The Orlando Magic's offseason has been a period of waiting to this point.
The team waited 45 picks to act at the NBA Draft -- and then traded away the pick to wait five more picks before taking Izaiyah Nelson. The team had to wait for Sean Sweeney to finish the NBA Finals before he could move into his office at the AdventHealth Training Center.
Free agency will also see the Magic most likely wait.
The team only has the taxpayer mid-level exception of $6.1 million to spend. And they may not even spend that, leaving them with only minimum contracts to offer.
Orlando will likely have to wait to see who falls through the cracks when money runs out with such limited resources. And then the team will have to fight off other teams who are also vying for minimum contracts to complete their rosters.
Who Orlando signs will be an affirmation of belief in the team's roster and a sign of the advantage the team has -- its facilities, its coaching, its climate and locale, etc.
The limited resources also means the Magic must be focused on how they use their free agency money. They have specific needs to fill and one need most of all that matters to their success.
Orlando needs a veteran point guard or ball-handler to back up Jalen Suggs and play alongside Anthony Black. Point guard has long been a pressing need for the Magic, filled at times strongly by Suggs and at times clumsily.
The team has benefited during this playoff run from stabilizing point guards like Markelle Fultz and Cory Joseph, as flawed as they might be. Tyus Jones, even with his struggles offensively, and Jevon Carter filled that role last season.
Orlando needs to find that point guard on the open market. It will help them get through any periods where one of their guards is injured -- and knowing Suggs and Black's history, that seems likely.
The Magic have other pressing needs -- they desperately need more shooting and could use some support at center. But they can fill those skills more easily. They drafted Nelson to help at center. And shooters can be discovered at every level -- surely there is some hot-shot shooter in the G-League waiting for a chance.
The question is how can the Magic find it with so few resources? Who can they target?
That is where the Magic are sitting as free agency begins tonight. Trying to sift through the discarded pile and hoping to find a player who can make an impact. Finding that player will be tough.
Familiar names, cheaper salaries
Last summer, as it became clearer the Orlando Magic were going to add Tyus Jones, it felt like deja vu. Jones had been on the target list at trade deadlines for several years as the kind of stabilizing, low-mistake point guard the team was looking for, even with his defensive struggles.
The thought was that if the Magic wanted Jones, they would have gotten him already.
Jones was always an imperfect fit because of his size and defense. And he was much more expensive.
It is not shocking that everyone is falling back on a lot of familiar names and hoping they fall through the cracks. That is seemingly how they finished their seasons last year.
Except now, they would not be nearly as expensive.
Magic fans have made Collin Sexton and Anfernee Simons as trade deadline targets for years. Their mix of size would allow them to hold their own defensively. But more importantly, both players put up numbers and can get hot.
Sexton averaged 15.4 points per game with the Charlotte Hornets and Chicago Bulls last season. He shot 40.1 percent from three and has only one season in his career shooting worse than 37 percent from three.
Simons is a flamethrower shooter too. He averaged 14.3 points per game with the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls, making 38.5 percent from three (although just 32.0 percent in six games with the Bulls).
Neither player is a true point guard. Including them on this list is more about their shooting and filling that need in a guard more than anything else. And neither was part of their teams' respective playoff pushes. Both the Hornets and Celtics opted to trade them for playoff pieces.
That means something, right?
Sexton and Simons are surely hoping to get more than the minimum. Both players are the kind of players rebuilding teams throw a big above-market one-year deal at to be a stabilizing force or just someone to score for a team that will not score.
They easily could be players who just want numbers rather than playing for a winning team. That is what the Magic have to sell.
Beggars cannot be choosers. If the Magic could get players who are capable of averaging 15 points per game at the minimum, that would be a huge benefit. And either player would be able to step in.
Veterans run out quickly
The real issue is that veteran point guards run out quickly.
And if the Orlando Magic are looking to add another point guard to the mix, it is really those big options or nothing for this team -- unless there is a surprise buyout at some point in the summer.
These are some of the best options:
Dallas Mavericks guard Brandon Williams is gaining some interest throughout the league. He is excellent at getting to the basket and averaged 13.0 points per game. But he shot only 23.2 percent from three on low volume and is a career 28.0 percent 3-point shooter.
Blake Wesley has never averaged 5.0 points per game and sat at 4.8 per game last year in an injury-filled year with the Portland Trail Blazers. He would be available at the minimum, coming from a Blazers team suddenly flush with guards.
Journeyman veterans like Cameron Payne and Aaron Holiday could also be on the table.
But it is easy to see how quickly the point guard options become unexciting. And how quickly it becomes enticing to bring Jevon Carter back to fill that role.
To be sure, this is a summer where the Magic will need some luck -- and a good sales job -- to get an impact player in free agency. It is why sitting out the trade market feels so confusing.
Orlando is waiting for a player to slip through the cracks to help them. Or the team is taking a chance on someone who has struggled elsewhere.
That is the reality of this free agency. And filling a critical need like point guard will come down to a bit of hope.
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