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2017 Offseason In Review: Orlando Magic

September 22nd, 2017 at 11:31am CST by Luke Adams

Hoops Rumors is breaking down the 2017 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, revisiting the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll evaluate each team’s moves from the last several months and look ahead to what the 2017/18 season holds for all 30 franchises. Today, we’re focusing on the Orlando Magic.

Signings:

Jonathon Simmons: Three years, $18MM. Third year partially guaranteed ($1MM).
Shelvin Mack: Two years, $12MM. Second year non-guaranteed.
Arron Afflalo: One year, minimum salary.
Marreese Speights: One year, minimum salary.
Adreian Payne: Two-way contract. One year.

Camp invitees:

Khem Birch: Two years, minimum salary. $25K guaranteed.
Troy Caupain: One year, minimum salary. Exhibits nine and 10.
Kalin Lucas: One year, minimum salary. Exhibits nine and 10.
Damjan Rudez: One year, minimum salary. Exhibits nine and 10.
Rodney Purvis: Reported agreement not yet finalized.

Trades:

Acquired a 2020 first-round pick (Thunder; top-20 protected) and a 2020 second-round pick (less favorable of Knicks’ and Nets’ picks) from the Sixers in exchange for the draft rights to Anzejs Pasecniks (No. 25 pick).
Acquired a 2019 second-round pick (Nets) from the Grizzlies in exchange for the draft rights to Ivan Rabb (No. 35 pick).

Draft picks:

1-6: Jonathan Isaac — Signed to rookie contract.
2-33: Wesley Iwundu — Signed to three-year, $4.047MM contract. Third-year team option.

Departing players:

Patricio Garino (waived)
Marcus Georges-Hunt (waived)
Jeff Green
Jodie Meeks
C.J. Watson (waived)
Stephen Zimmerman (waived)

Other offseason news:

Fired general manager Rob Hennigan.
Hired Jeff Weltman as president of basketball operations; sent 2018 second-round pick to Raptors as compensation.
Hired John Hammond as general manager.
Hired Randy Wittman as coaching consultant.
Will have new G League affiliate (Lakeland Magic).

Salary cap situation:

Essentially capped out (carrying approximately $98MM in guaranteed salary), but full room exception ($4.328MM) still available.

Check out the Orlando Magic’s full roster and depth chart at RosterResource.com.

Story of the summer:

No NBA teams replaced head coaches this offseason, but Orlando was one of several clubs to make changes to its basketball operations department. The Magic had been patient with general manager Rob Hennigan, watching as he made incremental improvements over the course of his first four years with the franchise, increasing the club’s win total from 20 to 23 to 25 to 35. After a series of major moves failed to pan out, however, the Magic slipped back to 29-53 in 2016/17.

With no playoff berths or star players to show for five years of work in Orlando – and an embarrassing dry-erase board incident fresh in everyone’s mind – Hennigan was a goner. To replace him, the Magic brought in Raptors executive Jeff Weltman to run the basketball operations department, and poached John Hammond from the Bucks to become their new GM.

In his fifth year, Hennigan clearly felt the pressure to make win-now moves, which resulted in overpays for players like Serge Ibaka and Bismack Biyombo. The new management group won’t be under the same sort of pressure — this roster isn’t capable of legit contention in the short term, which means Weltman and Hammond can be patient and focus on longer-term moves.

Both of the Magic’s new executives showed a willingness in their old jobs to gamble on young, athletic prospects with high upside. So far in Orlando, they’ve exhibited that same tendency. Not all of those moves will pan out, but with the Magic still going through a rebuild, Weltman and Hammond will likely be happy to roll the dice on a few Bruno Caboclos if the process eventually leads them to a Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Key offseason losses:

Considering the new front office had no attachment to most of the players brought in by the old regime, it came as no surprise that everyone with a non-guaranteed contract for 2017/18 was waived over the summer. Of that group, Marcus Georges-Hunt, Patricio Garino, and Stephen Zimmerman were young players who didn’t play much for Orlando last season, but C.J. Watson was the team’s primary point guard for most of last season.

Still, the Magic’s decision to move on from Watson made sense — he struggled mightily during his two years with the team, posting a shooting line of .371/.301/.867 in 95 total games. His $5MM salary was only partially guaranteed for $1MM, so releasing him gave the team an extra $4MM to use in free agency.

Speaking of free agents, the Magic also didn’t appear to make a strong effort to re-sign two veterans whose contracts expired. Jodie Meeks only appeared in 36 games for the team last season but was an effective outside shooter when he did play, making 40.9% of his three-point attempts.

Meanwhile, Jeff Green also spent just one season in Orlando, setting new career lows in several categories, including FG% (.394) and 3PT% (.275). A look at his year-to-year salary reflects how much his value slipped during his single season with the Magic — he signed for $15MM a year ago, and settled for the veteran’s minimum this offseason. Letting him walk shouldn’t negatively impact the Magic.

Key offseason additions:

Many of the top picks in June’s draft looked like ideal marriages between players and teams, and that was especially true of the Magic’s selection of Jonathan Isaac. Widely considered one of the more intriguing and athletic young prospects in the 2017 class, Isaac looks like exactly the sort of project that appeals to Weltman and Hammond. It’s not clear yet exactly what position he’ll play, or how long it will take him to develop into a reliable contributor, but the Magic have plenty of time to figure it out.

On the free agent market, the Magic mostly opted for veteran stability over youth and upside, though their investment in Jonathon Simmons was an interesting one. Simmons began the offseason as a restricted free agent, and was expected to attract significant interest after flashing some two-way potential in the playoffs following Kawhi Leonard‘s injury. However, the 28-year-old lingered on the market longer than anticipated, and eventually asked the Spurs to withdraw his qualifying offer, making him unrestricted. The Magic quickly swooped in and locked up Simmons at the very reasonable price of $6MM annually, with only two fully guaranteed seasons.

Simmons’ 2016/17 regular season stats – including a shooting line of .420/.294/.750 – weren’t overly impressive, but even if he doesn’t live up to the promise hinted at in the postseason, his cost will never become exorbitant. If he still has room to improve, he could end up turning into a bargain for the Magic, who figure to use him a more expanded role than the one he saw in San Antonio.

Outside of Simmons, the Magic also used their cap room to sign point guard Shelvin Mack, shooting guard Arron Afflalo, and big man Marreese Speights. None of those players figures to be part of the long-term plan in Orlando, but Mack could represent an upgrade at the backup point guard spot, and the Magic know what they’re getting from Afflalo and Speights, who will play rotation roles and provide some veteran leadership in the locker room.

Outlook for 2017/18:

In a weakened Eastern Conference, a playoff spot isn’t necessarily out of reach for the Magic, if everything breaks right. But that shouldn’t be the expectation — or even the goal.

In their first year with the franchise, Weltman and Hammond should be focusing on identifying which players are keepers and which ones are expendable. Guys like Aaron Gordon and Elfrid Payton, who are both already eligible for extensions this offseason, haven’t fully lived up to their potential so far, so it will be interesting to see whether Orlando holds off on new deals for the duo, opting to assess their play in their respective contract years before deciding whether to invest. Mario Hezonja is another lottery pick who has underperformed early in his NBA career, so 2017/18 should be a big year for him too.

With a focus on player development, the Magic will likely consider the season a success if a handful of those young players – including rookies Isaac and Wesley Iwundu – make positive strides, even if the club misses the postseason for a sixth straight year.

Salary information from Basketball Insiders used in the creation of this post. Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Billy King Looks Back On Tenure With Nets

September 20th, 2017 at 10:04pm CST by Arthur Hill

Former Nets GM Billy King, who is widely blamed for turning the organization into a perennial loser with no lottery picks, tells his side of the story in an interview with The Glue Guys, a Nets-themed podcast.

King touches on several controversial issues in the 45-minute session, including an effort to acquire Chris Paul, the failure to get Dwight Howard when he wanted to join the Nets and the ill-fated trade that sent three unprotected first-rounders to Boston for a package centered around veterans Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett.

The highlights:

King tried to get Paul from New Orleans before dealing with Utah for Deron Williams. King believed he was making progress, but the deal went cold after Jeff Bowers was replaced as GM by Dell Demps. “At that time, I don’t think Dell wanted his first thing to be trading Chris Paul,” King said.
The Nets believed they were close to acquiring Howard from Orlando just before the 2012 trade deadline. “We went to bed as a staff — we left the office pretty late — we went to bed pretty much knowing that tomorrow we’re going to get Dwight,” King said. Magic GM Otis Smith had planned to finalize the deal the next morning, but King woke up to a text saying that Howard had elected to opt in for the following season. King reached out to Howard’s agent, who responded, “I don’t think he did,” and even Smith hadn’t heard the news when King called him. However, Smith returned the call an hour later and confirmed the news.
The Nets responded by trading their 2012 first-round pick to Portland in exchange for Gerald Wallace in an attempt to appease Williams and discourage him from opting out over the summer. The Blazers used that pick to draft Damian Lillard.
King reached out to the Celtics in 2013 because he thought he had a talented nucleus that needed veteran leadership and was interested in acquiring Pierce. Negotiations led to Garnett and Jason Terry being included and the package of picks going to Boston.
King made an offer to Pierce in the summer of 2014, but he got a better deal from Washington and the Nets decided not to match it. “Once that decision was made, I think it changed our thought process,” King said. “I think some of the players even thought, ‘What’s going on here? We were committed and now we’re not.” King added that he wouldn’t have made the deal with Boston if he knew he couldn’t keep Pierce longer than one season.

NBA’s Board Of Governors To Examine Revenue Sharing System

September 19th, 2017 at 12:15pm CST by Luke Adams

ESPN’s Zach Lowe and Brian Windhorst have published an expansive and well-researched report on NBA teams’ finances, providing details on the league’s revenue sharing system, the impact from national and local television deals, and how a lack of net income for NBA franchises could push the league toward considering relocation or expansion.

The report is wide-ranging and detailed, so we’re going to tackle it by dividing it up into several sections, but it’s certainly worth reading in full to get a better picture of whether things stand in the NBA. Let’s dive in…

Which teams are losing money?

Nine teams reportedly lost money last season, even after revenue sharing. Those clubs were the Hawks, Nets, Pistons, Grizzlies, Magic, Wizards, Bucks, Cavaliers, and Spurs. The latter two teams – Cleveland and San Antonio – initially came out ahead, but paid into the league’s revenue sharing program, pushing them into the red.
Meanwhile, the Hornets, Kings, Pacers, Pelicans, Suns, Timberwolves, and Trail Blazers also would have lost money based on net income if not for revenue sharing, according to Lowe and Windhorst.
As a league, the NBA is still doing very well — the overall net income for the 30 teams combined was $530MM, per ESPN. That number also only takes into account basketball income, and doesn’t include income generated via non-basketball events for teams that own their arenas.
The players’ union and its economists have long been skeptical of NBA teams’ bookkeeping, alleging that clubs are using techniques to make themselves appear less profitable than they actually are, Windhorst and Lowe note. The union has the power to conduct its own audit of several teams per season, and it has begun to take advantage of that power — according to ESPN, the union audited five teams last season, and the new CBA will allow up to 10 teams to be audited going forward.

How does the gap between large and small market teams impact income?

Even after paying $49MM in revenue sharing, the Lakers finished the 2016/17 with a $115MM profit in terms of net income, per ESPN. That was the highest profit in the NBA, ahead of the second-place Warriors, and could be attributed in large part to the $149MM the Lakers received from their huge local media rights deals.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Grizzlies earned a league-low $9.4MM in local media rights, which significantly affected their bottom line — even after receiving $32MM in revenue sharing, Memphis lost money for the season. The Grizzlies will start a new TV deal this year that should help boost their revenue, but it still won’t come anywhere close to matching deals like the Lakers‘.
The biggest local TV deals help drive up the NBA’s salary cap, with teams like the Lakers and Knicks earning in excess of $100MM from their media agreements. According to the ESPN report, the Knicks made $10MM more on their TV deal than the six lowest-earning teams combined.
As one owner explained to ESPN, “National revenues drive up the cap, but local revenues are needed to keep up with player salaries. If a team can’t generate enough local revenues, they lose money.”
Playoff revenue from a big-market team like the Warriors also helps push up the salary cap. Sources tell Lowe and Windhorst that Golden State made about $44.3MM in net income from just nine home playoff games last season, more than doubling the playoff revenue of the next-best team (the Cavaliers at about $20MM).

How is revenue sharing affecting teams’ earnings?

Ten teams paid into the NBA’s revenue sharing system in 2016/17, with 15 teams receiving that money. The Sixers, Raptors, Nets, Heat, and Mavericks neither paid nor received any revenue sharing money. Four teams – the Warriors, Lakers, Bulls, and Knicks – accounted for $144MM of the total $201MM paid in revenue sharing.
While there’s general agreement throughout the NBA that revenue sharing is working as intended, some teams have “bristled about the current scale of monetary redistribution,” according to ESPN. “The need for revenue sharing was supposed to be for special circumstances, not permanent subsidies,” one large-market team owner said.
The Grizzlies, Hornets, Pacers, Bucks, and Jazz have each received at least $15MM apiece in each of the last four years via revenue sharing.
However, not all small-market teams receive revenue-sharing money — if a team outperforms its expectations based on market size, it forfeits its right to that money. For instance, the Thunder and Spurs have each paid into revenue sharing for the last six years.

Why might league-wide income issues lead to relocation or expansion?

At least one team owner has raised the idea of expansion, since an expansion fee for a new franchise could exceed $1 billion and it wouldn’t be subject to splitting 50/50 with players. A $1 billion expansion fee split 30 ways would work out to $33MM+ per team.
Meanwhile, larger-market teams who aren’t thrilled about their revenue-sharing fees have suggested that small-market clubs losing money every year should consider relocating to bigger markets, sources tell ESPN.
As Lowe and Windhorst observe, the Pistons – who lost more money than any other team last season – are undergoing a relocation of sorts, moving from the suburbs to downtown Detroit, in the hopes that the move will help boost revenue.

What are the next steps? Are changes coming?

The gap between the most and least profitable NBA teams is expected to be addressed at the NBA’s Board of Governors meeting next week, per Lowe and Windhorst. Team owners have scheduled a half-day review of the league’s revenue sharing system.
Obviously, large- and small-market teams view the issue differently. While some large-market teams have complained about the revenue sharing system, they’re outnumbered, with smaller-market teams pushing those more successful clubs to share more of their profits, according to ESPN.
Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen is one of the loudest voices pushing for more “robust” revenue sharing, sources tell ESPN. Some team owners have argued that the system should ensure all teams make a profit, while one even suggested every team should be guaranteed a $20MM profit. There will be “pushback” on those ideas, Lowe and Windhorst note. “This is a club where everyone knows the rules when they buy in,” one owner said.
On the other end of the spectrum, some teams have floated the idea of limiting the amount of revenue sharing money a team can receive if it has been taking payments for several consecutive years.
Any change to the revenue sharing system that is formally proposed at the NBA’s Board of Governors meeting would require a simple majority (16 votes to 14) to pass.

Magic Hire Randy Wittman As Coaching Consultant

September 18th, 2017 at 5:03pm CST by Arthur Hill

SEPTEMBER 18: The Magic have confirmed the changes to their coaching staff noted below, announcing today in a press release that Wittman has joined the club as a coaching consultant, while Hernandez and Hill are now assistant coaches.

SEPTEMBER 3: Former Wizards head coach Randy Wittman is completing a deal to become a coaching consultant in Orlando, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com. He will report directly to head coach Frank Vogel in the new position.

The Magic have an opening on their staff with the departure of David Adelman to Denver. Wojnarowski adds that current Orlando assistants Jay Hernandez and Matt Hill will both be promoted (Twitter link).

Wittman compiled a 178-199 record in four and a half seasons as head coach in Washington. He led the team to two playoff appearances and two second-round exits before being fired in 2016. Wittman has also served as head coach of the Cavaliers and Timberwolves and spent a year as an assistant in Orlando in 2005/06.

15 Two-Way Contract Slots Remain Open

September 13th, 2017 at 1:15pm CST by Luke Adams

With NBA training camps just a couple weeks away, most teams are putting the finishing touches on their respective rosters. In addition to having secured at least a dozen players on guaranteed contracts and perhaps a handful of camp invitees, each NBA club has also signed at least one player to a two-way contract.

As we explain in depth in our FAQ, two-way contracts – a new concept under the league’s latest Collective Bargaining Agreement – allow NBA teams to carry two extra players in addition to the 15 on their regular season roster. These players spend most of their time with the club’s G League affiliate, but are eligible to join the NBA roster for up to 45 days per season, and remain under team control — they can’t be poached by rival franchises.

Teams have been signing players to two-way contracts since July, so we’re starting to get a better idea of what players on those deals will look like — some are late second-round draft picks; some are undrafted rookies; others are G League or international veterans, or former NBA players looking to work their way back into the league.

Every NBA club has signed at least one player to a two-way deal, but only half of those 30 clubs have filled both spots, meaning that there are still 15 two-way openings around the league. With the help of our two-way tracker, here’s a breakdown of the teams that still have an open two-way slot:

Atlanta Hawks
Cleveland Cavaliers
Dallas Mavericks
Golden State Warriors
Houston Rockets
Los Angeles Clippers
Los Angeles Lakers
Miami Heat
Milwaukee Bucks
Minnesota Timberwolves
New York Knicks
Oklahoma City Thunder
Orlando Magic
Philadelphia 76ers
Portland Trail Blazers

While the Suns and Jazz technically could be included on this list, they’ve reportedly reached agreements – with Alec Peters and Nate Wolters, respectively – to fill their second two-way slots, so unless those deals unexpectedly fall through, they won’t have any openings.

Although some of these two-way openings figure to be filled in advance of training camp, many of the clubs listed above have signed camp invitees to Exhibit 10 contracts, which can later be converted into two-way deals. So rather than signing someone new and waiving a camp invitee, a handful of teams may simply convert an Exhibit 10 contract to a two-way contract before the regular season begins.

Magic Re-Sign Damjan Rudez

September 7th, 2017 at 3:15pm CST by Austin Kent

The Magic have re-signed 31-year-old forward Damjan Rudez, the team announced in a press release. His deal, per Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel, is non-guaranteed.

In 45 games with Orlando last season, Rudez played just 7.0 minutes per game but his largest contributions to the young roster will presumably come in other areas. The forward is regarded as a positive influence in the locker room and his skillset as an adept three-point shooting big man is in vogue.

The addition of Rudez brings Orlando’s roster to 19 players but his stiffest competition for the 15th spot will likely be summer signing Khem Birch, Robbins writes.

David Adelman To Join Nuggets’ Staff

September 2nd, 2017 at 2:54pm CST by Arthur Hill

Magic assistant coach David Adelman will become part of Michael Malone’s staff in Denver, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

The son of former NBA coach Rick Adelman, he spent just one year in Orlando. Adelman broke into the league in 2011 as a player development coach on his father’s staff in Minnesota and remained with the Wolves through the 2015/16 season.

Adelman will probably serve as offensive coordinator with the Nuggets, tweets Jon Krawczynski of the Associated Press.

Magic Sign Kalin Lucas

August 31st, 2017 at 11:28am CST by Luke Adams

The Magic continue to fill out their roster for training camp, announcing today in a press release (Twitter link) that they’ve signed free agent guard Kalin Lucas to a contract. The announcement from the team also confirmed the signing of Troy Caupain, which we covered earlier this month.

Lucas, 28, went undrafted out of Michigan State back in 2011 and has played in a number of professional leagues and countries since then. In addition to spending time with clubs in Greece and Turkey, Lucas has extensive G League experience, having averaged 17.7 PPG and 4.9 APG with a .448/.391/.842 shooting line in 112 career G League contests.

Lucas was signed and waived multiple times by the Grizzlies in 2014, and ultimately saw his only NBA experience with Memphis during that 2014/15 season. His stint in the NBA was brief — he played in just one game and saw the floor for six minutes.

Having played for the Erie BayHawks last season, Lucas is a good bet to join the Lakeland Magic to start the 2017/18 campaign. Those teams are technically one and the same — the Orlando Magic bought the BayHawks and relocated the G League franchise to Florida for the coming season.

The Magic now have 18 players officially under contract, with an agreement also reportedly in place with undrafted rookie Rodney Purvis — when Purvis’ deal becomes official, Orlando would have just one open spot left on the team’s 20-man offseason roster.

NBA Draft Rights Held: Southeast Division

August 30th, 2017 at 11:41am CST by Luke Adams

When top college prospects like Markelle Fultz or Lonzo Ball are drafted, there’s virtually no doubt that their next step will involve signing an NBA contract. However, that’s not the case for every player who is selected in the NBA draft, particularly for international prospects and second-round picks.

When an NBA team uses a draft pick on a player, it gains his NBA rights, but that doesn’t mean the player will sign an NBA contract right away. International prospects will often remain with their professional team overseas for at least one more year to develop their game further, becoming “draft-and-stash” prospects. Nikola Mirotic, Dario Saric, and Bogdan Bogdanovic are among the more notable players to fit this bill in recent years.

However, draft-and-stash players can be former NCAA standouts too. Sometimes a college prospect selected with a late second round pick will end up playing overseas or in the G League for a year or two if there’s no space available on his NBA team’s 15-man roster.

While these players sometimes make their way to their NBA teams, others never do. Many clubs around the NBA currently hold the rights to international players who have remained overseas for their entire professional careers and are no longer viewed as top prospects. Those players may never come stateside, but there’s often no reason for NBA teams to renounce their rights — those rights can sometimes be used as placeholders in trades.

For instance, earlier this summer, the Pacers and Raptors agreed to a trade that sent Cory Joseph to Indiana. Toronto was happy to move Joseph’s salary and didn’t necessarily need anything in return, but the Pacers had to send something in the deal. Rather than including an NBA player or a draft pick, Indiana sent Toronto the draft rights to Emir Preldzic, the 57th overall pick in the 2009 draft.

Preldzic is currently playing for Galatasaray in Turkey, and at this point appears unlikely to ever come to the NBA, but his draft rights have been a useful trade chip over the years — the Pacers/Raptors swap represented the fourth time since 2010 that Preldzic’s NBA rights have been included in a trade.

This week, we’re taking a closer look at the players whose draft rights NBA teams currently hold, sorting them by division. These players may eventually arrive in America and join their respective NBA teams, but many will end up like Preldzic, plying their trade overseas and having their draft rights used as pawns in NBA trades.

Here’s a breakdown of the draft rights held by Southeast teams:

Atlanta Hawks

Augusto Binelli, C (1986; No. 40): Retired.
Alain Digbeu, F (1997; No. 49): Retired.
Marcus Eriksson, G/F (2015; No. 50): Playing in Spain.
Isaia Cordinier, G (2016; No. 44): Playing in France.
Alpha Kaba, C (2017; No. 60): Playing in France.

Charlotte Hornets

None

Miami Heat

George Banks, F (1995; No. 46): Retired.
Robert Duenas, C (1997; No. 57): Retired.

Orlando Magic

Rashard Griffith, C (1995; No. 38): Retired.
Remon van de Hare, C (2003; No. 52): Retired.
Fran Vazquez, C (2005; No. 11): Playing in Spain.
Janis Timma, F (2013; No. 60): Playing in Spain.
Tyler Harvey, G (2015; No. 51): Playing in France.

Washington Wizards

Aaron White, F (2015; No. 49): Playing in Lithuania.

Previously:

Information from Mark Porcaro and Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.

Magic Taking Wait-And-See Approach With Gordon Extension

August 30th, 2017 at 10:27am CST by Luke Adams

With a new management team in place in Orlando, the Magic are expected to take a wait-and-see approach to a new deal for Aaron Gordon, unless he’s willing to sign at a discounted rate for the sake of long-term security, says Kyler.

[SOURCE LINK]