-percent shooting, 30.6-percent from beyond the arc.
McCall finished his season in France after the G-League bubble concluded. He signed with Cairns Taipans in the NBL in Australia. So he appears to be off the board for a two-way contract ultimately.
Tahj Eaddy appeared in only two games for the Orlando Magic in Summer League. He averaged 7.0 points per game and shot 41.7-percent from the floor and 40.0-percent from beyond the arc. It was a solid, if not spectacular showing. He just did not play enough to make a huge impact.
The undrafted guard from USC averaged 13.6 points per game and shot 49.7-percent from beyond the arc last year. He is a true five-year player having transferred twice. He averaged 15.0 points per game at Santa Clara in 2019. He used the free transfer because of the pandemic to try things out at USC.
Is that enough to get him a two-way look? A young player like him is the kind of player to spend it on. And a lot of the strong candidates from the Magic’s Summer League team are already signing elsewhere.
Jeff Dowtin got plenty of time on the court and a chance to show off. But Dowtin, while plenty active, did not score efficiently. He averaged 7.2 points per game and but shot 36.1-percent from the floor overall. He did shoot better than 40.0-percent during Summer League.
Last year with the Lakeland Magic, Dowtin averaged 6.5 points per game in 19.8 minutes per game. He shot 48.2-percent from the floor and 50.0-percent from deep. So there is at least some hint he can shoot.
Dowtin may yet get another chance.
It was hard not to notice Asbjorn Midtgaard on the court. The 7-foot center made some bone-jarring screens and was great on the offensive glass. He was really slow though defensively and ultimately not super effective on the defensive glass. It did not look like he would fit in with the more mobile NBA.
Midtgaard signed with ZZ Leiden of the Dutch Basketball League. So he is off the board for a two-way contract.
Yante Maten had a really nice game to stand out a bit in Summer League. The 6-foot-7 forward is a bit undersized to play center. But he has the physicality to hold his own. He finished Summer League with 5.2 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. He played in South Korea last year and looks like he might be headed back there although Maten has had some successful runs in the G-League.
Jon Teske was the starting center for the Orlando Magic in every Summer League game he played. He was a stalwart with the Lakeland Magic in their championship run (especially after Mamadi Diakite got recalled to the Milwaukee Bucks). And it just did not show through in Summer League.
He averaged 1.6 points per game and 2.2 rebounds per game in fewer than 10 minutes per game in Summer League. It just does not seem like Teske is destined to be an NBA center.