This is not to say the Orlando Magic are about to go out and make a huge splash during the offseason and perhaps be a landing spot for potentially unhappy Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic, but here’s the beautiful thing:
At least we can have that conversation now.
At least the Magic — with their own young stars Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, tons of draft capital and a respected coach in Jamahl Mosley whom Doncic absolutely loves — are a player in a potential blockbuster trade or a possible destination spot for bigtime free agents.
“We’ve all talked about the the internal improvement that we can make, but obviously some of your improvements can come externally and that’s through the free agent market or through trades,” Magic President of Basketball Operations Jeff Weltman told me Tuesday. “But it takes two to tango so all we can do is prepare and find out what’s out there. I was speaking with an agent the other day and he said, ‘You guys are one of the buzziest teams in the league.’ That’s a term I had never heard before, but I think it’s a good thing because it means we’re putting ourselves in a position so that we become a destination where guys want to be here.”
Who would have ever thought that a team finishing with the sixth-worst record in the league and 14 games below .500 would be so “buzzy” that a cynical old sportswriter like me would consider its just-completed season to be resoundingly successful? Maybe it’s because the Magic showed vast improvement throughout the season and won 12 more games than last year, but more likely it’s because I’ve coverered all the iterations of the multiple rebuilds, and for the first time in a dozen years I can see a clear pathway out of the abyss.
For the first time in seemingly forever, Magic fans have real hope, and as Andy Dufresne said in the classic movie The Shawshank Redemption: “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”
The Magic’s current management team of Weltman and GM John Hammond blew up the roster 2 1/2 years ago, controversially traded the team’s only All-Star (Nikola Vucevic) and started their first Magic rebuild — and it actually seems to be working. They won the Vucevic trade in a landslide by getting a building-block young center in Wendell Carter Jr. and two first-round draft picks — one of which they turned into Wagner and the other securely in their pocket heading into this year’s draft.
Then, of course, they won the lottery last year and nailed the pick by choosing Duke’s Banchero, who is the overwhelming favorite to be the NBA’s Rookie of the Year. It’s certainly not a stretch to think Banchero will turn into a future superstar and Wagner a future All-Star.
And it’s not just me who’s pumped about the Magic’s future; former Magic coach and esteemed NBA analyst Stan Van Gundy told me a couple of weeks ago: “I think the two best young rosters in the league are Oklahoma City and the Magic. Paola Banchero and Franz Wagner give them two really good young players to build around … Jamahl Mosley is outstanding as a coach. … I think the management team of Jeff Weltman and John Hammond have built a good roster and Magic fans have some real hope for the future.”
Writes ESPN.com NBA analyst Bobby Marks: “No Eastern Conference lottery team is set up better for the future than Orlando. … The NBA’s second-youngest roster — led by likely Rookie of the Year Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner and Wendell Carter Jr. — has a sustainable foundation in place. Banchero averaged 20.0 points this season — the most by a rookie since Luke Doncic in 2018. He and Wagner are the third pair of teammates 21 or younger [in NBA history] to average 18 points in a season.”
The Magic also have cap space, roster flexibility (14 players under contract, but only seven on guaranteed deals) and potentially two lottery picks. In other words, they have the assets to either make a blockbuster deal or dive into the free agent market.
The $200 million question: Is now the right time to pursue a superstar or is it still too early for such a young team? Despite what he says publicly, Doncic, who tied for the NBA scoring title last season and finished second this season, seems to be unhappy in Dallas after the Mavericks brought in the enigmatic Kyrie Irving at the trade deadline in a futile attempt to make a championship run. Instead, the Mavs turned into the biggest flop of the season and failed to make the playoffs. To make matters worse, Mavericks management apparently overruled Doncic by sitting several key players in the last two games of the season even while the team still had a chance of making the play-in tournament.
Doncic has an excellent relationship with Mosley, a former assistant with the Mavericks who helped develop and mentor Doncic when he came into the league. So when we ask if now is the right time for the Magic to make a major move, Weltman — not speaking specifically about Doncic — says that it’s the superstar players, not the teams themselves, that decide when the timing is right in today’s NBA.
“The nature of free agency is in the process of changing and the ground is moving beneath our feet,” Weltman says. “Players are putting themselves into that trade/free-agent market. … Opportunities present themselves; [teams] don’t create them oftentimes. … We have to be open to every possibility to improve our team even if [we have to make a major move] a little early.”
When asked if the Magic would be in position to make a move if a superstar became available this offseason, Weltman replied, “I think it depends on what the profile of the player is and what the trade would look like. I think this is the first time that we can actually have that conversation internally.”
The Magic still have a 9% chance of landing the consensus No. 1 pick — 7-foot-5 French phenom Victor Wembanyama — in the May 16 draft lottery, where Mosley will represent the team again this season.
Mosley brought home the top pick last season, which turned into Banchero. Wouldn’t it be something if he also landed Wembanyama and/or Doncic?
It probably won’t happen, but, man oh man, isn’t it fun to at least be talking about the possibility?
Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on Twitter @BianchiWrites and listen to my Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9:30 a.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and HD 101.1-2
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