Magic to sign Robin Lopez

[jonbob17]

This is not a deal we are signing to trade for future assets at the deadline. Look at the deadline last year and all the buyouts. Back up bigs are basically free at the deadline. Lopez got paid $5M last year, this deal carries no excess value. Andre Drummond and Whiteside just signed for the Vet Minimum.

Which sort of bleeds into the argument for our extensions on our two young bigs. When guys like Drummond and Whiteside only get minimum deals, how much do we really want to invest? Not that those guys are winning basketball types, but they still put up big numbers. And we haven't really seen WCJ or Bamba impacting games either.

[drsd]

Read on Twitter

[Blue_and_Whte]

i think this screams mo or wcj are on way out

What? Robin Lopez has zero impact on the decision to keep Mo or WCJ. He’s a 33 year old on a one year deal…

lets see if both wcj and mo still here after trade deadline time will tell ..lopez is a guy that can if needed play ..not some undrafted or late 2nd rd pick most rebuilding teams have for 3rd string center..when they have 6th and 7th pick about to be rfa
and to further point i like mo upside more then wcj still at this point..wcj plays small..just need mo to show more ...want to be great in his game...get a edge to his game...i dont really want magic to pay either unless one shows alot more this yr..heck i would trade both at deadline if they dont show more ...lol

Yeah we should definitely wait to pay either guy, but Lopez is really here because have had injury issues.

[drsd]

wow. really? good for Birch. And thanks for correcting me. I thought we only paid him the minimum.

Lopez is looking like a steal:

Khem Birch, Raptors Agree To Three-Year, $20M Deal

[drsd]

I’m not a capologist, but weren’t we only a few million below the cap? My first thought was maybe this signing (after rookies) would put us over the cap to enable us to have the MLE?

Probably a long shot since free agency is basically over now and they probably wouldn’t use the MLE.

Over the cap. This was half of the non-taxpayer MLE.

Magic have roughly 5M to spend in addition to minimum salaries.

With M-Wagner, the Magic's annual FA spree is thus basically spent. Only LLE guys can be added at this point.


..

[Knightro]

With M-Wagner, the Magic's annual FA spree is thus basically spent. Only LLE guys can be added at this point.

I mean it depends on what Wagner actually signed for which we don't know for sure just yet. If he signed for the minimum, then they have half the MLE left (about 5M).

If he signed for 5M year 1, which would be the rest of the MLE, then they would only have minimum salary spots left.

[Tarheel]

Can't imagine the $5m per figure is accurate - wouldn't we we be hard capped if we used the whole MLE?

Also Mo played nicely at the end of the season, but he's not worth $5m per year. 2 yr minimum with player option on second year or light guarantee far more likely/reasonable IMO. If he proves himself to be a worthy rotation piece when we're not openly tanking then maybe he'll be worth a bit more, but not yet.

[RookieStar]

wow. really? good for Birch. And thanks for correcting me. I thought we only paid him the minimum.

Lopez is looking like a steal:

Khem Birch, Raptors Agree To Three-Year, $20M Deal

I mean yeah. Im happy he got paid. But thankful it wasn't us with that kind of contract! Yikes....

[RookieStar]

With M-Wagner, the Magic's annual FA spree is thus basically spent. Only LLE guys can be added at this point.

I mean it depends on what Wagner actually signed for which we don't know for sure just yet. If he signed for the minimum, then they have half the MLE left (about 5M).

If he signed for 5M year 1, which would be the rest of the MLE, then they would only have minimum salary spots left.

Does anyone have any legit info on his contract>

[basketballRob]

With M-Wagner, the Magic's annual FA spree is thus basically spent. Only LLE guys can be added at this point.

I mean it depends on what Wagner actually signed for which we don't know for sure just yet. If he signed for the minimum, then they have half the MLE left (about 5M).

If he signed for 5M year 1, which would be the rest of the MLE, then they would only have minimum salary spots left.

Does anyone have any legit info on his contract>

According to this guy, they haven't officially signed him yet.

Read on Twitter

?s=19

[RookieStar]

I mean it depends on what Wagner actually signed for which we don't know for sure just yet. If he signed for the minimum, then they have half the MLE left (about 5M).

If he signed for 5M year 1, which would be the rest of the MLE, then they would only have minimum salary spots left.

Does anyone have any legit info on his contract>

According to this guy, they haven't officially signed him yet.

Read on Twitter

?s=19

Ah. that's normal I think. Has he arrived in Orlando from Tokyo yet?

mean we did announce about RoLo 2-3 days ago but only signed him now so we expect to "officially" sign Mo soon.

[bigdogdylan5]

Pelton column has the worst free agent fit as Lopez and really don’t get it. Says he is too good to be a third center. Postulated we would play Carter at the 4 lmao. These big media guys are so out of touch with the small market teams. Lopez will probably be our third center but based on Carter and Bamba having injury histories we needed insurance for a one year 4 mil deal. Don’t see the bottom. And if Mo can’t beat him out then it will be time to move on.

[basketballRob]

Does anyone have any legit info on his contract>

According to this guy, they haven't officially signed him yet.

Read on Twitter

?s=19

Ah. that's normal I think. Has he arrived in Orlando from Tokyo yet?

mean we did announce about RoLo 2-3 days ago but only signed him now so we expect to "officially" sign Mo soon.

Maybe he signed and the NBA needs to approve it, so they won't have the official announcement until then.

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[TheChaser]

Pelton column has the worst free agent fit as Lopez and really don’t get it. Says he is too good to be a third center. Postulated we would play Carter at the 4 lmao. These big media guys are so out of touch with the small market teams. Lopez will probably be our third center but based on Carter and Bamba having injury histories we needed insurance for a one year 4 mil deal. Don’t see the bottom. And if Mo can’t beat him out then it will be time to move on.

Spot on

[j-ragg]

Can't imagine the $5m per figure is accurate - wouldn't we we be hard capped if we used the whole MLE?

We would, but unlike the last time we were hard capped (2018?) I think we’re so far from the apron it probably wouldn’t concern anyone.

[pepe1991]

Any reasons we we have 4 centers today?
Wendell Carter, Bamba, Lopez and Wagner have all 2 things in common

a) can't play nothing but center
b) aren't starting level centers

i don't really care about B) part, we are deep lottery team and 2022 is louded with centers, but it's still overkill to bring so many onedimensonal ( hell, half of them are zero-dimensional) centers.

[basketballRob]

Any reasons we we have 4 centers today?
Wendell Carter, Bamba, Lopez and Wagner have all 2 things in common

a) can't play nothing but center
b) aren't starting level centers

i don't really care about B) part, we are deep lottery team and 2022 is louded with centers, but it's still overkill to bring so many onedimensonal ( hell, half of them are zero-dimensional) centers.

Moe Wagner played nothing but power forward for us last season.

On basketball reference it says they estimate he played center 66% of the time, but that's not correct. We had Bamba, Hall, and WCJ and one of them were always in the lineup with Moe. He played 100% of his minutes with us at PF.

Does anyone else recall Moe not playing along side a center last season? You can scroll through the game log with us and see that he started at PF and one of Mo, WCJ, or Hall played all the center minutes.




https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/wagnemo01/gamelog/2021

[Optimus_Steel]

Any reasons we we have 4 centers today?
Wendell Carter, Bamba, Lopez and Wagner have all 2 things in common

a) can't play nothing but center
b) aren't starting level centers

i don't really care about B) part, we are deep lottery team and 2022 is louded with centers, but it's still overkill to bring so many onedimensonal ( hell, half of them are zero-dimensional) centers.

Bamba and Wendell have a history of constantly being injured.

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[pepe1991]

Any reasons we we have 4 centers today?
Wendell Carter, Bamba, Lopez and Wagner have all 2 things in common

a) can't play nothing but center
b) aren't starting level centers

i don't really care about B) part, we are deep lottery team and 2022 is louded with centers, but it's still overkill to bring so many onedimensonal ( hell, half of them are zero-dimensional) centers.

Moe Wagner played nothing but power forward for us last season.

On basketball reference it says they estimate he played center 66% of the time, but that's not correct. We had Bamba, Hall, and WCJ and one of them were always in the lineup with Moe. He played 100% of his minutes with us at PF.

Does anyone else recall Moe not playing along side a center last season? You can scroll through the game log with us and see that he started at PF and one of Mo, WCJ, or Hall played all the center minutes.




https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/wagnemo01/gamelog/2021

He played PF for tanking purpose, right? I mean that's how he flamed out of nba in 2 seasons. He was removed from any serious rotations by year 3 and cut.

Mo Bamba and Wagner played 96 min together for epic - 22 net rating ( epic 119 defensive rating), -21,7 with Carter (agian epic 118 defensive rating).

Wagner is also "royal resident" of almost all lineups for Orlando who played at least 50 min together. Him and Bacon had -34 net rating. Witch is second worst Magic lineup whole season long (Behind Bacon and Hall ).

You can argue that Lopez is only Magic rotation center who is playable on + .500 team.
In general Mo Wagner isn't PF. There is nothing about him that would suggest he can play PF. He is below average shooter who can't put ball on the floor and can't defend PFs at all.
But also can't play C because he can't defend space and can't rebound.

Well i kind i explained to myself why he played last year Tank Commander. Will probably fill that role this year from time to time when he is not in G league.

[pepe1991]

Any reasons we we have 4 centers today?
Wendell Carter, Bamba, Lopez and Wagner have all 2 things in common

a) can't play nothing but center
b) aren't starting level centers

i don't really care about B) part, we are deep lottery team and 2022 is louded with centers, but it's still overkill to bring so many onedimensonal ( hell, half of them are zero-dimensional) centers.

Bamba and Wendell have a history of constantly being injured.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using RealGM mobile app

That's valid point