Orlando Magic’s training camp roster inches to completion

Orlando Magic training camp is expected to open on Sept. 26.

It is going to be a long two months to get there. Really the Magic will have only Paolo Banchero’s appearance at The CrawsOver and Franz Wagner playing for Germany in Eurobasket and FIBA World Cup Qualifiers to tide everyone over.

August is a basketball desert in other words. All that is left is the anticipation for the season.

The front office is not even particularly busy — although there is this summer the lingering potential for trades involving Kevin Durant and Donovan Mitchell. They have largely done their work.

In fact, the Magic’s roster is completely full. That is both for the team’s regular roster and now even their training camp roster.

The Orlando Magic are reportedly set to sign two Exhibit 10 players to complete their initial training camp roster.

Orlando already had 16 players under contract for next season. They added their two two-way players in Admiral Schofield and Kevon Harris. That brings the Magic’s offseason total to 18 players under some type of contract.

Orlando appears to have filled those final two spots now too.

Khobi Price of the Orlando Sentinel reports the Magic will sign Summer League standout Zavier Simpson and Wyoming sharpshooter Drake Jeffries to Exhibit 10 contracts (deals that would give those players bonuses for signing with the Lakeland Magic when they are cut after training camp).

Orlando now has a completely full roster for training camp.

Teams can carry a maximum of 20 players through the end of the preseason. They will have to cut that down to 15 players and two two-way players. Orlando, with 16 full-time contracts, will have to cut one expected roster player to get to that number.

Additionally, expect the Magic to swap out their Exhibit 10 players at some point in the preseason so they can give similar arrangements to further stock up their Lakeland Magic roster.

On the Magic’s reported recent additions, then:

Zavier Simpson had a solid run at Summer League, averaging 8.2 points per game and 6.2 assists per game with few turnovers. He struggled to shoot, making 35.7-percent from the floor and 28.6-percent from beyond the arc.

Simpson is a big guard who is most known for his odd hook shot. Odd, that is, for a point guard to master the hook shot like he is a center. That creates some novelty.

Simpson was solid in the G-League last year, averaging 14.6 points per game and 6.5 assists per game with the OKC Blue last year. He scored 44 total points (albeit inefficiently) in four appearances with the Oklahoma City Thunder last year.

It seems unlikely the Magic would bring Simpson up to the main roster unless they absolutely had to. But he seems like a better organizer and point guard than Devin Cannady, if not a better NBA prospect.

With Drake Jeffries, give the Magic credit for finally exploring their need to find some shooting.

Jeffries spent his final two years of college at Wyoming where he averaged 10.3 points per game last year. He was a shooting specialist for the Cowboys, making 40.9-percent of his 3-pointers and taking 93.5-percent of his shots from beyond the arc. For the record too, he shot better than 80-percent from the foul line during both of his seasons.

Jeffries is a 6-foot-5 guard who just has not had a lot of exposure at high-level play. But there was a decent chance he could have gone in the second round under the right circumstances.

In Summer League, he played just one game for the Denver Nuggets and five minutes in that game, scoring six points and hitting two of his three 3-point attempts. That just goes further into how little anyone has seen him play at a high level.

It seems like putting him in Lakeland is the right path for now to get him a bit more exposure. But if his shooting continues to translate he will find himself on the periphery of the league for a long time.

It is an experiment worth having. And the Magic probably grabbed one of the biggest non-NBA names on the market likely to land on an Exhibit 10 contract.

So this is where the Magic’s roster stands as of now:

NG= non-guaranteed … 2W= two-way contract … E10= Exhibit 10 Contract

At least for training camp, the Magic seem pretty well stocked with wings. If anything, Orlando has found itself kind of suddenly without enough big forwards. But the team is plenty stocked with those for the regular season between Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Jonathan Isaac and Chuma Okeke — with the ability to play Wendell Carter and Moe Wagner at power forward.

Versatility will be the defining feature of this roster. Everyone should be able to play two positions with plenty of players able to switch between three defenders. And many of the team’s rotation players are capable of defending up and down from their “natural” position.

The team’s roster certainly plays to that too. Even their two-way players have the ability to play multiple positions. And the Magic were not afraid to play Zavier Simpson alongside Devin Cannady throughout Summer League.

The Magic are going to have a roster that will enable them to get plenty of time to experiment and play around with lineups throughout training camp. That part will be critical.

But this is what the Magic will look like heading into camp according to reports. Orlando’s group is set.

Now just comes the waiting. August is the last month most players will be away from the facility (and Orlando might be moving into the new practice facility at some point this month).

Most teams see most of their players return to the home market around Labor Day for pick-up runs and some voluntary workouts. That is how most players spend their September leading into training camp at the end of the month.

The countdown is on.