Orlando Magic PBO Jeff Weltman on "Open Mike" with Mike Bianchi - 4/12/22

[Knightro]

In the final edition of "The Magic Word" for the 2021-2022 regular season, Orlando Magic President of Basketball Operations spoke to Mike Bianchi this morning on 96.9 The Game. Here's the rough transcript.

Bianchi: Jeff Weltman, how are you this morning?

Weltman: I am doing great Mike. First day of the offseason is a better way to think about it.

Bianchi: Obviously we knew this wasn’t going to be a season where a very young team won a bunch of games. With that in mind, how do you as the President of Basketball Operations judge this season? Was it a success?

Weltman: Yeah I think we accomplished a lot of our goals. We established a way of working and I’m going to say that was in large part to our head coach and coaching staff. They did a great job keeping our guys elevated and believing. Every day Mike. If you had seen us practice at any point in the season, regardless of record, you just be amazed at the spirit, the energy, the belief and the togetherness that was felt throughout the whole group. On the court, off the court, organizationally. So yeah, I think we knew we were gonna take our lumps this year. We took em, but everybody knows our future is in front of us and there’s a good spirit right now.

Bianchi: Would you say you got close to everything you wanted out of this season? You developed young talent, you have a good draft pick and no one got seriously injured that wasn’t already injured.

Weltman: Yeah Mike, I like that way of looking at it. *Laughs* We’ll roll with that. I do think our young guys, obviously our rookies, learned what it’s like to be in the NBA. They learned what it’s like to go through the marathon season that the NBA is all about. Jalen had an injury in the middle of the season, but actually I think we’ll look back on it and say that was the best thing that could have happened to him. He used that time really productively which really says a lot about him and about our performance staff. Our analytics crew looks at our season almost pre-Jalen injury and post-Jalen injury for the way that he looked and the way our team looked. Our defensive rating skyrocketed when he got back from the thumb injury. It’s a little tricky because we’re trying to evaluate individually. We’re trying to figure out what works going forward as a team and what’s going to put us in a position to win. At the very end of the season we were able to bring Markelle back and the team looked different when he was on the court. But overall I would say yeah Mike. We have not pushed any chips into the middle of the table yet. We still have all of our draft picks. We’re excited about this year’s draft and our cap flexibility. I think the young guys clearly improved and got better and got integrated into our coaching staff. Now for the first time in a couple of years we’ll have a full summer. We’ll move into our new practice facility. There’s a lot of optimism throughout.

Bianchi: Do you believe young talent gets used to losing and it’s difficult to make a switch to becoming more competitive?

Weltman: That is a great question. I can tell you that we studied a lot of rebuilds throughout the last 20 years of the NBA before we embarked on this path. Obviously there’s never a guarantee that you turn that corner and that’s the always the risk. But there’s also a risk in keeping a group together that doesn’t have the momentum to breakthrough to another level. I believe it’s all in the relationships. The character of the players and the connectivity of the coaches to the players. Those are obviously elements we have our antenna up for. But no, I don’t believe that’s going to happen to us. I believe everyone in our group is spirited. They’re tough. They’re fighters. They’re smart. They have a high IQ and skill level. We’re going to add more players like that. Obviously we don’t want guys to grow up losing, but you look at our team, you look at Wendell and Franz, those guys are fighters and winners. And the way they play leads to winning. We just have to stay the course, remain patient, and just add more.

Bianchi: Coaches are usually judged by wins and losses, but we know what this season was about. Can you elaborate on the job Coach Mose did?

Weltman: Man Mike, you know I just think he did an amazing job. I said before this season that not only did we have a young team, we also had a rookie coach. I look at Coach Mose right now as a different coach than the coach who entered the season. He has an understanding of how he wants to work, not just philosophically on the court, but with his staff and how to progress through the rigors of an NBA season. I will say, I have always considered myself one of the most patient guys in the NBA, but I think I’ve met my match. *Laughs* I gotta tell you man, this guy is a tremendous human being. His willingness to just involve himself in other’s lives. To take on what they’re taking on and go through it with them, it’s remarkable. He’s a great person. I think he grew tremendously as a coach and I have to say I think his staff embodied what he wanted them to be about. I’m really proud of all of those guys and I’m thrilled with the job that they did.

Bianchi: Everybody remembers the trade last year where Vooch got traded to the Bulls. That traded netted Wendell and Franz, you have to feel pretty good about that trade now I have to think.

Weltman: Yeah, listen I’m happy for Vooch too. Chicago had a good year and they’ll be in the playoffs and we’ll always wish Vooch luck. But that said, I’m very pleased with the way things worked out. I think Wendell has already established him this season as a top 10 center. Wendell’s numbers reflect tremendous growth, but his game isn’t reflected by his numbers. This is a guy who just everything he does it about winning. On the court and off the court. Tremendous young guy, just turned 23. His future is entirely in front of him. All he does is lift his teammates up, on the court and off the court. Franz had a tremendous rookie season. He learned what 82 games is about. He came within a whisker of playing all 82 which would have been a hell of an accomplishment, but the fact that he played as many as did is remarkable in today’s NBA for a rookie. Those are two very smart, very skilled, very hungry guys who really really care about winning first and everything else second. And with that we have one more pick coming from Chicago in a couple of years. So far we’re pleased with those guys and it’s our job to continue to develop those guys the right way and their job to work, and I know they’ll do that.

Bianchi: What did you like about what you saw from Markelle Fultz after he came back?

Weltman: The first thing we look at is how does the team play when any given player on the floor. With Markelle, his talent and his selflessness from the first game back on really breathed life into the team. He’s such an amazing person. What we saw was a guy who is exquisitely talented in creating offense for others with a high IQ who has a crazy physical package of size, skills and vision. He actually performed at a level I probably would not have expected right out of the gate. He hadn’t played in 14 months and there was a lot of rust there. I still think he has a lot of growth and he knows it. We had a good talk yesterday about his conditioning and just tightening stuff up. I think he’s on track to be a high level player for our team. He’s all about the right stuff. He’s all about others. That’s reflected on the court. You could see the team really being lifted when he got back. We played better, very quickly we played better with him on the court which isn’t a surprise. That’s what it’s all about. Very encouraging when the young guys got their glimmers together it looked good.

Bianchi: Mo Bamba showed some flashes this year. What’s his future with the team?

Weltman: What Mo really did was Mo started to shoot the ball consistently, which what we expected him to grow into over the years. That takes time. We always talk about guys growing into their bodies, understanding the rhythm of the league and the pace and just kind of having the comfort level that it’s just another game. Especially with guys with Mo’s body type, it takes longer than others. I think we’re starting to see Mo shoot the ball better. Obviously he was healthier, the old line is “no ability like availability” and he was available more. The consistency getting up and down the court is on the uptick. He still has work to do. He’s still a very young guy and he got a lot of progress in front of him. To your question, Mo is a restricted free agent. Right now our whole group is taking a big exhale and everyone is clearing out for a little bit while they decompress. We will regroup and try and get an understanding of our group fits together. Free agency is a two-way street. We’ll see where that goes. We’re very encouraged by Mo’s progress. Mo’s a great kid and he’s had a lot of bad breaks along the way with injuries and COVID. I was really proud of him fighting through those issues this year and finally started scratching the surface of the player he should be.

Bianchi: Jonathan Isaac didn’t play this year. Had hamstring surgery late in the year. What’s the prognosis for him next season? Is he dejected over this latest setback?

Weltman: His hamstring surgery was on his other leg. It was a minor deal. Obviously the old expression is that it’s only a minor surgery when it’s done on someone else. But in the grand scheme of things it was more minor on his opposite leg. Jonathan Isaac gets dejected for a day and then comes back and works with a smile on his face. He’s just an amazing guy. He sees the world differently than a lot of people I’m around everyday. He’s a fighter. He’s a believer. He’s a relentless worker. He’s all about the Magic. He hasn’t been able to get back into yet from this latest procedure, but he’ll start ramping it up soon and get back on the court and we go from there. He’s in a great frame of mind. He’s positive as always. His mental makeup is unique.

Bianchi: What’s the goal for next year? Are we still rebuild mode next year or are we looking for more progress in the win column?

Weltman: Hearing you say my answer back to me from that I was satisfied with the season, I don’t really like hearing that honestly because we’re not content. We’re not satisfied. Our goals remain the same, to develop these young guys. Everybody says you need stars in this league, but sometimes stars don’t reveal themselves instantly. We have guys who had tremendous growth on this team. This team right now has a lot of potential. We’re talking about a team full of 20-23 year olds. This is a young, young team with everything in front of it. They get along. They fit on the court, they fit off the court. There’s still evaluations to be made and there’s still a lot of improvements that our guys have to make. That’s gonna take a lot of work and it’s gonna take time. I don’t think we recalibrate our goals for next season, I think we more ramp them up and challenge our guys to get better. From a team building standpoint we’ll look to add more. We’ll find out in about a month where we sit in the lottery and it will be an exciting offseason.

Bianchi: When do you decide who will play in the summer league?

Weltman: Summer league is generally about guys who didn’t get a chance to play a whole lot. I’ll talk to Mose about that in the weeks to come, but I wouldn’t anticipate a heavy burden of our existing roster guys in the summer league because they just played a lot. They got a lot of NBA reps. Summer league is for guys who didn’t get a lot of reps. We have our pick, we have two 2nd round picks and we have a bunch of younger guys on our roster, two-way guys and in Lakeland that I think we’ll be curious to see how integrated they can be with us in the summer.

Listen: https://969thegame.iheart.com/featured/open-mike/content/2022-04-12-magic-president-jeff-weltman-team-will-assess-mo-bambas-future-in-orlando/

[Knightro]

To Weltman's point about the Magic's defensive rating skyrocketing after Suggs returned from his thumb injury...

The Magic were 11th in the NBA in DRTG from Suggs' return on 1/14 until the end of the season. If you go from Suggs' return on 1/14 to his ankle injury on 3/14, they were 5th in the NBA in DRTG.

So it's not a totally made up statement.

[Knightro]

I did find it interesting that Jeff Weltman never once in the 17 minute interview brought up the Magic's leading scorer Cole Anthony.

He brought up WCJ, Franz, Suggs and Fultz by name unprompted and answered specific questions about Bamba and Isaac.

Didn't mention anyone else.

[Petre1978]

I did find it interesting that Jeff Weltman never once in the 17 minute interview brought up the Magic's leading scorer Cole Anthony.

He brought up WCJ, Franz, Suggs and Fultz by name unprompted and answered specific questions about Bamba and Isaac.

Didn't mention anyone else.

May be they look to trade Anthony on draft night.

[zaymon]

Weltmans said it himself that analytics crew is continously evaluating players during season(as it should be). Its hard to ignore blood which is dripping from your eyes when you watch Anthony and Hamptons numbers.
Weltman was also not glowingly positive about Bamba.
We dont know for sure but i think most of us here would agree that Wagner, WCJ, Suggs, Fultz and Isaac are the only members of our core for now.

[tiderulz]

Jalen had an injury in the middle of the season, but actually I think we’ll look back on it and say that was the best thing that could have happened to him. He used that time really productively which really says a lot about him and about our performance staff.

cant agree with that. not sure what he did to be "productive" during his injury but his play to me didnt reflect that

[tiderulz]

Weltmans said it himself that analytics crew is continously evaluating players during season(as it should be). Its hard to ignore blood which is dripping from your eyes when you watch Anthony and Hamptons numbers.
Weltman was also not glowingly positive about Bamba.
We dont know for sure but i think most of us here would agree that Wagner, WCJ, Suggs, Fultz and Isaac are the only members of our core for now.

i cant consider Isaac core until he starts playing again. he has now been out 2 years.

[Kent]

I love you guys but overanalyzing Weltman's comments like him not mentioning Cole implies he's on the trade block is quite the reach.

If you took the man's order at Burger King and assumed by ordering a Whopper he meant Chicken Fries, you wouldn't work there for long.

He was as candid as a president of basketball operations could be. And to me, he said everything I'd hope for him to say and more.

I'm with him: I like this team.

[JF5]

Always speaks in riddles but here are my takeaways...

1. The front office already has figured out a core. Unless there is some overwhelming prospect I'm thinking they're most likely to draft for fit rather than BPA, as that would mess with the development of the other players.

2. The way they spoke about Mo... Very telling... If they get their hands on Smith Jr. or Holmgren (which makes sense given the current core roster construction) or an FA they like on the market he's good as gone. Seems like if they strike out on a better 3/D Big he'll most likely be back. But it seems like he's a lower end option for the FO.

3. They REALLY like Markelle Fultz and think he's going to be Star Caliber.

4. They REALLY REALLY love the fact they picked coach Mosley and he fits the precise vision of where they're headed. I believe they'll actually let him finish out his contract and keep him for a very long time if he continues to develop himself as a coach.

5. They didn't mention Cole Anthony at all. That also was very telling. I don't think he's going to be on the roster much longer unless he is willing to take an extreme cut to his minutes (which I'll doubt he'll take).

6. They believe they'll most likely be an elite defense next year. They mentioned how Suggs turned them into a top defense when he was relatively healthy between January and March before suffering that ankle injury. I believe this will be the case too when Issac comes back and if they're able to remain healthy for most of the season.

7. They're not expecting this team to win a lot but they most likely believe with the talent on the roster they most likely will compete for a play-in spot next year. It's more player development and gelling and teaching the core how to win.

8. They think Jonathan Issac is weird, lmao.

[RookieStar]

I wonder about our SL too... obviously our 2 rookies and 3 sophomores got a lot of mileage this season.

So if we do velieve what he said.. I think its only RJ that had the least mileage and should play in SL.

Also Is it weirs when he said we got a frp and 2 srp plus others for the SL? Does that mean he plans on using all 3 picks? Wow lol

[VFX]

I did find it interesting that Jeff Weltman never once in the 17 minute interview brought up the Magic's leading scorer Cole Anthony.

He brought up WCJ, Franz, Suggs and Fultz by name unprompted and answered specific questions about Bamba and Isaac.

Didn't mention anyone else.

Hopefully he’s on the move.

[Xatticus]

I think Weltman is candid when he speaks. He just doesn’t deal in absolutes.

I wouldn’t read too much into what he didn’t say. That’s on Bianchi as he asked the questions.

I’m glad he mentioned the defense after Suggs’ return. This means that not only do they appreciate its importance, but also that they understand how important Suggs was to that success.

I didn’t take what he said about Bamba as a negative. I think the organization has a number in mind. I think there is a threshold that they won’t cross and that threshold is not high. He’s used the same language with previous free agents.

If I were parsing his words, the fact that he referred to WCJ as a top-10 center is where I would start. It’s a bold claim, not only because you can pretty easily come up with a list of the top 10 centers that doesn’t include WCJ, but also because he spent the year sharing the floor with Bamba. Labeling WCJ as a center clearly reveals their line of thinking.

[thelead]

It almost sounds like Bamba playing alongside WCJ was partly a test to see if WCJ could share the court with a lanky big who blocks shots… almost as if there’s a consensus top 3 prospect that would fit similarly… hmmm

[pepe1991]

Weltman: I am doing great Mike. First day of the offseason is a better way to think about it.

lol
ofc now he officially doesn't have to pretend he is doing anything. Just google first mock draft, click print and is ready for draft.

[cedric76]

I think Weltman is candid when he speaks. He just doesn’t deal in absolutes.

I wouldn’t read too much into what he didn’t say. That’s on Bianchi as he asked the questions.

I’m glad he mentioned the defense after Suggs’ return. This means that not only do they appreciate its importance, but also that they understand how important Suggs was to that success.

I didn’t take what he said about Bamba as a negative. I think the organization has a number in mind. I think there is a threshold that they won’t cross and that threshold is not high. He’s used the same language with previous free agents.

If I were parsing his words, the fact that he referred to WCJ as a top-10 center is where I would start. It’s a bold claim, not only because you can pretty easily come up with a list of the top 10 centers that doesn’t include WCJ, but also because he spent the year sharing the floor with Bamba. Labeling WCJ as a center clearly reveals their line of thinking.

It s clear that they see WCJ as a Center, which he is as he is the player that always guard Strong C like embiid and Jokic

[LDNMagic90]

I think Weltman is candid when he speaks. He just doesn’t deal in absolutes.

I wouldn’t read too much into what he didn’t say. That’s on Bianchi as he asked the questions.

I’m glad he mentioned the defense after Suggs’ return. This means that not only do they appreciate its importance, but also that they understand how important Suggs was to that success.

I didn’t take what he said about Bamba as a negative. I think the organization has a number in mind. I think there is a threshold that they won’t cross and that threshold is not high. He’s used the same language with previous free agents.

If I were parsing his words, the fact that he referred to WCJ as a top-10 center is where I would start. It’s a bold claim, not only because you can pretty easily come up with a list of the top 10 centers that doesn’t include WCJ, but also because he spent the year sharing the floor with Bamba. Labeling WCJ as a center clearly reveals their line of thinking.

It s clear that they see WCJ as a Center, which he is as he is the player that always guard Strong C like embiid and Jokic

Which makes his fallout with the Bulls strange to me, we were told that he wanted to play as a PF as that's where he saw himself playing instead of C. So it's strange that he's suddenly fine with being a C now if that's how we view him. I guess he might just feel more comfortable in Orlando than he did in Chicago

[ReadyOrlando]

Weltmans said it himself that analytics crew is continously evaluating players during season(as it should be). Its hard to ignore blood which is dripping from your eyes when you watch Anthony and Hamptons numbers.
Weltman was also not glowingly positive about Bamba.
We dont know for sure but i think most of us here would agree that Wagner, WCJ, Suggs, Fultz and Isaac are the only members of our core for now.

My thoughts exactly.

[bigdogdylan5]

Jalen had an injury in the middle of the season, but actually I think we’ll look back on it and say that was the best thing that could have happened to him. He used that time really productively which really says a lot about him and about our performance staff.

cant agree with that. not sure what he did to be "productive" during his injury but his play to me didnt reflect that

Definitely disagree with this. Yes he didn’t shoot better but his decision making and defense stuff you can study and learn definitely got better

[bigdogdylan5]

I think Weltman is candid when he speaks. He just doesn’t deal in absolutes.

I wouldn’t read too much into what he didn’t say. That’s on Bianchi as he asked the questions.

I’m glad he mentioned the defense after Suggs’ return. This means that not only do they appreciate its importance, but also that they understand how important Suggs was to that success.

I didn’t take what he said about Bamba as a negative. I think the organization has a number in mind. I think there is a threshold that they won’t cross and that threshold is not high. He’s used the same language with previous free agents.

If I were parsing his words, the fact that he referred to WCJ as a top-10 center is where I would start. It’s a bold claim, not only because you can pretty easily come up with a list of the top 10 centers that doesn’t include WCJ, but also because he spent the year sharing the floor with Bamba. Labeling WCJ as a center clearly reveals their line of thinking.

Agree with all of this especially that last paragraph which probably was the biggest implication. They see him as a center going forward with some ability to play the PF when needed.

[VFX]

If I were parsing his words, the fact that he referred to WCJ as a top-10 center is where I would start. It’s a bold claim, not only because you can pretty easily come up with a list of the top 10 centers that doesn’t include WCJ, but also because he spent the year sharing the floor with Bamba. Labeling WCJ as a center clearly reveals their line of thinking.

This is possibly the only big takeaway from the interview aside from praising Suggs defensive impact.

It’s smart for him to label WCJ as a starting C considering there isn’t enough offense available to have him next to another “true C” big IMO. Ideally they would want to find another F to pair with Franz that can stretch the floor.