The Magic have signed Mario Hezonja, this year’s fifth overall pick, the team announced. He’ll almost certainly receive a salary of more than $3.741MM this season and a total of nearly $16.897MM over the four-year rookie scale contract, as our salary chart for 2015 first-rounders shows. Those figures presume he’ll get 120% of the scale amount, which is standard procedure. The Arn Tellem client will likely put some of that toward his $1.4MM buyout from Barcelona of Spain. The Magic can only cover $625K of that.
Hezonja’s selection wasn’t too surprising, as Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress had him as the fifth-best prospect while Chad Ford of ESPN.com ranked him sixth. The Croatian swingman is a versatile scorer with tantalizing outside shooting skill, though he has a reputation for a poor attitude.
The Magic are likely done with signings for more than the minimum salary, as Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel wrote. That frees the team to formally sign Hezonja, a maneuver that lifts his cap hold by about $900K.