How are we feeling?

[LDNMagic90]

Hey Magic fans,

I thought to make this poll to see where we are at and how we are feeling after the draft?

We still are in the middle of free agency, but it doesn't seem like we will be making any other signings after RoLo? I guess there could be a trade or 2 that could happen but as of now what is the general consensus for the future of this team in your own opinions

[tiderulz]

optimistic. I love the Suggs pick. think he will be the face of the franchise. I'm liking what i see in Wagner, need to see what he becomes and when he stops growing. like what i saw first year from Okeke after injury, hope he continues to develop his skill and game and confidence in his health. I like how RJ finished the year, I hope they move him to full time SG and let him blossom there.

Not as optimistic as others on Isaac. dont know if he can ever stay healthy. Could be our Gobert.....or Greg Oden. but even if healthy, i dont expect for him to ever become an offensive threat, which is okay if he can provide top level defense and some rim protection. but he has to find some elixir to stay healthy. maybe send him to Phoenix every summer, they seem to have some great doctors there.

Fultz is a backup PG unless he can fix his shooting woes.

Our center position is meh. Saw some good things and bad things from WCJ. he looks like an average center to me, which isnt a bad thing but also not a thing you overpay for. Interested to see how Bamba looks under a new coach. Maybe a fresh start will help him, but im not too optimistic.

Expect to be in the lottery again next year, maybe 6-10ish range, but with hopefully our youth playing a lot of minutes and figuring it out.

[jezzerinho]

Yeah, pretty optimistic. Not about 21-22 results, but at least that the team finally has chosen a direction and built a roster with a bit of balance to it. Not everyone on it will work out, but there are more picks to come, plenty of future cap room and hopefully a couple of foundation players.

[Skybox]

Optimistic. We seem poised to take the next step forward...difference is that we were in a similar position a couple years ago but with a much older group that the principle guys were approaching their ceiling. Now, I look at a team with a legitimate 8 VERY young guys (Isaac, Fultz, Suggs, Wagner, Okeke, Bamba, Carter, Anthony) with realistic reasons for optimism about their potential. If half hit it, we have a really good, really young team. Half would be fine as we have multiple young prospects at each spot. More than half would be epic.

At the same time, we have 4 good role-playing vets (TRoss, Harris, MCW, RoLo). Guys who set good examples and stay in their lanes.

We have a new Coach who is not an NBA retread or confused about the vision for this season and beyond. A guy whose reputation aligns perfectly with what this roster needs. A Coach known primarily for player development and forging strong bonds with players.

AT the same time, we have roster flexibility in that a large veteran contract is expiring (Harris), we have a large TPE from Fournier trade, and our 4 veterans could possibly offer value to a contender at the trade deadline. IF the young guys accelerate their growth, we could move the mentors pretty easily for another player or draft considerations. None of them have more than 2 years remaining (all this year other than Ross). We have all of our draft picks as well as CHI's in '23 and DEN in '25 (both lightly protected-both good but volatile rosters over the next few years).

I am settled in for a methodical patient build, but after drafting such mature guys, I expect the plan to stay methodical but possibly accelerate. Scalabrine, the other day suggested that ORL is a good dark horse pick to make some noise if they stay healthy. He thinks ORL could make it to a play-in game and, even if they lose well, give notice as soon as this year that they're coming...

[rcklsscognition]

Meh. No transcendent talent outside of an oft-injured JI.

[TDJacksonville]

I went with wait and see cuz this roster is pretty flawed and still lacks the number of all stars for contention at this point as well as the roster being extremely young

[The Effect]

I haven't been this excited for our future since the day we drafted Dwight (still had tmac and thought we could convince him to stay)

Between suggs, Wagner, rj, Cole and okeke, I feel like at least 2 of them will become stars, like guys you build your team around type stars

Also besides those 5, if any of JI\Fultz\wc\bamba become anything special we should be in great position

Add in that we have solid vets for the young guys to learn from, who also happen to be very tradeable assets,

Again.... I haven't been this excited about our future for a very long time

[Def Swami]

Optimistic.

We caught a break in the draft this year. Now it's about development and teaching guys how to win. It's easier to evaluate what you have in the context of trying to win. You can see who's contributing and who's not. I'm still an Isaac believer. I think Suggs will be really good. I'm hoping we hit on one of Hampton, Anthony, or Fultz. They're all lottery tickets. I don't anticipate winning a lot next year. But, I'm hoping this team can identify who is worth keeping and build with them through trades and free agency in 2022. Best case scenario, we're the 2021 Charlotte Hornets next season. One of our guards is better than anticipated, and we scrap together some wins. Won't be good, but there's the outline of something that can be fostered.

[VFX]

Optimistic.

The draft couldn’t have panned out better for Orlando.
The FO finally did their jobs and moved the core that didn’t make sense. The Magic finally have some players that can go out and get a bucket, while being young enough to continue to grow and develop something for once.

Having close to no expectations for the outcomes of games, and watching this new young core, is going to at least be fun compared to the last 7 years.

[PrimeThyme]

I'm optimistic while also wanting to take a wait-and-see approach.

If Suggs/Hampton can separate themselves as the lead guards of this team, Isaac can put together a healthy season, && we can go into next offseason with top 5 lottery odds I'll be closer to the 1st choice than anything.

I don't think it's that unrealistic to think those things could happen either. The most important thing for me is I think we got our cornerstone building block. That makes things easier going forward, but there are still a lot of potential variables with this roster that will decide the trajectory of our team in the future.

[YosemiteSam]

Optimistic, but with one big caveat. With this many young guys we are going to have to make a lot of extension/re-signing decisions in the next 3-4 years and we need to play everyone to see what we have and then use the ones that are not part of the core as trades even if we think they still have potential (which will get us returns on trades). I worry we have to sign a lot of guys who are still works in progress and then we are stuck again with too many players making between $10M-$20M. The good teams have two guys at or around $30M plus and then a few in the mid level and the bench filled with minimums. We need players good enough to be legitimately highly paid and then only 8-9 players who should get minutes. We also need to find some 2nd rounders and undrafted free agents that pop like Miami and other always do. They are critical to delivering a full roster under the tax.

[LDNMagic90]

For me I think there is plenty of reasons to be optimistic.

Out of our young guys there is a high chance at least 2 of them really hit. I don't think there's a worry about having to pay all these guys yet as I think a few of these guys will be traded/leave in free agency. It's nice to have the assets we have now so we could in a few years maybe flip them for a player to compliment whoever breaks out to be the guy (I think it'll be Suggs).

The Bamba/WCJ situation will be one to watch for this season. We know Bamba could potentially be on his last chance with the team, sometimes people especially younger people need a good kick up the butt to get going. Could this be the case with him? We don't know but I'd hope so. For both of their sakes and ours I hope we don't get a classic 'final year performance' from either of them, we pay them and they regress.

I can understand why some may feel the need to vote meh or wait and see, given that we've been in a similar situation not that long ago.

This process projects to be quite a long and steady one, but who knows how these guys are going to be in the next couple years and for me that's what makes me feel really optimistic and excited for the Magic. It's going to be really ugly at times so I hope we don't get too discouraged watching our young players, growing pains is a real thing with young players across most sports.

Cheers to the future!

[Last Guardian]

Optimistic. I like the competitiveness, IQ, size and athleticism potential of this roster. This is how you rebuild properly. And my favorite move...not hiring an old man 90s style coach to try and develop young guys. So far they've made the logical moves and that is nice to see.

[IllMagic04]

Optimistic. We finally picked a direction. Im looking foward to the season for the first time in a while. I know we arent winning games but watching this young team grow will be fun. Im good.

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[Skybox]

Optimistic, but with one big caveat. With this many young guys we are going to have to make a lot of extension/re-signing decisions in the next 3-4 years and we need to play everyone to see what we have and then use the ones that are not part of the core as trades even if we think they still have potential (which will get us returns on trades). I worry we have to sign a lot of guys who are still works in progress and then we are stuck again with too many players making between $10M-$20M. The good teams have two guys at or around $30M plus and then a few in the mid level and the bench filled with minimums. We need players good enough to be legitimately highly paid and then only 8-9 players who should get minutes. We also need to find some 2nd rounders and undrafted free agents that pop like Miami and other always do. They are critical to delivering a full roster under the tax.

You're very right about the financial implications of so many prospects coming due around the same time. When I heard the rumor of giving WCJ an early extension for $17m/yr, all I could think was "here we go again"...You just can't buttonhole yourself into a spot with a bunch of mediocre 15-18m dollar guys (even if, in a vacuum, they deserve it). Consider Evan, AG, Fultz(now), Isaac(now), and Vuc (20+)...if all on the same roster, we're stuck with them. Robin Lopez for 5m is much better value than WCJ even at 12, you need the money free to make deals, absorb contracts and, especially, be ready to pay the guys you really want. We are in a good financial place right now but it will require courage to not forget that "The good can be the enemy of the best". I think WeHam may face some tough decisions at the trade deadline, so we really need to find out what we've got from our kiddy corps and our returning injured guys. Far easier to move guys when an extension or free agency is not yet looming...So far, so good.

[drsd]

The Magic still lack scoring at the SG slot and have no real plans for starting C. I am "optimistic" in that the team should not be horrible and will be better still next year. But until a scorer is found for this roster, I cannot see how even a second-round playoff team can be built out of the current Magicians.

But again to optimism: there is good cap space to go after a scoring SG in the coming off-season. From there .....

[jonbob17]

I feel like I don't have to worry about the front office being a bunch of has been's or never was's. They have made the right decisions over the last year. I was worried they were just playing it safe or were under the command of ownership.

The trades were the right moves, tanking was the right move, the draft picks were the right ones, i like the coaching hire. I even think the Fultz and Isaac extension were the right move. The Fultz deal looks horrible now, but we were paying for the opportunity to see if he broke out, knowing that the money being paid would not hurt us. That 2 year deal makes zero difference at this point. If he did break out last year, we might have had to make a decision on 4 years and 9 digits, and it is hard to let your own guy walk.

I feel good about the front office. This time last year, I most certainly did not. More so, I love our young guys and their potential. Some of them maybe too much, i may end up at the bottom of Lake Eola care of the Bamba ship.

I am not sure i have been this excited about the Magic since the Shaq/Penny days, and I was just a kid back then, everything was exciting...Tmac years were a lot of fun too, just the Grant Hill gut punch.

[jibba jones]

They wont win but this team is exponentially more interesting than the team that started the season last year.

[Ralof]

Optimistic,pieces we have are young,good and more important fit well together,at some point we have to make decisions cause we have too many young guys,but that is for the another season and we have still assets to get what we need eventually.

Only concern is about pure basketball side,we need to be aggressive and not conservative and push the pace as most we can and we need to develope and value good outside shooting to space the floor.

Hope we can have a good team next season,not in terms of w but i want to see things have changed on the floor,no more slow old-school conservative basketball please,that is classic magic recipe for disaster

[Max Power]

Optimistic on what’s happening with the Magic. The next year or 2 we’re going to take some lumps, but the clean slate the franchise is operating with and the cap space coming up has me confident the team will be a factor in the playoffs come mid 2020’s.