- Veteran NBA agent Calvin Andrews, who represents players like Aaron Gordon (Magic) and Josh Okogie (Timberwolves) has left BDA Sports to form his own agency called Serving Athletes with Integrity, tweets Liz Mullen of SportsBusiness Journal.
3:49pm: The Magic have officially signed Petrucelli and waived Johnson, the club confirmed in a press release.
12:51pm: The Magic are making a pair of procedural roster moves, according to Josh Robbins of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that the club will sign John Petrucelli and waive B.J. Johnson. Both players are expected to ultimately end up with the Lakeland Magic, Orlando’s G League affiliate, Robbins adds.
Petrucelli, a 6’4″ guard, spent last season with the Magic’s G League squad, averaging 8.3 PPG and 4.0 RPG in 43 games (20.9 MPG). Lakeland holds his returning NBAGL rights, but signing him to an Exhibit 10 contract and then cutting him will allow Orlando to give him a bonus worth up to $50K, which won’t affect the club’s salary cap.
As for Johnson, he completed his college career this past spring before joining the Magic for training camp. In his senior year at La Salle, the 6’7″ shooting guard recorded 20.8 PPG and 8.3 RPG, earning Second Team All-Atlantic 10 honors.
Orlando’s roster will remain at the 20-man preseason limit once the team officially finalizes both of these moves.
- As he begins his first season as head coach of the Magic, Steve Clifford continues to tinker with possible lineup combinations. As John Denton writes for the team website, Clifford has specifically explored lineups that include both Mohamed Bamba and Nikola Vucevic on the floor. In such a lineup, the Magic would rely on Bamba to guard quicker power forwards due to his mobility. On offense, both bigs could play on the perimeter at times, given their shooting ability.
- Aaron Gordon has a potential path to an All-Star nod in an Eastern Conference that lost more top talent this offseason. Gordon’s new contract with the Magic calls for a $500K bonus if he’s named an All-Star, per Marks. He could also further increase his earnings by being named to the All-NBA and All-Defense teams at season’s end.
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- The Magic’s Steve Clifford has been impressed by how rookie big man Mohamed Bamba has picked up the coach’s schematic concepts, John Denton of the team’s website reports. Bamba, the No. 6 overall pick, made his preseason debut on Monday. “He said, `I’m watching this game and all I’m looking at are what their coverages are like and what they’re running for offense,’” Clifford told Denton. “People can get excited about (Bamba’s) length and that shows his physical talent, but he’s a smart guy. And I do think he has a real affection for the game.”
The Magic announced a pair of roster moves on Thursday, signing free agent forward Devin Davis to a contract while waiving guard Gabe York.
Davis, 23, played 55 games over two seasons (2016-18) at the University of Houston. He was the only member of his team to start in all 35 games during his senior season last year, averaging 10.9 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists per contest. He went unselected in the 2018 NBA Draft.
York, who signed with the Magic for camp earlier in the month, spent time in Germany last season with Medi Bayreuth. He played 44 games with the Magic’s G League affiliate Lakeland Magic during the 2016/17 season.
The Magic have 20 players under contract for training camp, with their first preseason game set to commence on October 1 against the 76ers.
The Magic have picked up their third-year team option on Jonathan Isaac‘s rookie contract, the team announced today in a press release. The option covers the 2019/20 season.
Isaac, who will turn 21 next Wednesday, appeared in just 27 games for the Magic in his rookie season, with his playing time limited by injuries and lineup decisions. However, the former sixth overall pick is considered a key part of Orlando’s long-term future, having been the first player drafted by the team’s current management group.
By exercising Isaac’s option, the Magic lock him in for the 2019/20 season with a $5.81MM cap charge. The young power forward also has a fourth-year option worth $7.36MM for 2020/21 — the club will have to make a decision on that option next fall before Isaac becomes extension-eligible in the summer of 2020.
Isaac’s was the only 2019/20 option the Magic had to make a decision on. The full list of rookie scale options decisions for ’19/20 can be found right here.
With Nikola Vucevic entering a contract year and Mohamed Bamba aiming to become the starting center of the future in Orlando, Vucevic looks like a trade candidate for the Magic. However, Jeff Weltman says his club has “no designs on trading anyone right now,” per Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel.
“That’s something that we’ll worry about later,” said the Magic’s president of basketball operations. “Vooch is a high-quality player and an even higher-quality person. He’s very valuable to our team today, and he’s very valuable to what we want to be about going forward. So I wouldn’t even entertain those thoughts yet.”
In a Q&A with John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com, Weltman touched on several more topics, including the Magic’s decision to hire new head coach Steve Clifford, Aaron Gordon‘s new contract, the Bamba pick, and many of the club’s other offseason moves. While Weltman knows that the Magic aren’t expected to make the postseason this season, he doesn’t mind being discounted by the pundits and hopes to see his roster stay healthy and “surprise some people.”
Magic second-round pick Justin Jackson, one of the last unsigned players in this year’s draft class, has inked a G League contract and will join Orlando’s NBAGL affiliate, the Lakeland Magic, president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman said today (Twitter link via Keith Smith of RealGM.com).
Having missed most of the 2017/18 season with a torn labrum, Jackson may not have been ready to contribute to the Magic’s NBA squad right away in his rookie season, so the team has opted to make him a domestic draft-and-stash prospect instead.
While most of this year’s second-round picks, particularly those selected in the first half of the second round, signed NBA contracts, it’s not uncommon for a small handful of draftees to sign G League contracts. In fact, this will be the second consecutive year that the 43rd overall pick has taken that route — Rockets second-rounder Isaiah Hartenstein spent last season with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers before signing his first NBA deal with Houston this summer.
Before going done with his labrum injury last season, Jackson had recorded 10.3 PPG and 6.5 RPG in 44 career games at Maryland. The 21-year-old forward also had a career shooting line of .418/.386/.728. Orlando acquired his rights in a draft-night trade, moving down two spots from No. 41 to No. 43 and picking up a 2019 second-round pick in the process.
- In a Q&A with John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com, New Magic head coach Steve Clifford seems to be concentrating on returning the franchise to its relative glory days from 2009 and 2010, when Clifford was an assistant coach under Stan Van Gundy on an Orlando squad that reached the NBA Finals in 2009 and the Eastern Conference Finals in 2010.
- According to Adam Johnson of 2 Ways & 10 Days, Magic 2018 NBA Draft selection Justin Jackson is expected to sign a G League contract with the Lakeland Magic and become a domestic draft-and-stash prospect.