Southeast Notes: Porter, Wall, Magic, Hornets

Re-signing Otto Porter and working out an extension with John Wall are the Wizards‘ top priorities for the offseason, relays Chase Hughes of CSNMidAtlantic. The first order of business involves Porter, who is headed toward free agency after four seasons in Washington. The Wizards have until Friday to submit a qualifying offer of about $7.4MM to make him restricted, which means the franchise could match any offer he receives. Team president Ernie Grunfeld views the 24-year-old as part of the future in Washington. “We’ve said all along that we want to keep our core group of young players together and Otto is an important part of what we’re trying to do,” Grunfeld said. “When free agency starts, we’ll see what we can do and work things out to keep him here.”

After earning third-team All-NBA honors, Wall is eligible for a Designated Player Veteran Exception that would pay him about $167MM over four seasons. Wall is already signed through 2018/19, so the extension would carry him through 2022/23. “At the appropriate time, we will sit down with John. We want John to finish his career here,” Grunfeld said. “He’s a franchise guy.”

There’s more from the Southeast Division:

• Poor drafting over the past five years has turned the Magic into a consistently bad franchise, writes Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel. There’s no one on the roster who projects as an All-Star, Robbins claims, even though Orlando picked second in 2013, fourth and 12th in 2014 and fifth in 2015. Former GM Rob Hennigan had planned to build through the draft, but the front office didn’t have the eye for talent to make it work.
• Euroleague star Darius Miller will have an upcoming workout with the Magic, tweets international writer David Pick. Miller formerly played for Brose Bamburg in Germany, and Barcelona is making a strong bid to sign the 27-year-old forward. Miller was drafted by New Orleans with the 46th pick in 2012 and stayed with the team until he was waived in 2014.
• The Hornets will have to search for bargains in free agency, notes Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer. Charlotte is over the cap for next season, but under the luxury tax, and will have its mid-level exception worth about $8.4MM and a bi-annual exception of around $3.3MM to spend. Bonnell suggests Darren Collison, Dante Cunningham, Raymond Felton, Patty Mills and Anthony Tolliver as possible targets.
• The Hornets received $1.8MM from the Pelicans when they agreed to swap the 31st pick for the 40th on draft day, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.