The draft process is continuing in secret for the Orlando Magic.
Yes, a few players have let slip they have worked out in Orlando through social media posts — Michigan guard Jett Howard was reportedly in town earlier this week. But the Magic once again are doing their draft work in secret.
That only leaves us the speculation of what the Magic are doing.
At this point, Orlando fans should know that Jeff Weltman is going to go through his process independent of what anyone is saying outside of his organization. Even if there is a lot of anticipation over what the Magic will do with their two picks.
That anticipation is growing as everyone starts to speculate if the Magic would make a trade up in the draft or a trade to add to their growing bevy of young talent.
Thinking about trades will come in the very near future (I have a few ideas, although none of them are as exciting as what some of the aggregators are coming up with). That might be the focus of our next mock draft.
For now, this update to our Mock Draft 2.0 is more about resetting our thinking and what we consider in making the picks.
The first run-through after the draft order was set put a lot of focus on team needs above everything else. That could lead to some odd results — especially for a team like the Magic.
Orlando is in an interesting position not merely for its trade potential. The team is in an interesting position because the team is both trying to advance up the Eastern Conference standings and put itself in a position to make the playoffs while also still adding talent to a young and developing team.
It is still not clear how serious the Magic’s front office is to committing to next year’s team over the future. While players are talking about next year as playoffs or bust, the front office may be seeing this as one more chance to add elite talent at the top of the draft.
And that is something they cannot pass up. Even if it means an imperfect fit. This is still a developing team and talent has to mean something.
So our Mock Draft 2.0 needs a bit of an adjustment then. Where so much of my focus in the last mock draft was on need, I want to re-evaluate it and make adjustments to take more account for talent above need to see how things play out. This mock draft also takes into account recent reporting and information from around the league.
Do not worry, there will be a fresh big board coming later this week.