Official 2025 Offseason Thread

[Knightro]

Wow 5 million for Moe. Weltman can't miss right now.

Means we don't have to move anybody?

It depends.

If they are comfortable paying the luxury tax, they can make a minimum signing to get to 15 and call it a day.

If they want to avoid the luxury tax, there will be some salary shedding moves still to come.

[basketballRob]

One reason they may be trying to avoid the tax is to not be in the tax repeatedly where the penalties are worse.

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[AdamTheGreek]

What a great value contract even if Mo misses the start of the season.
Even at that value, still not enough room to re-sign Caleb without shedding salary.
So with Mo and Jase signing, assuming Penda signs a normal contract, that puts the Magic at 14 regular contracts.
We’ve got about $1.7 million in space. So either Houstan is gone and the 15th man will be someone cheaper like Trevelin Queen, or the Magic need to shed salary still to re-sign Caleb.
Could roll into the season with 14, and leverage the two-ways, but that’s a bigger risk.

But that’s first apron focused. As Knightro and others have said, we could shed salary to duck the luxury tax, too.

[Knightro]

What a great value contract even if Mo misses the start of the season.
Even at that value, still not enough room to re-sign Caleb without shedding salary.
So with Mo and Jase signing, assuming Penda signs a normal contract, that puts the Magic at 14 regular contracts.
We’ve got about $1.7 million in space. So either Houstan is gone and the 15th man will be someone cheaper like Trevelin Queen, or the Magic need to shed salary still to re-sign Caleb.
Could roll into the season with 14, and leverage the two-ways, but that’s a bigger risk.

But that’s first apron focused. As Knightro and others have said, we could shed salary to duck the luxury tax, too.

The Magic can exceed the hard cap with minimum contracts.

And Queen wouldn’t be cheaper than Houstan as he’s technically now 4th year NBA player despite being on two-ways.

[AdamTheGreek]

What a great value contract even if Mo misses the start of the season.
Even at that value, still not enough room to re-sign Caleb without shedding salary.
So with Mo and Jase signing, assuming Penda signs a normal contract, that puts the Magic at 14 regular contracts.
We’ve got about $1.7 million in space. So either Houstan is gone and the 15th man will be someone cheaper like Trevelin Queen, or the Magic need to shed salary still to re-sign Caleb.
Could roll into the season with 14, and leverage the two-ways, but that’s a bigger risk.

But that’s first apron focused. As Knightro and others have said, we could shed salary to duck the luxury tax, too.

The Magic can exceed the hard cap with minimum contracts.

And Queen wouldn’t be cheaper than Houstan as he’s technically now 4th year NBA player despite being on two-ways.

I didn’t think two-ways counted for years of service (good for them if so).

[BCS]

When does the luxury tax amount get locked in? Meaning are we able to start the season with this roster and then either at the trade deadline or maybe even after the season ends but before the new shed salary to avoid the luxury tax?

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[Knightro]

What a great value contract even if Mo misses the start of the season.
Even at that value, still not enough room to re-sign Caleb without shedding salary.
So with Mo and Jase signing, assuming Penda signs a normal contract, that puts the Magic at 14 regular contracts.
We’ve got about $1.7 million in space. So either Houstan is gone and the 15th man will be someone cheaper like Trevelin Queen, or the Magic need to shed salary still to re-sign Caleb.
Could roll into the season with 14, and leverage the two-ways, but that’s a bigger risk.

But that’s first apron focused. As Knightro and others have said, we could shed salary to duck the luxury tax, too.

The Magic can exceed the hard cap with minimum contracts.

And Queen wouldn’t be cheaper than Houstan as he’s technically now 4th year NBA player despite being on two-ways.

I didn’t think two-ways counted for years of service (good for them if so).

I could be wrong on that, but I think playing in just one NBA game in a season counts as a year of service whether you’re on a two-way contract or not.

I’ll confirm that.

[thelead]

This new CBA is just terrible. I bet Moe is not happy about the situation… on the other hand, he is injured. I would have to think the Magic will try to make up for it next summer depending on how he looks by the end of the season.

[AdamTheGreek]

The Magic can exceed the hard cap with minimum contracts.

And Queen wouldn’t be cheaper than Houstan as he’s technically now 4th year NBA player despite being on two-ways.

I didn’t think two-ways counted for years of service (good for them if so).

I could be wrong on that, but I think playing in just one NBA game in a season counts as a year of service whether you’re on a two-way contract or not.

I’ll confirm that.

I just looked it up. You’re right.
Years of NBA service accumulate for two-ways. Good for them.
Crazy that Caleb is cheaper than Queen.

[RichCollab]

This new CBA is just terrible. I bet Moe is not happy about the situation… on the other hand, he is injured. I would have to think the Magic will try to make up for it next summer depending on how he looks by the end of the season.

This could be Moe’s last season here. Especially if he has a good year. Money is even tighter next year. It’s going to be hard to make it up too him.

[Knightro]

Anyone non-essential moving forward is at risk of not being here beginning in 26-27.

Guys like Jase and Penda and TDS hitting is very important because ideally they are able to replace more expensive veterans in front of them when the time comes.

[RichCollab]

Anyone non-essential moving forward is at risk of not being here beginning in 26-27.

Guys like Jase and Penda and TDS hitting is very important because ideally they are able to replace more expensive veterans in front of them when the time comes.

AB hits this year could mean we can’t afford him going forward.

[thelead]

Paolo and Franz better be ready to be AT LEAST mediocre 3 pt shooters next season (34+%). They can’t squander this opportunity.

[thelead]

Anyone non-essential moving forward is at risk of not being here beginning in 26-27.

Guys like Jase and Penda and TDS hitting is very important because ideally they are able to replace more expensive veterans in front of them when the time comes.

AB hits this year could mean we can’t afford him going forward.

Like I said, this CBA sucks. You almost have to root for your guys to be good but not great individually. For example, it would be an unfortunate blessing for Paolo to miss 18 games this season and be left off an all-nba team. It’s the equivalent of rooting for tank losses during a rebuild but even worse…

[RichCollab]

Anyone non-essential moving forward is at risk of not being here beginning in 26-27.

Guys like Jase and Penda and TDS hitting is very important because ideally they are able to replace more expensive veterans in front of them when the time comes.

AB hits this year could mean we can’t afford him going forward.

Like I said, this CBA sucks. You almost have to root for your guys to be good but not great individually. For example, it would be an unfortunate blessing for Paolo to miss 18 games this season and be left off an all-nba team. It’s the equivalent of rooting for tank losses during a rebuild but even worse…

CBA has helped open the door to franchises like ours.

I want parody. Maybe it’s an adjustment period.

[thelead]

AB hits this year could mean we can’t afford him going forward.

Like I said, this CBA sucks. You almost have to root for your guys to be good but not great individually. For example, it would be an unfortunate blessing for Paolo to miss 18 games this season and be left off an all-nba team. It’s the equivalent of rooting for tank losses during a rebuild but even worse…

CBA has helped open the door to franchises like ours.

I want parody. Maybe it’s an adjustment period.

How has it helped us? We tanked, drafted quality players, then used most of our remaining draft capital to trade for sudo all-star. I think Memphis does that trade even under the old CBA. We’re about to be crushed by it rather than helped.

[AdamTheGreek]

I think one big benefit of the new CBA will be that you’ll see more franchise players staying with one team for 10+ years.

Right now it’s ugly and teams like Boston and Indy are in savings mode, but Weltman this offseason had to put a team together that overall he’d be happy to keep mostly the same for the next 4-5 years. Core player contracts are aligning that way.

[thelead]

I think the simple tweak I would make is not counting the extra money of a super max against the cap. I haven’t given the rest of it much thought.

By the way, is it likely that we’ll retain Houstan now?

[BCS]

I think one big benefit of the new CBA will be that you’ll see more franchise players staying with one team for 10+ years.

Right now it’s ugly and teams like Boston and Indy are in savings mode, but Weltman this offseason had to put a team together that overall he’d be happy to keep mostly the same for the next 4-5 years. Core player contracts I’ll aligning that way.

Although that is the goal to keep the franchise player with their original team or at least not have the team lose him for nothing because they would prefer sign and trades to maximize earnings.

The franchise might be ok with this if the player is marketable, but the reality is if they want to compete, they have to get rid of their franchise player eventually. For example, I do not see how the Suns will be able to turn it around by paying Booker the amount he is about to get.

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[eyriq]

My read is that as things stand Moe is back at the minimum. I don't see a market for him.

He is getting more than that.

The minimum for him is around $3M. Lets say he ends up back on a contract between $5-$3 M.

Good call, champ.