The Magic lost again last night, final home game of the season, final Magic broadcast of the year for yours truly. So as the season winds down and the Magic have 1 more 4 game road trip before this season mercifully ends, I have decided to look ahead to what is to come in the off-season.
Key dates: Lottery 6/22…Draft 7/29…Free-agency 8/2.
Unrestricted free-agents on the horizon for the Magic to ponder over: Otto Porter, James Ennis, Chasson Randle…and Dwayne Bacon is non-guaranteed for next year, so they can easily get out of that if they want to. Which I don’t think they should, for the record.
The Magic will rank in the middle of the league in terms of available cash to spend if they want to get into the free-agent market…if they do, here’s who is available:
·John Collins (restricted)
·Victor Oladipo
·Kyle Lowry
·Mike Conley
·Demar Derozan
·Lonzo Ball
·Kelly Oubre
·Spencer Dinwiddie
Among others, but those are the bigger names.
Here’s the roster the Magic are likely bringing back next year…
FULTZ
BACON
OKEKE
ISAAC
CARTER
BENCH...HARRIS, ROSS, BAMBA, COLE, RJ HAMPTON
+ POSSIBLY 2 1ST ROUND PICKS
So here’s the thing, we’re all going to be clamoring for the Magic to make a splash in free-agency, but are we sure they need to? I don’t know that they’re ready for it, and this is a group of players that I’d like to see get properly prospected before shipping them off because you only have so much room on an NBA roster.
Something to think about.
photo: getty images