TRANSCRIPT: Jeff Weltman on "Open Mike" with Mike Bianchi - 4/16/24

[Black and Blue]

We’re gonna slow simmer it and continue to invest in the players we have on our roster. Grow and develop them. We’ll always be opportunistic and seeking out the next ways to improve the team and if we can take a leap, we will. But I have no problem in doubling down on these guys right now. It’s kind of like what we committed to early on.

We aren't adding anyone of consequence this offseason or addressing any needs. Otherwise he would have answered this much differently. The second to last sentence he plays his hand.

We'll see what happens, but that was certainly not an optimistic way of answering it.

Basically he seem to insinuate that he's willing to keep things status quo until a no brainer trade falls into his lap.

I didn’t take it that way. I took it as “this current roster is my fallback plan.” He can’t promise a big move because other teams are going to jump on those quotes and assume they have him over a barrel.

He did what he could to send out the bat signal for anyone on another roster to consider the Magic as a trade destination. And he then (truthfully) noted that free agency has become this wasteland of overpriced, middling players. For people like myself that don’t want to spend a lot on Klay or majorly overpay on Monk, it’s a good thing to hear.

I’m as hard on Weltman as anyone, but short of him coming out and saying they definitely 100% making some major moves, he seemed to insinuate they are going to be active in reshaping the roster to capitalize on this season’s success. It also appears the dreaded “timeline” we keep hearing about has been sped up in a good way.

[The-Stallion70]

These team officials always just spew crap in these interviews.

He describes himself as a civil servant, ya except real civil servants aren't paid millions, at least not officially.

[Ducklett]

A lot of people on here want the Otis Smith style of trades which is trading just to trade. Remember when we screwed up our chemistry by trading a bunch of guys just to then trade those guys for the guys we traded originally (Hi Hedo). I sincerely think you guys want that.

[eyriq]

A lot of people on here want the Otis Smith style of trades which is trading just to trade. Remember when we screwed up our chemistry by trading a bunch of guys just to then trade those guys for the guys we traded originally (Hi Hedo). I sincerely think you guys want that.

I'm all aboard the player development train for critical roles. If we can get an impact player or two via trade or free agency? All the better. But for core roles fucus on developing Lotto talent.

The only downside to this approach is we may not have a top 10, top 20, and top 50 players amongst the lotto talent. I kind of suspect we do though as crazy as that would be.

[Rainwater]

I think people are reading into what they want to read and ignoring the rest.

"We also have to be realistic. We talk about flexibility and it’s great to have it, but you also have to understand we’re a very young team right now. But as these guys grow up and we pay them, flexibility doesn’t last forever. And this isn’t just for us, it’s for every young team in the league.

This in particular shows that they realize flexibility isn't something the team is able to have forever, so it would be wise to address at least one or two specific things this offseason.

Yeah, I think people will take from this interview what fits their narrative. What is best is to wait and see what the front office actually does in the off season.

[Petre1978]

The Magic went from 22 wins in 2022 to 47 wins in 2024.

They haven't been this good since 2011.

Weltman drafted the 3 best players in Banchero, Wagner and Suggs.

Let him do!!
In Weltman i trust!!

[Optimus_Steel]

I think people are reading into what they want to read and ignoring the rest.

"We also have to be realistic. We talk about flexibility and it’s great to have it, but you also have to understand we’re a very young team right now. But as these guys grow up and we pay them, flexibility doesn’t last forever. And this isn’t just for us, it’s for every young team in the league.

This in particular shows that they realize flexibility isn't something the team is able to have forever, so it would be wise to address at least one or two specific things this offseason.

Yeah, I think people will take from this interview what fits their narrative. What is best is to wait and see what the front office actually does in the off season.

He also said “we’ve positioned this summer to be able to sign a free agent”. Agreed people are reading what they condition themselves to hear lol.

[jezzerinho]

We’re gonna slow simmer it and continue to invest in the players we have on our roster. Grow and develop them. We’ll always be opportunistic and seeking out the next ways to improve the team and if we can take a leap, we will. But I have no problem in doubling down on these guys right now. It’s kind of like what we committed to early on.

We aren't adding anyone of consequence this offseason or addressing any needs. Otherwise he would have answered this much differently. The second to last sentence he plays his hand.

We'll see what happens, but that was certainly not an optimistic way of answering it.

Basically he seem to insinuate that he's willing to keep things status quo until a no brainer trade falls into his lap.

I didn’t take it that way. I took it as “this current roster is my fallback plan.” He can’t promise a big move because other teams are going to jump on those quotes and assume they have him over a barrel.

He did what he could to send out the bat signal for anyone on another roster to consider the Magic as a trade destination. And he then (truthfully) noted that free agency has become this wasteland of overpriced, middling players. For people like myself that don’t want to spend a lot on Klay or majorly overpay on Monk, it’s a good thing to hear.

I’m as hard on Weltman as anyone, but short of him coming out and saying they definitely 100% making some major moves, he seemed to insinuate they are going to be active in reshaping the roster to capitalize on this season’s success. It also appears the dreaded “timeline” we keep hearing about has been sped up in a good way.

I'm curious to know how Orlando can now trade for players with almost all of their tradeable salaries expiring.

If the FO goes after this "star" who's now suddenly going to want to play for the Magic, with what do they trade for his salary?

How do you get a PG13 or Trae or Spida or whoever trading cash and picks? Answer, you can't- without trading Ingles ($11m), Carter ($13m ish) Moe ($8m ish) AB ($7m) and Jett ($5m) if the other team wanted all those guys - which they won't, any more.than Orl wants to strip its roster. And you'd still come up short on salary with a lot of stars.

So you either have to sacrifice at least one of Franz, PB, Suggs, JI or you have to lower your expectations. Even if its for a player in the 20m salary mark, the trading team has to want a handful of picks and prob Carter plus AB as a throw 6 to start.

Not so easy. Fultz, Harris and Goga are off the books, Cole has a poison pill for the start of FA at least.

All in all, we have assets but not everyone will want the assets we're offering and they wont be enough for a big salary, I don't think.

[tooler]

Maybe a 3-team trade? He said trades need the right dance partner. It’s possible we don’t find one this summer. Fortunately there are a few options in free agency.

[YosemiteSam]

I was thinking of a question I wanted to ask and this thread seems like it might be appropriate.

I was looking at how the Celtics built their current team and I reviewed the last two trades they made this summer to finish out this record breaking team that is first in NBA history in offensive rating and second this year in defense. And I could not believe the players and trades they made in order to get Porzingis and Holiday. This seems to go back years, I used to think it was Ainge but he left and Boston still seems to win every trade almost as if the other teams want to help them.

Why does it seem like teams like Boston can do this? It’s not like they are the Lakers where other teams’ players are insisting on going there so they are in a poor bargaining position is it? Somehow their system is able to generate extra hype for role-play players like Robert Williams, Malcolm Brogdon, and Marcus Smart so other teams tricked themselves into thinking they’re getting value back for their stars and they trade them. They even really traded nothing for Derek White. They also seem to have an aggressiveness to go out and try to improve before other teams can get offers together, and the other teams get impatient and take the Boston one right away. It was really bold how quickly went after Holiday this year when he became available, basically taking him from their main rival in the Bucks.

Anyway, as the Magic think about how to do trades, I wonder if there is anything we can learn from watching the Celtics or are they just a different model than us. Part of me sees them having two anchors as big wings and that looks a lot like us right now.

[MagicMatic]

Just to be clear. I don’t want this FO to cut corners or make a huge splashy trade right now.

Wanting them to fill out the role players, on short term deals in order to make the core’s life easier, isn’t a huge ask.

[pepe1991]

I was thinking of a question I wanted to ask and this thread seems like it might be appropriate.

I was looking at how the Celtics built their current team and I reviewed the last two trades they made this summer to finish out this record breaking team that is first in NBA history in offensive rating and second this year in defense. And I could not believe the players and trades they made in order to get Porzingis and Holiday. This seems to go back years, I used to think it was Ainge but he left and Boston still seems to win every trade almost as if the other teams want to help them.

Why does it seem like teams like Boston can do this? It’s not like they are the Lakers where other teams’ players are insisting on going there so they are in a poor bargaining position is it? Somehow their system is able to generate extra hype for role-play players like Robert Williams, Malcolm Brogdon, and Marcus Smart so other teams tricked themselves into thinking they’re getting value back for their stars and they trade them. They even really traded nothing for Derek White. They also seem to have an aggressiveness to go out and try to improve before other teams can get offers together, and the other teams get impatient and take the Boston one right away. It was really bold how quickly went after Holiday this year when he became available, basically taking him from their main rival in the Bucks.

Anyway, as the Magic think about how to do trades, I wonder if there is anything we can learn from watching the Celtics or are they just a different model than us. Part of me sees them having two anchors as big wings and that looks a lot like us right now.

Boston Celtics are big market team in terms of global market. They are one of most recognizable sports teams and have deep roots in basketball history.

[Knightro]

I’m curious to know how Orlando can now trade for players with almost all of their tradeable salaries expiring.

If the FO goes after this "star" who's now suddenly going to want to play for the Magic, with what do they trade for his salary?

How do you get a PG13 or Trae or Spida or whoever trading cash and picks? Answer, you can't- without trading Ingles ($11m), Carter ($13m ish) Moe ($8m ish) AB ($7m) and Jett ($5m) if the other team wanted all those guys - which they won't, any more.than Orl wants to strip its roster. And you'd still come up short on salary with a lot of stars.

So you either have to sacrifice at least one of Franz, PB, Suggs, JI or you have to lower your expectations. Even if its for a player in the 20m salary mark, the trading team has to want a handful of picks and prob Carter plus AB as a throw 6 to start.

Not so easy. Fultz, Harris and Goga are off the books, Cole has a poison pill for the start of FA at least.

All in all, we have assets but not everyone will want the assets we're offering and they wont be enough for a big salary, I don't think.

The Magic won’t have to send out matching salary in a trade because they’re going to be so far under the salary cap this summer.

For example…

If the Magic wanted to trade for Dejounte Murray, they could actually acquire him without sending out a single player if the Hawks were so inclined because they have the cap space to absorb his entire salary.

[MagicMatic]

We'll see what happens, but that was certainly not an optimistic way of answering it.

Basically he seem to insinuate that he's willing to keep things status quo until a no brainer trade falls into his lap.

I didn’t take it that way. I took it as “this current roster is my fallback plan.” He can’t promise a big move because other teams are going to jump on those quotes and assume they have him over a barrel.

He did what he could to send out the bat signal for anyone on another roster to consider the Magic as a trade destination. And he then (truthfully) noted that free agency has become this wasteland of overpriced, middling players. For people like myself that don’t want to spend a lot on Klay or majorly overpay on Monk, it’s a good thing to hear.

I’m as hard on Weltman as anyone, but short of him coming out and saying they definitely 100% making some major moves, he seemed to insinuate they are going to be active in reshaping the roster to capitalize on this season’s success. It also appears the dreaded “timeline” we keep hearing about has been sped up in a good way.

I'm curious to know how Orlando can now trade for players with almost all of their tradeable salaries expiring.

If the FO goes after this "star" who's now suddenly going to want to play for the Magic, with what do they trade for his salary?

How do you get a PG13 or Trae or Spida or whoever trading cash and picks? Answer, you can't- without trading Ingles ($11m), Carter ($13m ish) Moe ($8m ish) AB ($7m) and Jett ($5m) if the other team wanted all those guys - which they won't, any more.than Orl wants to strip its roster. And you'd still come up short on salary with a lot of stars.

So you either have to sacrifice at least one of Franz, PB, Suggs, JI or you have to lower your expectations. Even if its for a player in the 20m salary mark, the trading team has to want a handful of picks and prob Carter plus AB as a throw 6 to start.

Not so easy. Fultz, Harris and Goga are off the books, Cole has a poison pill for the start of FA at least.

All in all, we have assets but not everyone will want the assets we're offering and they wont be enough for a big salary, I don't think.

This is how I see it too.

There is no combination of assets that lands Orlando a "star" player that they have on hand. They simply haven't managed value well enough for anything to equal what people propose for that plan to make sense. Nobody ever factors other teams into outbidding Orlando for assets.

Yeah, Free Agency isnt amazing and they will have to overpay for less... Which is why it annoys the absolute **** out of me that they never move assets. They arent ever getting return.

[MagicMatic]

I’m curious to know how Orlando can now trade for players with almost all of their tradeable salaries expiring.

If the FO goes after this "star" who's now suddenly going to want to play for the Magic, with what do they trade for his salary?

How do you get a PG13 or Trae or Spida or whoever trading cash and picks? Answer, you can't- without trading Ingles ($11m), Carter ($13m ish) Moe ($8m ish) AB ($7m) and Jett ($5m) if the other team wanted all those guys - which they won't, any more.than Orl wants to strip its roster. And you'd still come up short on salary with a lot of stars.

So you either have to sacrifice at least one of Franz, PB, Suggs, JI or you have to lower your expectations. Even if its for a player in the 20m salary mark, the trading team has to want a handful of picks and prob Carter plus AB as a throw 6 to start.

Not so easy. Fultz, Harris and Goga are off the books, Cole has a poison pill for the start of FA at least.

All in all, we have assets but not everyone will want the assets we're offering and they wont be enough for a big salary, I don't think.

The Magic won’t have to send out matching salary in a trade because they’re going to be so far under the salary cap this summer.

For example…

If the Magic wanted to trade for Dejounte Murray, they could actually acquire him without sending out a single player if the Hawks were so inclined because they have the cap space to absorb his entire salary.

But why do the Hawks actually do this with Orlando instead of trading with a team that yknow... has assets they could value?

Even if its in the form of higher draft picks instead of taking on immediate money?

[jezzerinho]

I’m curious to know how Orlando can now trade for players with almost all of their tradeable salaries expiring.

If the FO goes after this "star" who's now suddenly going to want to play for the Magic, with what do they trade for his salary?

How do you get a PG13 or Trae or Spida or whoever trading cash and picks? Answer, you can't- without trading Ingles ($11m), Carter ($13m ish) Moe ($8m ish) AB ($7m) and Jett ($5m) if the other team wanted all those guys - which they won't, any more.than Orl wants to strip its roster. And you'd still come up short on salary with a lot of stars.

So you either have to sacrifice at least one of Franz, PB, Suggs, JI or you have to lower your expectations. Even if its for a player in the 20m salary mark, the trading team has to want a handful of picks and prob Carter plus AB as a throw 6 to start.

Not so easy. Fultz, Harris and Goga are off the books, Cole has a poison pill for the start of FA at least.

All in all, we have assets but not everyone will want the assets we're offering and they wont be enough for a big salary, I don't think.

The Magic won’t have to send out matching salary in a trade because they’re going to be so far under the salary cap this summer.

For example…

If the Magic wanted to trade for Dejounte Murray, they could actually acquire him without sending out a single player if the Hawks were so inclined because they have the cap space to absorb his entire salary.

But don't outgoing salaries have to be within a percentage of incoming, or has something changed recently?

[Knightro]

I’m curious to know how Orlando can now trade for players with almost all of their tradeable salaries expiring.

If the FO goes after this "star" who's now suddenly going to want to play for the Magic, with what do they trade for his salary?

How do you get a PG13 or Trae or Spida or whoever trading cash and picks? Answer, you can't- without trading Ingles ($11m), Carter ($13m ish) Moe ($8m ish) AB ($7m) and Jett ($5m) if the other team wanted all those guys - which they won't, any more.than Orl wants to strip its roster. And you'd still come up short on salary with a lot of stars.

So you either have to sacrifice at least one of Franz, PB, Suggs, JI or you have to lower your expectations. Even if its for a player in the 20m salary mark, the trading team has to want a handful of picks and prob Carter plus AB as a throw 6 to start.

Not so easy. Fultz, Harris and Goga are off the books, Cole has a poison pill for the start of FA at least.

All in all, we have assets but not everyone will want the assets we're offering and they wont be enough for a big salary, I don't think.

The Magic won’t have to send out matching salary in a trade because they’re going to be so far under the salary cap this summer.

For example…

If the Magic wanted to trade for Dejounte Murray, they could actually acquire him without sending out a single player if the Hawks were so inclined because they have the cap space to absorb his entire salary.

But why do the Hawks actually do this with Orlando instead of trading with a team that yknow... has assets they could value?

Even if its in the form of higher draft picks instead of taking on immediate money?

The Magic will obviously have to send out multiple 1sts and potentially Black/Jett in any significant trade they make. That was a given from the jump.

They just won't need to also send out big expiring contracts because they will have cap space.

JUST FOR EXAMPLE...

Something like Black, Jett and 3 first round picks for Trae Young would work financially this summer because the Magic will be more than 30M under the cap. So they only need to send out like 10-12M plus their 30+ million in cap space to "match" Trae's 43M.

[Knightro]

But don't outgoing salaries have to be within a percentage of incoming, or has something changed recently?

That only applies if both teams are at or over the salary cap, which for the vast majority of trades is the case.

But it won't be the case this summer for the Magic and a few other teams that will have a lot of cap space to take on a lot more money than they send out in a trade.

[Knightro]

I just want to be overly clear on one thing...

If the Magic put Anthony Black, Jett Howard and 3 unprotected 1st round picks on the table, plus their ability to absorb another contract as necessary, they will have the ability to acquire literally anyone who will possibly be on the market this summer.

3 unprotected firsts and two lotto picks just a year into their rookie deals? That is a super competitive offer!

I actually don't think most of the guys who will likely be on the trade market this summer will cost anywhere close to that either, but I have no concerns whatsoever about the Magic's ability to make a deal if the right player is out there.

[MagicMatic]

I just want to be overly clear on one thing...

If the Magic put Anthony Black, Jett Howard and 3 unprotected 1st round picks on the table, plus their ability to absorb another contract as necessary, they will have the ability to acquire literally anyone who will possibly be on the market this summer.

3 unprotected firsts and two lotto picks just a year into their rookie deals? That is a super competitive offer!

I actually don't think most of the guys who will likely be on the trade market this summer will cost anywhere close to that either, but I have no concerns whatsoever about the Magic's ability to make a deal if the right player is out there.

Kind of a unicorn player would be needed to spend 5 future positive assets in a deal of that kind of magnitude.

The player would have to be a legitimate allstar, young-ish, a position of need, and on a strapped team needing future assets for lack thereof willing to blow it up. Only really someone like Booker comes to mind really and I have a hard time seeing that trade as viable considering Jett and AB’s value isn’t astronomical yet.