Free Agency Preview: Our Orlando Magic Wishlist

Free Agency Preview: Our Orlando Magic Wishlist

live from orlando florida you’re listening to the orlando magic hq podcast the voice of magic fans join us every week for a unique fan perspective on all of the latest magic news and updates the show starts now what’s up magic fans welcome back to another episode of the orlando magic hq podcast brought to you by the believe podcast network and bent online we’re your host al myself anthony and in today’s episode we’re talking free agency the magic will exceed the luxury tax threshold for the first time since 2012 but luckily for us we got a little breathing room we’re underneath the second apron and we can make some additional moves in free agency we got the taxpayer midle um we have the mid-level exception so uh the question that i have to start off before we even get into free agency when we take a look at players like mo vagner and caleb al what what are your what are your thoughts are we are we bringing back mo is that is this a player that uh you believe the magic should be bringing back are are we keeping our guy
so let’s back it up a little bit and say hey gary harris as of right now not coming back cory joseph not coming back as of right now that could always change so the remaining options for the magic is to decide what to do with caleb houston and what to do with mo vagner so what i will tell you is if i was a betting man i would bet a significant amount of money to say that mo vagner will be in orlando this upcoming season i can pretty much lock that in i i i feel that confident on that i can pretty much also say that caleb should be back in orlando as well fairly cheap contract that’s a guy that we’ve been grooming he’s proven to be a streaky shooter but when he’s on man he is on and guess what when we need him to step up he steps up when a guy gets injured whatever he can play not make mistakes hit the open shots if he can be a little more consistent man he’ll be a great role player for a long time in this league um so i think in this case i can see both of them coming back the only way they don’t or at least caleb doesn’t is if the magic have already kind of agreed with a guy we know how this happens in the nba you can’t start talking until june 30th at 6 p.m bs we know that they’re already talking to free agents and agents and things like that so if they have a you know back door deal with a player already like we’ve heard rumors already about certain guys that are being linked to orlando and they need the cap space and the roster spot then maybe we don’t see caleb coming back but mo bagner in my opinion we will see the team potentially decline the team option only to bring him back later on using the bird rights but in my opinion it’s a lock what about you is there a world where you see mo vagner not coming back to orlando
it would be hard for me not to see mole back in orlando uh mo has 11 $11 million left in his contract for this year it is a club option yeah i can definitely see us declining that option and then renegotiating the contract um mo is a player that in my opinion is is a necessity he’s that he’s that player that you can throw out there that is going to nag the hell out of you you he’s easily the most unlikable player uh on the roster um unless he’s on your team right uh he’s he’s definitely that player that is going to get under people’s skin he’s he’s created a um uh uh a knack for it he’s great at it um but his production off the bench is so huge for us uh there’s been so many times where uh you know he’s he’s been leading us uh from an offensive standpoint from grabbing rebounds um and his dynamic that he has with fron it just it just works man and and you know right now especially with free agency and you know paulo ben carol hopefully soon we hear the news of the extension um but we’re we’re going to need players that are on a cheap contract that uh can outplay their contract and mo vagner is definitely that that player uh my concern with mo is obviously we all saw like little clips of his documentary that he had with with france vagner um is that you know does he does he really want to be with fron his whole nba career right as as the uh as the big brother does he uh does he feel valued as an nba player his contract obviously this contract was bigger than the first initial one that we brought on so he’s proven himself at this point does he want to continue that with us and i think that that’s definitely a question that he has to answer um but it would make the most sense man he’s coming off of a a pretty nasty injury um and he does so much for this team like i don’t even obviously he’s fran’s brother but where this isn’t like giannis’s brother on this team right it’s not it’s not like uh the nasses it’s it’s completely different element from uh mo vagner produces for this team and not having him on the magic in my opinion would just not not be something i wouldn’t i i would want i want him to be a part of this team long term and uh again contractwise i think that it just it would benefit the magic so much being a cheap contract and adding and adding a player that would bring so much value same with caleb houston caleb houston is going to be a super cheap contract he’s a shooter he’s um has size on him and he already understands the the flow of the magic he already has um the relationship with the players and the coaching staff and you know if you’re looking at you know your 13th 12 13 14 player um on your team caleb houston can definitely fit that role no problem um so i’m expecting for both of them to be back for sure
yeah and for those again that are that are listening uh so mo vagner and caleb houston um the magic have to decide by june 29th which is sunday afternoon um my understanding is before the end of the day is when they have to make that decision so midnight of sunday night because then on monday at 6 p.m free agency starts so we’ll know here fairly soon i think between tomorrow which is friday um and sunday we’ll hear some updates about that and to your point i forgot about that paulo vancerero we got to hear about the extension and don’t be surprised if we hear about that also between now and july 1st which again that’s a guaranteed thing like we know he’s going to sign the max extension with the magic here fairly soon um so we’re about to get really expensive here in the next few weeks and we’re locking in our team so for years we were rebuilding for years we were you know not sure who our guys were going to be well guess what jaylen sucks desmond bane france vagner paulo beno that’s the core now we need to figure out who are the guys around them like mo vagner in my opinion that are going to be here for a long time i think that mo again to your point ant is a necessity man i i think we need him to be a guy that offensively off the bench brings us what we need as far as um that production man 15 points 18 points a night when we need him most uh against the top teams in the in the league he always shows up and plays well you cannot afford to lose that so hopefully they’ll come to an agreement hopefully he values playing in orlando playing with his brother um i think that’s a plus in this case so i truly truly hope that we can see him stay in orlando for a long time
yeah so then the next question would be what do you want the magic to do what do you what are you looking for right um corey joseph is somebody that i believe is is pretty interesting because uh when jay when jaylen suggs went down we didn’t hand the keys over to anthony black and say “all right go go go ahead and elite us at the point guard position.” uh it it was publicly announced it’s it’s point guard by committee and cory joseph uh for the most part did a really decent job playing point guard for us so this is your third string uh uh you know running the point for us so you you take him away um and obviously you don’t have co-anthony anymore what do you do in that position so the magic obviously are going to need uh to bring in a veteran um uh point guard uh question is is it do we bring back cory joseph is there another player that’s out there that’s available um a player that i’m looking at is somebody like tyus jones that was on a very very cheap contract with the phoenix suns can shoot um he’s undersized himself so how does that dynamic work if you’re bringing in taius jones and then you also have um jace richardson um so i think that that’s that’s an interesting dynamic but he would easily be um a top available point guard in free agency so again when you’re when you’re taking a look at free agency who are you looking at what are you looking for the magic to do and what makes the most sense i
i still think that we need more shooting i’m not sold that you know adding desmond bane and uh jayce richardson is a solution right i think we need some vets that can come off the bench and help us out ideally in a perfect world that would be a guy like gary harris a guy that’s a vet is is a great you know locker room guy great shooter however you and everyone that listens to our podcast every week knows how i feel about him it’s a guy that unfortunately you can’t rely upon a guy that just won’t shoot the ball for some reason our best shooters but he would not shoot the ball when we need him most so if you ask me man you got to look at guys like malik beasley in free agency who killed it for the pistons last year can we steal him from detroit and bring him to orlando caris levert is another guy that is going to be a free agent he played for the hawks towards the end of the season great scorer off the bench can shoot it a little bit um luke canard another guy tim hardway jr um carrie trent jr like there’s so many in my opinion french kind of rotational vets that can shoot the ball in free agency that’s why it’s shocking to me as i’m sharing my screen here right now and showing you guys the the depth chart for the magic right now at this moment if we bring back mobach as you expect and caleb houston also returns we only have one roster spot to fill up and that’s it we’re done for the for the offseason pretty much unless a trade happens and that is where i’m like something’s got to change here because i don’t think that jeff meant all we’re doing is making that that desmond bane trade acquiring uh jayce richardson in the draft and that’s it we’re running it back like i i think there’s more to what needs to be done so more to come here is sarah trade is pat on the block is ji who we’ve heard plenty about being on the in the trade block is he a guy that we might be looking to trade so those names that i listed are key free agents to me that if we can steal one of those guys man that would be ideal for us what we need is a better gary harris and by that i mean a healthier version of gary harris and a guy that when he’s open will simply shoot the ball uh you know five times a game four times a game um and ideally not need the ball in his hands i want the ball to be in ab’s hands uh jaylen sucks whoever is it is that’s playing with the second unit as a point guard they want they need to initiate the offense um but what about you are there any names that i didn’t mention that that catch your attention that we should be targeting
yeah i mean the name that we hear or have been hearing pretty often is nikquille alexander walker um this is somebody that can easily come off the bench had a really good playoff performance that can shoot the ball that can give you some offensive uh production um and is somebody that you know was was battling with sga and obviously they’re they’re they’re family so you’re it’s it’s good to see them battle but you know could this be somebody that we can pry away from minnesota and add to our team um you know when when we look at our production last year from um the three-point line we’re obviously one of the worst teams in the nba when it came to our shooting uh you don’t turn that around with just one player right desmond bane is is going to be able to bring so much more production shooting the basketball for us right but that doesn’t turn everything around he he can’t be the only one um obviously it’s going to take a lot of development from our guys returning and them getting better from shooting but yeah you’re definitely going to have to bring in some free agency that’s going to allow um for us to be able to um you know continue with our our our strategy of trying to be able to stretch the floor a lot more and so something definitely has to happen but where where is that uh where are we going to find the space for it so i do believe that there there has to be another move that happens um i i see on our notes as as a player that you know we we see as that could be available somebody like chris paul i would love to have a veteran like chris paul coming off the bench and and being able to lead our second unit and and bring his veteranship and um be that floor general obviously we i heard a podcast of him recently talking about how you know he’s at a point in stage in in his career where he just wants to be closer to family and that’s the most important thing to him and his family lives in la so i don’t see that specifically happening um but you know being able to add a floor general coming off the second unit um and being able to step up in case something happens with with jaylen suggs again that’s just the the reality um you hope that jaylen sus can have a healthy season but if he doesn’t you’re going to need to be able to have somebody off the bench that can fit into and step into that role um and and do that streamline so that it it doesn’t it doesn’t hurt us like we don’t want to just say that our season oh jaylen suggs is hurt and now our season’s out the window and we can’t rely on that so um the the magic are definitely going to have to uh you know be active in free agency and you know jeff wman already talked about that he plans to be active in free agency so what is that going to look like who are they going to target um you know when when we had this conversation before in the past who are the magic going to target in free agency they ended up you know signing joe engles right somebody so left field that we didn’t even think about so um it’s it’s going to be it’s going to be fun to see monday at 6:00 p.m u uh when free agency opens up who it is that they they target because it’s going to be it’s going to be a quick grab everyone’s going to try to get to these players first you mentioned it earlier they’re already having these conversations um so i’m i’m interested to hear as we get closer to monday um you know who the magic are looking at who who are they targeting who they have interest in i’m gonna give you one sneak guy that if we can someway somehow steal him and bring him to orlando i would be over the moon this would be assuming that we trade uh goa or ji for that matter uh and that is brook lopez uh he’s a guy that i think we’ve always wanted in orlando people like the fact that he’s a big body he can stretch the floor so when you talk about trading defense for offense maybe a vet that can be a voice in the locker room champion already in the nba has a home in orlando he would be a perfect fit in orlando again if we make some moves and need a backup big while returns and even when he returns you can play him and mo vagner kind of next to each other since they space space out the floor so much um so kind of keep an eye on him he’s he’s a sneaky target for me for the orlando magic and one thing i do want to clarify for for listeners or those who are watching on youtube is that at the moment with the way things stand what we have available is the taxpayer mid-level exception which would be approximately 5.7 million doesn’t seem like a lot so that will have to be a player that again is maybe older wants to be in a winning environment chooses to come to orlando we could potentially make trades whether that is goa that is j howard that is um jonathan isaac and then get the mid-level exception which will open up about $14 million in salary uh that going to be the mid-level exception if that happens that is where i see us going after nick alexander walker um potentially maybe a guy like dorian finey smith more of that younger potential more of a guy that’s ready to play and contribute now um so keep an eye on that too if we make moves between now and sunday and monday uh midday that tells you they know something that we don’t know and we may be bringing a guy to orlando that we don’t expect or just simply a better player than we may be anticipating otherwise it may have to be an older guy that’s just simply trying to win um but yeah it’s going to be fun man i think that we need to make at least one or two more moves but uh definitely exciting times man the magic are finally going for it the east again is wide open this is the time to add some key pieces man because this team is ready to win
yeah so what to look forward to so obviously monday june 30 is 6 p.m free agency begins and then early july we’re looking at summer league august uh we’re looking at the season schedule release and then late september training camp starts so offseason definitely underway nba finals uh okc being able to see a team like okc that won it that just as young as we were and for them to be like super far ahead and and small market team and being seeing successful it gives you so much more motivation and excitement towards this season uh you mentioned it earlier the east is wide open unfortunately due to injuries um the magic have an opportunity to make a lot of noise when i hear the conversations of um you know predictions of who’s going to be up there next season i i continue to see people discussing and saying uh the orlando magic are up there so magic have an opportunity to be able to take advantage um with free agency and and see how far they can take and how aggressive they can be
yeah man it’s going to be exciting last thing before we close it out what are your thoughts do do just predictions wise do we make one more trade or do we sign a a guy that we don’t expect like a nik alexander walker or a a guy that maybe hits out of left field that may be a better player than we anticipate coming to orlando what are your thoughts on that
yeah so i i really want us to to bring in a a a vet center um either a vet center or vet point guard we definitely need to bring a player in here that can shoot the ball so nikquila alexander walker is somebody that we keep hearing and it’s somebody that i wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the the first name that you know we pull up right um i i like the idea of brook lopez he is he is a lot older so um i would say uh naw is probably your your primary where i i think that we have a really good shot at bringing him in
i think so too i think i wouldn’t be surprised if we do a trade maybe whether it’s j ji or goa and j howard i don’t think we get much back but the idea would be to open up cap space to sign a guy like that so we’ll see the good things that we have we’ll have answers here pretty quickly but again i think the magic are in the on the right track here i don’t think this is the roster we’ll see the depth chart that i showed earlier that that’s it that’s going to be our roster here come uh training camp i think there’s at least one or two more moves to make and man it’s been an a++ off seasonason for the magic already starting with the the rebrand we haven’t talked about the whole alex martins thing just yet we’ll save that for later but the magic are making the right moves man i think that is exciting uh again the east we’re being predicted to be one of the top three teams in the east we’re being uh favored to potentially make the nba finals next year all i’m going to say is i’m going to end it with this man we started this podcast in 2019 it’s our first time doing a show heading into a new season where we can actually say man we’re actually going to be contenders in the eastern conference like we may be playing next season may early june basketball which again for us is new territory so exciting times for us exciting times for all your listeners who’ve been through with us through the the struggles of watching chumal kk and watching uh hume all those guys uh ken burch play for us and start for us uh it’s been a journey but hey the better days ahead that’s for sure that’s right on that note man i appreciate everyone for listening free agency right around the corner we’ll catch you guys soon for all the latest magic news and updates visit orlandomagichq.com and follow us on instagram at orlando magic hq and on twitter at omagic hq also remember to subscribe to our youtube channel and subscribe and leave a five-star review on your favorite listening platform

In this episode of the Orlando Magic HQ podcast, Anthony and Al discuss the upcoming NBA free agency, focusing on key player decisions regarding Mo Wagner and Caleb Houston, the need for a veteran point guard, and potential free agency targets.

They emphasize the importance of shooting and the team’s strategy moving forward as they aim to build a competitive roster in the Eastern Conference.

00:00 Free Agency Overview and Team Dynamics
07:26 Key Player Decisions: Mo Wagner and Caleb Houston
14:36 Point Guard and Shooting Needs
18:35 Future Prospects and Team Strategy

***
Follow us on social media to stay up to date on all of the latest Orlando Magic news and updates.

Become a Patreon Member: www.patreon.com/c/orlandomagichq

Website: www.orlandomagichq.com
X: https://x.com/omagichq
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orlandomagichq
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/orlandomagichq

#OrlandoMagic #OrlandoMagicPodcast #NBA