What Are You Up To This Summer? Magic, Heat, Hawks, Hornets, Wizards

Let's talk about the Southeast Division

Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

A quick programming note here before we get to the Southeast: I’m gonna hold off on writing about the Mikal Bridges trade for now because I don’t think this will be the final version of the deal. It’s pretty much a disaster for the Knicks unless they re-sign OG Anunoby, and the current construction makes that extremely difficult because it hard-caps new York at the first apron. I’d bet on the trade expanding so that the Knicks send out more money than they take in¹ and can thus re-sign Anunoby with room enough to fill out the rest of the roster; and if the final version includes Mitchell Robinson going elsewhere, possibly re-sign Isaiah Hartenstein as well. If none of that happens and/or if the Knicks end up losing OG in free agency, rest assured I will have things to say.

Over the next few days, I’m going to go division-by-division through the league and lay out what decisions need to be made and what’s at stake for each NBA team this offseason. We began with the Atlantic Division, then hit the Central, continue today with the Southeast, and will pick up with the Pacific, Northwest, and Southwest over the next few days.

Some of these will come out before the draft and some of them after it. That’s just the annoying way the schedule works out this year, with the draft and free agency starting within a few days of each other. Oh well, them’s the breaks.

Without further ado…

Southeast Division

Orlando Magic

• Draft picks: 18, 47

• Key Potential FA: Jonathan Isaac (Non-GTD), Markelle Fultz, Gary Harris, Joe Ingles (TO), Moe Wagner (TO), Goga Bitadze

• Big Decisions: Jalen Suggs extension, Franz Wagner extension, Cap space, Fultz UFA, Wagner TO, Bitadze UFA

Orlando is one of the teams with a great deal of cap space this offseason. We know the priorities: Shot creation and perimeter shooting. The Magic have the foundation of their core set with Paolo Banchero, Wagner, and Suggs. They have multiple options to play center and/or at the four next to another center. But last season they were rotating through the Gary Harrises and Anthony Blacks and Caleb Houstans of the world in the starting lineup, and for a team with aspirations of winning a playoff series or two this time around, that doesn’t really cut it.

They Magic have been bandied about as a Klay Thompson team; and I see the vision, but I also hope they go in a different direction. The current version of Klay is not the Klay you think you’re getting. This version of the Magic needs someone with a bit more creation ability, and also quite a bit more defensive acumen. Especially with new deals coming for Wagner and Suggs, and then Banchero after that, there are better ways to utilize their cap space than for what is likely to be the steep decline phase of Klay’s career. Unless it’s a two-year contract at most, it just seems unwise. (And even then, it feels like they should be trying to find a longer-term answer.)

Proper extension figures for (Franz) Wagner and Suggs are tricky to figure. Wagner will surely lean on his performance in the first two years of his career and seek the rookie max, but given that Banchero is definitely getting that deal a year from now, I’d be a bit more hesitant to hit that benchmark. If you don’t do that, though, Wagner probably doesn’t sign this offseason. Worst-case scenario is that you just have to give him that offer next summer, which seems fine. Suggs morphing into an All-Defensive guard and knockdown shooter this season was one of the best development stories in the league, but that’s also a hard archetype for which to find proper value. What do you give less-offensively-consistent Derrick White? I’ll be very interested to see where that number comes in.

When it comes to the other free agents, I’d imagine that Fultz and Bitadze will be playing elsewhere next season, while (Moe) Wagner will be back on his very affordable team option and get the backup center minutes on a slightly more regular basis. Unless Jonathan Isaac starts at center, in which case Wendell Carter Jr. would get those minutes. But that seems like a less-than-ideal use of Carter, so maybe something could change on that front, as well.