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What the Orlando Magic should do with their own free agents

Before the Orlando Magic get to free agency this weekend, they will have to first make some decisions on their own free agents and what they do with them will set up the rest of the summer.

By Philip Rossman-Reich

Before the Orlando Magic hit free agency this weekend, they have some key decisions to make about players on their own roster. What will they do with players like Moe Wagner?
Before the Orlando Magic hit free agency this weekend, they have some key decisions to make about players on their own roster. What will they do with players like Moe Wagner? / Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
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Markelle Fultz—Unrestricted Free Agent
Gary Harris—Unrestricted Free Agent

The Orlando Magic are expected to make changes to the roster this year.

If there has been a criticism of Jeff Weltman, it is that he has been too patient with his roster and he has valued continuity too much. He is not someone who looks to make major upheavals to the roster—minus the deals in 2021 that kickstarted this rebuild and reshaped the Magic's roster at the trade deadline.

That does not seem to be the case this year. Everyone anticipates the Magic will add at least one starter-level player. There is change coming.

And it feels like the team has simply outgrown the patience it takes for Markelle Fultz to get himself all the way back from the various injuries that plagued him early in his career. And it feels like the Magic simply need more from Gary Harris.

Fultz struggled last year with injuries, dealing with knee tendinitis early in the year—and perhaps a small fracture in that knee—that sapped much of the lift he had seemed to regain from the end of the 2023 season.

Fultz averaged only 7.8 points per game and 2.8 assists per game. His injuries became so bad that Fultz reverted back to his hesitancy to shoot threes taking only 18 threes total all year.

Harris had a fairly average season for him. But his struggles to hit threes in the Playoffs not only highlighted the Magic's need for another attacker in the backcourt but also the need for more 3-point shooting in general.

Harris averaged 6.9 points per game and shot 37.1 percent from three on 3.8 3-point attempts per game. Every team has a fifth starter who is going to have a lower usage rate. But it constantly felt like the Magic needed more from Harris.

It is hard to let a good shooter go. But the Magic value positional and role versatility and Harris was just too one dimensional for the team.

Knowing how much the Magic value continuity, it is not impossible to see the Magic bring either player back. But it is hard to believe they have earned second cracks at their 2024 salaries of $17 million (Fultz) and $13 million (Harris). It is taking them off their books that is going to give the Magic the bulk of their cap room to play with this offseason.

And the Magic need to create a pathway for Anthony Black and Jett Howard to get more consistent playing time.

It is hard to imagine the Magic bringing either back. Orlando needs an upgrade at the position no matter what they bring to the locker room.

Prediction: Markelle Fultz and Gary Harris leave the team in free agency

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