The Orlando Magic were never expected to make earth-shattering moves when the trade deadline arrived. They were simply expected to act how most rebuilding teams do.
They had some veterans on expiring or near-expiring contracts that everyone expected them to move for draft capital or salary flotsam. Teams were surely acting like vultures trying to get the Magic to let go of these players.
Instead, Orlando held firm.
The team swapped some heavily-protected second-round picks for a pair of injured players. They ended up cutting two veterans who have not played at all this season. And then they cut one of the players they ended up acquiring anyway.
It is not clear what the Magic may end up doing with the recently acquired Bol Bol. He is supposed to arrive in Orlando after the All-Star Break for some evaluation and there appears to be some hope he could return before the end of the season from January foot surgery. But nobody is holding their breath.
So the Magic enter the offseason with many of the same roster questions they have entering the trade deadline.
The Orlando Magic stood pat at the trade deadline and will face all the same questions as they enter the offseason and begin planning their future.
Gary Harris will be up for a new contract. And while the Magic are not going to be in a position to trade him, the sense that he will not seek a buyout from them suggests he may be open to returning to the team on a long-term deal.
Similarly, the Magic’s decision not to trade Mo Bamba opens the possibility the team retains him. They also would have the flexibility not only to match any contract offer he receives in restricted free agency but also the potential they could look for sign-and-trade opportunities.
So few teams have cap room this offseason, the Magic’s ability to absorb salary in a trade could make for an interesting offseason.
Terrence Ross will be entering the final year of his contract too. While the trade deadline did not seem to net the Magic the draft capital they hoped in return, they held firm to wait for the offseason and possibly to next year’s deadline to move him if they want.
Orlando is clearly not done helping other teams out if they can net some asset in return. And they will have cap room they could spend either in free agency or in trades.
There is still a lot for the Magic to sort through this season.
With a quarter of the season remaining, Orlando is going to have to try to maximize the team’s young players’ growth. The team has to see its injured players in Jonathan Isaac and Markelle Fultz return to the court with some shape of health.
What is really important for the Magic though is the same thing they had to do before the deadline. Orlando needs a clear understanding of the kind of team it wants to become and plan out those next steps carefully.
So not a lot has changed for the Magic as they enter the offseason.
Still, it will bring a new transaction period and some new challenges. As the Magic conclude this season, it is worth resetting where the team stands and the directions the team might go.
Orlando Magic Post Trade Deadline Status
Salary Cap Status: Plenty of room
This year’s free agency class is not considered a particularly good one. So what this section is about to say may not matter a whole lot. But it is still very important as the Orlando Magic begin planning their future.
Orlando will be one of the few teams in the league with cap room this offseason. They could easily get to max cap room if they wanted to go after some of the big free agents. There is just no one to go after, at least that feels attainable. We will get to some of those options in a minute.
As things currently stand, the Magic have $83.1 million committed to their roster in 2023. Before getting to cap holds — especially to retain Mo Bamba’s restricted free agency rights — the Magic are projected, according to Spotrac, to have a little more than $28 million in cap room to spend this summer.
Some key decisions will begin to eat into that room of course.
The first is that this total does not include the Magic’s first-round pick. The top pick in the draft will be due a salary of $9.0 million and the second pick comes in around $8.1 million. So the Magic will not be at max cap room right off the bat.
Bamba will have a cap hold of $22.7 million to retain his restricted free agent rights. His qualifying offer should come in at $10.1 million. It is definitely a real option for Bamba to take the qualifying offer and kick his free agency down the road one more year if he cannot find a long-term deal.
Before the Magic do anything else in the offseason, they will have to make the decision on what to do with Bamba.
Additionally, if the Magic want to re-sign Harris, his cap hold will settle in at $30.7-million. So the Magic would not be able to do much of anything unless they deal with him first.
The Magic’s first task this summer then will be deciding what to do with their own players. Both qualifying offers and Bird Rights cap holds can be renounced or kept as needed. Nothing is final until a contract is signed.
These are just important to note as the Magic plan their offseason — and time their signings (just because a contract is agreed to does not mean it is signed immediately).
Harris is not likely to sign for the same amount he did with the Denver Nuggets a few years ago.
But Orlando has cap room to spend and they can spend it in a variety of ways.
Free agency is one way (more on that in a later slide). The other way is to use that cap room to acquire players in trades.
What the Magic have left to trade is small though. The only big salaries on the roster belong to key young players — Jonathan Isaac, Markelle Fultz and now Wendell Carter. It is not clear who else on the Magic the team would be willing to move beyond Terrence Ross.
But there are options and that is most important.
Orlando Magic Post Trade Deadline Status
The Draft Pick
Beyond seeing Jonathan Isaac and Markelle Fultz return to the court and the continued improvement from rookie players this season, the Magic’s season is more or less written.
The team is pretty much eliminated from the playoff race — the Orlando Magic are seven losses or seven Atlanta Hawks wins from official elimination. They are in the heat of the race for the top lottery odds come May.
The Orlando Magic have the worst record in the league entering the All-Star break after the Detroit Pistons stunned the Boston Celtics on Wednesday. The Orlando Magic are six games clear of the Oklahoma City Thunder for a bottom three spot and the top odds to win the Lottery.
It will be an intriguing race. Made more intriguing by the fact the Magic have the 10th-easiest schedule in the NBA after the All-Star Break and a home-heavy schedule at that — 15 of the final 22 games will be played at Amway Center.
Orlando has every motivation to win to help foster the team’s identity and development moving into next season. But the team also has every motivation to maintain its place at the bottom of the standings.
The Magic have had some really interesting development from their young players. But it does not feel like the team has a clear-cut star to get there. So the team still needs an influx of talent and to get another draft right to solidify its core and begin moving forward next year.
The college season has brought in some clear separation. According to Chad Ford, the Magic’s preference is to take Jabari Smith of Auburn with the top overall pick. He seems to have separated himself as the top guy.
But Orlando will have options in the group right below him in Duke’s Paolo Banchero, Gonzaga (and close personal friend to Jalen Suggs) Chet Holmgren and Purdue’s Jaden Ivey. There will surely be a few late risers.
A lot of this season for Orlando and what the team can plan to do next year will rely on the luck of the Lottery.
But the Magic need to hit on the draft in a big way once again. That is the only way the team moves to the next phase.
Orlando Magic Post Trade Deadline Status
Hitting Free Agency
So the Orlando Magic will have a ton of cap room. And while the first thing to deal with is the free agencies of both Mo Bamba and Gary Harris, the team will still have plenty of money to spend and fill out the roster.
And the Magic will have to fill out the roster in one way or another. The team has only 10 players under contract for next season — 11 if you include the Magic’s first-round draft pick. Harris and Bamba would only bring the team up to 13.
There are clear holes to fill and the Magic surely will explore some other moves to round out the roster.
Here is the Magic’s depth chart for next season without Harris or Bamba:
| PG | SG | SF | PF | C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cole Anthony | Jalen Suggs | Franz Wagner | Jonathan Isaac | Wendell Carter |
| Markelle Fultz | R.J. Hampton | Terrence Ross | Chuma Okeke | Moritz Wagner |
What is clear from this is the Magic could certainly use both Harris and Bamba. They will definitely need better center depth whether that is bringing back Bamba or adding someone else. And they probably need another wing player somewhere — even with bringing back Harris.
The team will still need to hit free agency with some aggression.
They may not chase after the max guys — although Deandre Ayton could be a big-name target for the team even with the Phoenix Suns having matching rights in restricted free agency. But there are still plenty of solid role players the team could chase.
Bobby Marks of ESPN put together a list of the free agents available and there are still plenty of solid veterans who would fit the Magic’s roster and give the veteran know-how a young team needs to advance.
Orlando could be one of the teams to throw some money at the big restricted free agents this offseason. Deandre Ayton would certainly fill the Magic’s center needs, even if it pushed Wendell Carter to the 4 and forced a bit of a lineup backlog with Franz Wagner and Jonathan Isaac splitting minutes at the 3.
They were also at one point attached to Miles Bridges as a potential team to send him an offer sheet.
In both instances, it is hard to see the parent teams not matching any offer. But the Magic are one of the few teams that could make those teams sweat with big-time contract offers.
More likely, Orlando will think smaller, trying to spend their capital to secure a veteran player to help the young team transition to its next phase and align better with its spending timeline.
Players who could be on the Magic’s early target list might include T.J. Warren, Bobby Portis, Chris Boucher, Taurean Prince, Jeremy Lamb or Bryn Forbes.
Those may not be the most exciting names on paper, but it is more about the support they can give to the young core to begin advancing the team. And the Magic probably will not make final decisions on which path their summer takes until the draft piece is in place.
What the Magic are likely really concerned about as they hit free agency is aligning their contracts for when they are ready to make a big splash — think how the Magic kept their books clean for the summer of 2007 and the expiration of Grant Hill’s contract when they signed Rashard Lewis, the team’s last max free agent.
The Magic are likely thinking more along these lines and trying to make sure they can create cap room and remain flexible for when they truly are ready to spend some real money.
Orlando will have to spend some money on their current rookies beginning with Cole Anthony in the summer of 2024. That might be when the Magic have to start making their play and pushing some chips into the center of the table.
Certainly, within the next two years, the Magic would like to be on a clearer path toward contention and be in a position to make free agency — or trades — matter.
And that is the real timeline the Magic are on and trying to predict. Nothing they do in free agency will be done to hurt that target year.
So it is probably far more likely the Magic sign players to a two- or three-year deal to try to line up their contracts for a big summer.
The biggest thing though is Orlando has a lot of options to improve the team. The Magic are in a good position to use their flexibility in a number of ways. And that is the position a rebuilding team wants to be.
Orlando did not do much to preview what its future will look like at this trade deadline. But the world is still very open to the team.