Orlando Magic Daily
Fansided

5 questions for the Orlando Magic’s 2023 Offseason

By Harrison Brown

The Orlando Magic found themselves facing overtime again against a hot Miami Heat team. This time they pulled through for a win. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
The Orlando Magic found themselves facing overtime again against a hot Miami Heat team. This time they pulled through for a win. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
4 of 6
Next
Franz Wagner, Orlando Magic
The Orlando Magic surprised some by going with a relatively safe pick in Franz Wagner. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images) /

5 questions for the Orlando Magic’s offseason

3. Will the Magic use both of their first-round picks?

The Orlando Magic are likely to have two lottery selections in the 2023 NBA Draft thanks to the Nikola Vucevic trade with the Chicago Bulls two years ago. If the Chicago Bulls are unable to climb into the top four in the Lottery, the Orlando Magic will get the pick to complete the trade.

The team now can reap the rewards of a stellar trade made by the front office, but does the team have enough space on the roster for two incoming lottery picks?

The Magic have the sixth-best odds to win the Lottery and a nine percent chance to win the Lottery. The Bulls sit at 11th-best with a 1.8 percent chance to win the Lottery.  Orlando will be looking to capitalize on these valuable assets.

But the roster is full of young talent and it feels like a large portion of the roster has established roles. It is hard to see the team adding more rookies to the mix with the ambitions the team has for next season.

Orlando has nine players who are younger than 25 years old and were former first-round picks, while Caleb Houstan was the 32nd pick last season. The roster is full of players who were highly touted coming into the league. They are all looking to make their mark on the team and the Magic usually want them to have that opportunity to do so.

Fortunately, the team will have options in the upcoming draft. They can look to draft developmental talent who will not be able to play immediately, or they can look to draft players who the team envisions as upgrades at their positions.

The team will have the decision to determine whether to decrease minutes for current players or look to bring in prospects who need more polish to their game before seeing the NBA court consistently.

The recent budding relationships with NBA teams and their G-League affiliates make this decision easier. Teams can have their young stars play in the minor league to become comfortable with the relative speed of the NBA before earning significant minutes under the big lights.

Not only does the current roster already have talent, but free agency is also coming. If the front office wants to bring in some veteran talent to offset the youthful roster then that continues to shrink available minutes for incoming rookies.

The question is all predicated on how the lottery shakes out. If the team stays right around their projected selections, they could use both picks to trade up if they love a prospect higher up on the draft board.

If they strike lottery luck and move up in the draft, the team could stand pat. There are a lot of avenues the team can explore on draft night, but again, this is all predicated on the lottery.