Magic Offseason Finances Update

[thelead]

Do we think we are bringing back Travelin Queen again? Or is he done for us? Not sure how 2 ways are measured in the cap....

Queen is better than Jett, so I hope so.

Queen is 28 years old... Jett has a 1% chance of turning into something useful. Queen's chances are less than that even though he's better today.

[OrlandoDream]

Let's play a game...

It's called "how will the Magic duck the first apron?"

Once they sign Penda, which I assume the plan is to bring him over immediately, they will be slightly over the first apron on 14 players.

How do they get under?

Hurts to think about it, but I think we will not be picking up Mos contract. Take the year off to rehab from that injury.

[thelead]

Let's play a game...

It's called "how will the Magic duck the first apron?"

Once they sign Penda, which I assume the plan is to bring him over immediately, they will be slightly over the first apron on 14 players.

How do they get under?

How much over are we now and what do the finances look like next summer going into Paolo's max?

For this summer, a slight rework of Mo's contract may work. Not sure how we're going to keep the WCJ/Mo/Goga/JI group together with these larger contracts going into effect. Way too much money going to that group considering one of those guys is always glued to the bench at any given point of a season.

[eyriq]

One roster spot left: what’s the biggest need?

Jase profiles as a score-first combo guard, Penda as a versatile glue-guy forward. I could see Jase entering the season as the ninth or tenth man in the rotation, while Penda likely serves as insurance behind Jonathan Isaac.

Jase will compete with AB, Jett, and Houstan for backcourt minutes. Penda will push JI, TDS, and Houstan in the forward mix.

I think the obvious path is to decline and re-sign Moritz for significant savings to afford another player and stay under the apron.

[RookieStar]

One roster spot left: what’s the biggest need?

Jase profiles as a score-first combo guard, Penda as a versatile glue-guy forward. I could see Jase entering the season as the ninth or tenth man in the rotation, while Penda likely serves as insurance behind Jonathan Isaac.

Jase will compete with AB, Jett, and Houstan for backcourt minutes. Penda will push JI, TDS, and Houstan in the forward mix.

I think the obvious path is to decline and re-sign Moritz for significant savings to afford another player and stay under the apron.

Need? A better backup PG than CoJo in case AB doesnt meet our expectations again

[eyriq]

One roster spot left: what’s the biggest need?

Jase profiles as a score-first combo guard, Penda as a versatile glue-guy forward. I could see Jase entering the season as the ninth or tenth man in the rotation, while Penda likely serves as insurance behind Jonathan Isaac.

Jase will compete with AB, Jett, and Houstan for backcourt minutes. Penda will push JI, TDS, and Houstan in the forward mix.

I think the obvious path is to decline and re-sign Moritz for significant savings to afford another player and stay under the apron.

Need? A better backup PG than CoJo in case AB doesnt meet our expectations again

Again? Speak for yourself! I gave him a high grade for last season.

[RookieStar]

One roster spot left: what’s the biggest need?

Jase profiles as a score-first combo guard, Penda as a versatile glue-guy forward. I could see Jase entering the season as the ninth or tenth man in the rotation, while Penda likely serves as insurance behind Jonathan Isaac.

Jase will compete with AB, Jett, and Houstan for backcourt minutes. Penda will push JI, TDS, and Houstan in the forward mix.

I think the obvious path is to decline and re-sign Moritz for significant savings to afford another player and stay under the apron.

Need? A better backup PG than CoJo in case AB doesnt meet our expectations again

Again? Speak for yourself! I gave him a high grade for last season.

Bro.... we gunning for a ECF or possibly the chip next season... cant leave our fandom get in the way

[drsd]

One roster spot left: what’s the biggest need?

Jase profiles as a score-first combo guard, Penda as a versatile glue-guy forward. I could see Jase entering the season as the ninth or tenth man in the rotation, while Penda likely serves as insurance behind Jonathan Isaac.

Jase will compete with AB, Jett, and Houstan for backcourt minutes. Penda will push JI, TDS, and Houstan in the forward mix.

I think the obvious path is to decline and re-sign Moritz for significant savings to afford another player and stay under the apron.

With Penda on a likely 1.2M contract as Mr 14, the Magic has 1.7M left for Mr 15, if the teams decides to go with a 15th Magician. That means a a rookie or a player with only 1 year of NBA service.

Otherwise, a move needs to be made (e.g. restructure M-Wager's contract.)

[drsd]

Question 1- you like 32.6 for WCJ and JI with their production/availability given the teams cap situation?

Question 2- can you argue with Goga salary under the same cap circumstances for what he gives?

I think we keep Moe swags. Love to say for slightly cheaper and longer but that may be wishful thinking.

Or do we roll with what we got with the bigs for now?

After 2025/26, the biggest questions for me are around the reality that this team cannot have both Suggs and Black, and cannot have M-Wagner and Bitadze. Let's enjoy the season, but 2026/27 needs real clarification on the primary backups, verses players that could start being used as backups.

Anyhow: that Orlando has an overqualified backup PG and overqualified backup C for 2025/26, I am ok with that.

Win now.

[cedric76]

Franz Wagner 38,661,700
Desmond Bane 36,725,670
Jalen Suggs 35,000,000
Paolo Banchero 15,334,769
Jonathan Isaac 15,000,000
Wendell Carter 10,850,000
Goga Bitadze 8,333,333
Anthony Black 7,970,028
Jett Howard 5,529,506
Tristan da Silva 3,809,520
Jase: 2,983,320
Caleb Houstan 2,187,451
Noah around 2,500,000
Gary Harris at vet min: 3,634,148 (we need 3rd SG, gary can fill that job)

This leaves us around 7.425M under the 1st Apron

Would Moe accept a 15M over 2 yrs contract (1+1)


Suggs,AB,Jase
Bane,Jett,Gary
Franz,TDS,Houstan
Paolo,JI,Panda
WCJ,Goga,Moe

Core rotation players:
Suggs,Bane,Franz,P5,Wcj

Bench:
JI,AB, TDS, Goga (till Moe comes back)

Deep bench (unlikely to get much PT)
Jett, Jase, Gary, Noah

[drsd]

Franz Wagner 38,661,700
Desmond Bane 36,725,670
Jalen Suggs 35,000,000
Paolo Banchero 15,334,769
Jonathan Isaac 15,000,000
Wendell Carter 10,850,000
Goga Bitadze 8,333,333
Anthony Black 7,970,028
Jett Howard 5,529,506
Tristan da Silva 3,809,520
Jase: 2,983,320
Caleb Houstan 2,187,451
Noah around 2,500,000
Gary Harris at vet min: 3,634,148 (we need 3rd SG, gary can fill that job)

This leaves us around 7.425M under the 1st Apron

Would Moe accept a 15M over 2 yrs contract (1+1)


Suggs,AB,Jase
Bane,Jett,Gary
Franz,TDS,Houstan
Paolo,JI,Panda
WCJ,Goga,Moe

Core rotation players:
Suggs,Bane,Franz,P5,Wcj

Bench:
JI,AB, TDS, Goga (till Moe comes back)

Deep bench (unlikely to get much PT)
Jett, Jase, Gary, Noah

We don't know what Penda's contract will be, but the min is 1,272,869. So I will use that for now. Meaning that, as of today, the Magic is at:
1 Franz Wagner 38,661,700
2 Desmond Bane 36,725,670
3 Jalen Suggs 35,000,000
4 Paolo Banchero 15,334,769
5 Jonathan Isaac 15,000,000
6 Wendell Carter 10,850,000
7 Goga Bitadze 8,333,333
8 Anthony Black 7,970,028
9 Jett Howard 5,529,506
10 Tristan da Silva 3,809,520
11 Richardson 2,983,320
12 Penda 1,272,869
13 Moritz Wagner 11,000,000
14 Caleb Houstan 2,187,451

Which is 181,470,715 without 13 and 14 and 194,658,166 with all 14. As the apron is about 195,900,000, the Magic is some 1.3M in the clear and has a roster to play out 2025/26. Will this change? Probably. But as of today, we fans can see one version of this team.

[BadMofoPimp]

Do we think we are bringing back Travelin Queen again? Or is he done for us? Not sure how 2 ways are measured in the cap....

Queen is better than Jett, so I hope so.

Queen is 28 years old... Jett has a 1% chance of turning into something useful. Queen's chances are less than that even though he's better today.

Does this team need to hope Jett can still develop or are they in win now mode? I think Queen is needed much more than Jett. Attach a 2nd to some bottom feeder to take on Jetts contract to reduce our cap.

[Knightro]

One roster spot left: what’s the biggest need?

Jase profiles as a score-first combo guard, Penda as a versatile glue-guy forward. I could see Jase entering the season as the ninth or tenth man in the rotation, while Penda likely serves as insurance behind Jonathan Isaac.

Jase will compete with AB, Jett, and Houstan for backcourt minutes. Penda will push JI, TDS, and Houstan in the forward mix.

I think the obvious path is to decline and re-sign Moritz for significant savings to afford another player and stay under the apron.

With Penda on a likely 1.2M contract as Mr 14, the Magic has 1.7M left for Mr 15, if the teams decides to go with a 15th Magician. That means a a rookie or a player with only 1 year of NBA service.

Otherwise, a move needs to be made (e.g. restructure M-Wager's contract.)

Reminder: Bane’s unlikely to be earned incentives DO count towards the aprons.

[Magic_Johnny12]

Apparently Weltman alluded to not retaining Wagner/Houstan last night somewhere. I can’t find it, but my X feed is talking about it. Does anyone know what he said?

[cedric76]

Apparently Weltman alluded to not retaining Wagner/Houstan last night somewhere. I can’t find it, but my X feed is talking about it. Does anyone know what he said?

Watch on YouTube

It was more like, if Moe doesnt take our 7M contract we wont be able to bring him back

[OrlandoDream]

Apparently Weltman alluded to not retaining Wagner/Houstan last night somewhere. I can’t find it, but my X feed is talking about it. Does anyone know what he said?

Watch on YouTube

It was more like, if Moe doesnt take our 7M contract we wont be able to bring him back

That didn't sound very convincing. Would hate to lose Mo. Hopefully he gives us a family discount. This apron era you really have to navigate and plan your rosters almost years ahead to prevent a boston situation.

That Jett contract is looking more and more like an eyesore. Its time to cut ties after this year. No way were bringing him back for 7mil after next year.

[RichCollab]

Apparently Weltman alluded to not retaining Wagner/Houstan last night somewhere. I can’t find it, but my X feed is talking about it. Does anyone know what he said?

Watch on YouTube

It was more like, if Moe doesnt take our 7M contract we wont be able to bring him back

That didn't sound very convincing. Would hate to lose Mo. Hopefully he gives us a family discount. This apron era you really have to navigate and plan your rosters almost years ahead to prevent a boston situation.

That Jett contract is looking more and more like an eyesore. Its time to cut ties after this year. No way were bringing him back for 7mil after next year.

He mentioned Free Agency and how the market can determine the cost. It sounds like the player options will be declined.

I do think he left the door wide open for both. Caleb may be the cheapest option out there.

So it comes down to Moe and the other FA.

It isn’t clear to me but sounds like FA + Caleb don’t put us over. Let’s say we only have 1 million left. We aren’t hard capped yet and have Moe’s bird rights. So we can exceed the cap to sign him and that would trigger the hard cap on any future transactions.

We will be hard capped almost certainly and 1st apron.

[Skybox]

I don't think we can realistically pay Caleb any less, so might as well keep him...he's worth it.

Weltman sounded to me (re: Moe) like discussing an RFA...you want to be here, we want you here, but we're not going to (be able to) pay above market value, so if you want to go drum up offers, we'll examine matching...which might not be the lovey dovey move - but it's realistic, the guy is going to miss much of the season, we don't know what he'll look like upon return (for a while at least) and he's got serious holes in his game and, therefore, value...I just don't see a bidding war developing.

[MartinsIzAfraud]

I don't think we can realistically pay Caleb any less, so might as well keep him...he's worth it.

Weltman sounded to me (re: Moe) like discussing an RFA...you want to be here, we want you here, but we're not going to (be able to) pay above market value, so if you want to go drum up offers, we'll examine matching...which might not be the lovey dovey move - but it's realistic, the guy is going to miss much of the season, we don't know what he'll look like upon return (for a while at least) and he's got serious holes in his game and, therefore, value...I just don't see a bidding war developing.

That’s exactly the vibe I got, go get offers we still have bird rights.

[Knightro]

I don't think we can realistically pay Caleb any less, so might as well keep him...he's worth it.

Weltman sounded to me (re: Moe) like discussing an RFA...you want to be here, we want you here, but we're not going to (be able to) pay above market value, so if you want to go drum up offers, we'll examine matching...which might not be the lovey dovey move - but it's realistic, the guy is going to miss much of the season, we don't know what he'll look like upon return (for a while at least) and he's got serious holes in his game and, therefore, value...I just don't see a bidding war developing.

That’s exactly the vibe I got, go get offers we still have bird rights.

The Magic have bird rights on both guys… until they sign someone else for the MLE. Then they don’t.