Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel provides his latest update on all things Orlando Magic, addressing the Al Harrington situation, tallying all of the dead money on the Magic roster and questioning whether the Magic can risk gambling on Kentucky's Nerlens Noel.
- Harrington told Schmitz that while he refuses to let his knee injury end his NBA career, the 33-year-old veteran understands that his time in Orlando is likely over. Schmitz says the Magic will probably try to trade Harrington. If they can't, they will buy out the remaining two years on his deal, which is worth $14.7MM though Schmitz says it would cost Orlando about half of that since the deal is not fully guaranteed. Harrington added that he is "through playing with bad teams" and hopes that his 10-game stint on the court earlier this season was enough to draw interest from a contender next season.
- Schmitz says that the Magic currently have about $62MM committed to players who are currently not playing or are not on the roster. The team has two years and $43.1MM remaining on their deal with Gilbert Arenas and is still paying (or has paid) Hakim Warrick ($4MM), Quentin Richardson ($2.6MM), Christian Eyenga ($1.7MM) and Justin Harper ($762K), none of whom are on the roster. Hedo Turkoglu ($11.8MM), Arron Afflalo ($7.5MM), Harrington ($6.6MM) and Glen Davis ($6.4MM) are all injured or have been shut down.
- Schmitz opines that the lack of high-impact talent in June's draft makes Nerlens Noel a worthwhile gamble for the Magic. While Nikola Vucevic has emerged this year as an elite rebounder, the 7-footer is not really a shot blocker (only 1.0 blocks-per-game this year). Enter Noel, who would seem to fit nicely alongside Vucevic. The Magic probably won't be ready to compete for several years, so Schmitz says they could give the Kentucky shot blocker all the time he needs to recover.