The Magic are expected to waive big man Jason Maxiell if a few days if they can’t find a trade partner for him, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). His non-guaranteed salary for 2014/15 becomes fully guaranteed for $2.5MM if he’s not waived by the end of July 10th, as our Schedule of Contract Guarantee Dates shows.
Maxiell played in just 34 games for Orlando last season after signing a two-year, $5MM contract to leave Detroit last summer. He averaged 3.2 points and 14.4 minutes per contest, numbers he’d eclipsed in every previous season since 2006/07. The Magic’s drafting of power forward Aaron Gordon at No. 4 overall Thursday seemed to further push the 31-year-old Maxiell out of the picture in Orlando.
It seems unlikely that the Magic would use the cap flexibility they would free up by waiving Maxiell to add a marquee free agent, given the team’s slow approach to rebuilding. Still, there appears to be little reason for Orlando to keep a scarcely used veteran around at more than the minimum salary.