Orlando Magic will take long-term view to trade deadline and future

December brings about several important checkpoints throughout the NBA world.

On Dec. 15, most players who signed contracts in the offseason become trade eligible, officially opening up the NBA’s trade season. Rumors are already beginning to fly as teams start to maneuver themselves for the rest of the season.

Enough games are played at the 20-game mark and the quarter mark of the season to have some sense of who each team is and whether they are on track to achieve their goals. If they are not or are falling well short, that can lead to some bigger decisions.

The countdown to the trade deadline is indeed on. And already the always-busy NBA rumor mill is churning. The storylines put on hold from the summer will only increase in urgency in the next two months before everyone puts their pencils down before the summer.

The NBA’s trade deadline rumor mill is already starting to churn. For the Orlando Magic that should bring a measure of exploration but also patience.

We have taken plenty of time as the Magic rounded the quarter mark of the season to try to assess where the team is at.

Even with the team struggling near the bottom of the standings, the Magic are not a team that should be in panic mode. Orlando certainly has some things to fix and develop, but the Magic are still assessing their talent and how best to move forward.

This was a season of development and growth and the team has seen its share of that to this point. And there is plenty more to come.

The last thing the team should do is push the panic button and go buying at the trade deadline or trading away young players who have struggled to this point. Orlando has a game plan for what it wants to accomplish this season and how the team wants to get to the next steps and there is no reason to deviate from that plan.

There have been some solid and encouraging individual signs from players — Cole Anthony and Wendell Carter have stood out especially — but the team has struggled to put everything together. Perhaps predictably, the team has fallen to the bottom of the standings.

Orlando knew this would be a season of development and growth though.

A tough schedule to start the season only made the task that much tougher to hit the ground running. Throw in injuries — both expected and unexpected — and it has been tough to judge much of anything.

The Magic were always going to have to wait for Jonathan Isaac and Markelle Fultz to return to the rotation before they could really begin to judge their team and what they are capable of. Until then, it would be foolish to try to rush their process.

There will be temptations for sure. And the Magic should be looking to add to their cache of young players and assets. There is no such thing as standing still in the NBA.

But those overall team goals will be vital in attacking the trade deadline and the moves they want to make. Orlando should be clear in its goals and what it will take to get them to move. Everything change should come under consideration.

The latest move in the rumor mill comes with the reports the Indiana Pacers are at least considering breaking up their core and doing a more proper rebuild. Myles Turner has already seemingly made it clear publicly he would like to move on from Indiana for a bigger role.

There are of course other stars that may yet come on the market — Ben Simmons is still hanging out there, Bradley Beal is still always on people’s minds and Damian Lillard is seemingly simmering toward a trade too.

The Magic are almost certainly not looking or ready to acquire a star.

That kind of investment and what it would cost both in young players and future assets would probably be too steep for a team that is still at such an early stage of its rebuild.

Orlando’s most likely move at the trade deadline would be to move off of veteran players like Gary Harris or Terrence Ross to collect more young players or future assets. The team’s biggest move to make might be in using the projected $35-million in cap space in 2022 either to set the team up for free agency (unlikely) or eat up some longer-term salary to bring in a veteran or some other valued future asset.

The Magic’s 2022 cap space will be a huge tool the team can use in trades both at this year’s trade deadline and into the offseason. Orlando may well be a third-team facilitator in one of these bigger moves using that space to acquire something that is valuable to them.

Just because the Magic are not interested in acquiring a star today does not mean they should ignore these big-time trades. Orlando can still get something out of them.

But the Magic, for now, seem satisfied with watching their young roster grow and are still at the stage of figuring out what they have. A quarter of the season is hardly enough to determine which players they want to build around and what value they might have.

The team is likely right to sit tight and keep watching what they have.

Right now, Orlando’s struggles and the fact the team has not seen itself with its full roster — specifically Markelle Fultz and Jonathan Isaac — would prevent the team from pushing in its chips to rebuild a bit faster. The Magic would seem to be a team ripe to take a chance on a young veteran or a struggling high-priced veteran to try to speed things along.

There have already been some suggestions the Magic could chase after Miles Bridges in restricted free agency. That kind of move would not be completely unrealistic or out of bounds for this team. But it would only be something the team should do if it sees a clearer light at the end of the tunnel.

And that probably would not come until the end of the season when the team can take a fuller accounting of its talent and what it got out of this season.

The Magic have taken a patient tack to their season. There is no panic or rush despite the team’s poor record to make changes or moves. Orlando was expected to be near the bottom of the standings and most of the team’s goals are not about the team’s record.

The biggest improvement for this team was always going to be internal.

Every move is going to have a long-term view to it. That includes how the team approaches this year’s trade deadline.

The team still has to see what it looks like with Fultz and Isaac back in the fold and that will give the team a more complete picture. How the team performs then might determine which direction the team heads in the offseason.

Patience is still the word of the day for the Magic and their rebuild. They will look for opportunities to improve and build the way they want.

But Orlando is not going to push things or speed up unless the roster calls for it.