2023 NBA Free Agency Thread

[Babir_9 91]

I am happy we did not overpaid to any free agents. We have a good core. I am glad to see that management believes in Fultz. If he stays healthy he can be one of the top PG in the league. 

[jmmagicfan 302]

1 hour ago, Jon said:

No it’s a log jam. 

Jon, I respect everyone's right to their own opinion, but damn, I don't think I've seen a positive post or opinion from you yet, man. If you're that negative about the roster, the management, and everyone else's opinions, why are you here? Do we need to start calling you Debbie Downer? In all seriousness though;

1) When you have this many young players, many of whom can be "loaned" to the G-League affiliate, I agree it could be difficult to find everyone playing time. So maybe Black, Howard, and Houstan all spend some time in Osceola, or maybe they just work in practice learning habits from veterans like G Harris, Ingles, and to a lesser extent, Fultz, and WCJ.

2) Considering how many "player injury games" we have lost over the last few years, having extra young talent for depth is a benefit. Also, if they're all competing for minutes, nobody is getting complacent - everyone keeps working to earn their minutes. Plus, if guys do get injured, they can spend time down in Osceola when they are "ramping up" playing time for their return - like Isaac and Okeke did for a bit last season. 

3) We don't know yet that the front office is done. Currently we seem to have a roster full of guys that can switch and play/guard multiple positions. That's not a bad thing, either. I expect that they will try to bring back Moe Wagner as well, and I wouldn't be surprised if they give Kevon Harris at least a training camp and/or 2-way contract again. Doing both would bring us up to 16 players - you're allowed about 20 for training camp. Once you get to the season you get 15 on the roster, and I think with the new CBA you get three 2-way contracts for a total of 18 players. We will probably still see some action on the free agent and/or trade market before we get to opening day. 

4) We don't know if Isaac is going to be back healthy - if he isn't, I would not be surprised to see them release him. He is "only" guaranteed $7.6M until 1/10/24, if they cut him before that, the remaining $9.8M can be used elsewhere. We are currently sitting at 14 players (counting Black, Howard and Ingles) and just barely over the league-mandated minimum of $122.4K. If we sign Moe to about $3.5M, that still leaves us about $10K under the cap, in a great position to trade with someone needing to cut salary, or as a third team to grab additional assets. I personally don't think we are done, and my bet is that they do move a backcourt guy or two to try and balance the roster a little more evenly. I could see someone doing a trade to free up space and take a chance on continued improvement from Anthony, Suggs, or a healthy Okeke. I can see a path to a trade involving G Harris for a SF/PF who might be getting similar numbers but making $4-5M more, with the other team throwing in a top-20 protected first. With the new CBA and the (extremely) punitive 2nd apron, I think there may be some trades to be made that would both better balance the roster and bring additional assets. 

I do think that the front office moved a little slower rebuilding this roster than I would have liked; but, we also have to think about where we were when they were hired - over the cap with few prospects to get better. I would have liked to see Payton, Vuc, Gordon, and Fournier all moved sooner than they were, but sometimes the moves just aren't there, or the return just makes you worse without actually giving you a path to improve. I think they have done a reasonable job, and have (with some luck) put us in a position to really make another jump this year. I think G Harris needs to be more active without the ball, running off of screens to find open shots (a la Reddick), I think both Anthony and G Harris are a little undersized to play the SG, but I think with Gary's improved health and if Anthony can improve his shot selection/play less "hero-ball", we can definitely expect to see some improvement from that position. I think the game was starting to slow down for Suggs near the end of the season, he seemed to be playing with the same drive, but less frantic. I think Moe is important to bring back for several reasons beyond the obvious connection with Franz - he gives us additional backup for the PF, where we've had health issues with both Isaac and Okeke; and he gives us a faster backup at C than Bitadze. Also, he definitely plays with more attitude than most of our team - Ingles should contribute that as well. 

Fultz/Black/Suggs

G Harris/Anthony/Howard

F Wagner/Ingles/Houstan/K Harris (2-Way?)

Banchero/Isaac/Okeke

Carter/Bitadze/M Wagner(?)

I don't think this is a championship roster yet, but I definitely think this is a playoff roster; and with a few more tweaks and internal growth, I think we could surprise a lot of people this year. 

[Forumreader 10]

The Jingles signing really reminds me of a past magic signing.. 

[CTMagicUK 1,482]

4 hours ago, Jon said:

Harris isn’t a SF. Ingles isn’t a PF.

 

Ingles has played almost half  (45%) of his career minutes at PF and had several seasons where he played the majority of his minutes at PF. 

[CTMagicUK 1,482]

Cole Anthony plays on average 57 games a season

Gary Harris also on average plays 57 games a season

Jalen Suggs plays on average 51 games a season

Markelle Fultz' average games played per season is 32. 

Even if we expect much better health than that this season (more likely Fultz plays 60+, would be hoping Suggs, Cole also play 60+) We're still going to have a fair few missed games at guard. 

Last season Terrence Ross, RJ Hampton, MCW and Jay Scrubb, 4 guards not on the roster anymore, played a combined 1379 minutes, the equivalent of someone playing almost 17mpg for all 82. 

Caleb Houstan also played 292 minutes at guard positions last season per bballref. Something he probably shouldn't be doing in the NBA. 

According to bballref Chuma also played a lot of minutes out of position at G last season (295). (It's possible this was lineups with for example Franz at the 2 theoretically but it was assigned this way around. It is only an estimate. Still those are fundamentally "guard" minutes however you look at it). It remains to be seen if Chuma will even be a part of the rotation this season. But if he does get game time he'll likely get some of the 451 minutes vacated by Admiral Schofield. And quite possibly (though it remains to be seen) the 1505 minutes vacated by Bol Bol.

We possibly do make a trade. But there are a lot of minutes to go around either way. 

Jett Howard will likely get some DNP-CD's. 

Kevon Harris will likely play less minutes this season. 

[CTMagicUK 1,482]

6 hours ago, All Eyes On Me said:

That FVV contract is wild. This feels like the summer where awful contracts got dealt out that set teams back for years. Think it was the summer we signed Biyombo. I’m glad to only have a 1 year reasonable commitment to a solid vet so far. Keeping an eye on Brook Lopez now

It's a function of some teams with LOTS of cap space and the new salary floor rules meaning teams need to spend most of that cap space right now. That explains the FVV deal anyway.

The Jerami Grant deal is just desperation by Portland to appease Dame it feels like.

 

[orlandoholic 134]

alright. Just getting into FA right here. I don’t hate the Ingles move, but honestly don’t know where we are going with this.. I didn’t see the roster spot tbh. we are deep at forward, probably too deep. 

 

i am/was hoping for an upgrade at SG and an upgrade at backup C. 

That should be our focus imo.

Also kudos to Weltman for not overspending on these players right now. We really dodged some bullets out there. That FVV contract is just crazy. 

[CTMagicUK 1,482]

17 minutes ago, orlandoholic said:

we are deep at forward, probably too deep. 

 

I couldn't disagree with this more. In my opinion, we had exactly 2 forwards definitely in the rotation for next season prior to signing Ingles. (Franz and Paolo). 

Still remains to be seen whether Bol is here next season.

Okeke? Will he be healthy? Is he worth a rotation spot even if he is?

Isaac? Will he be healthy? And how many games will he play in even if he is? Doubt he plays more than 50ish games honestly.

Jett is a rookie so his minutes will be up and down and he's a 2/3 not a 3/4. 

 

[orlandoholic 134]

8 minutes ago, CTMagicUK said:

I couldn't disagree with this more. In my opinion, we had exactly 2 forwards definitely in the rotation for next season prior to signing Ingles. (Franz and Paolo). 

Still remains to be seen whether Bol is here next season.

Okeke? Will he be healthy? Is he worth a rotation spot even if he is?

Isaac? Will he be healthy? And how many games will he play in even if he is? Doubt he plays more than 50ish games honestly.

Jett is a rookie so his minutes will be up and down and he's a 2/3 not a 3/4. 

 

well i said we are deep at forward and i didn’t say anything about the quality. 

Then you go on to mention a bunch of forwards, which really proves my point.. 

 

Ingles is a SF. He isn’t some kind of 3 or 4 and he isn’t a 2 or 3. He is a 3. period. 

We have F. Wagner, Okeke, Houstan and probably Howard playing there. that’s 5 SF going forward.

So yeah, we are deep. The Ingles signing is good imo. But it’s bad news for Okeke and Houstan. I think this signing will end up in us trading Okeke, which i have been saying all along. 

Wagner, Ingles, Houstan is a really good rotation. We have to figure out if Howard is a 2 or 3 in the NBA going forward.. 

 

 

[orlandoholic 134]

 

this Youtuber is a legend! 
 

Ingles gives us shooting and secondary playmaking we desperately need! I’ve been on this all summer. We need more playmakers.

 

Its going to be funny to me to see the contrast of our dynamic young guns and Ingles the lonely old guy out there..

he might not make it past half court if we are running lol

[CTMagicUK 1,482]

10 minutes ago, orlandoholic said:

well i said we are deep at forward and i didn’t say anything about the quality. 

Then you go on to mention a bunch of forwards, which really proves my point.. 

 

Ingles is a SF. He isn’t some kind of 3 or 4 and he isn’t a 2 or 3. He is a 3. period. 

We have F. Wagner, Okeke, Houstan and probably Howard playing there. that’s 5 SF going forward.

So yeah, we are deep. The Ingles signing is good imo. But it’s bad news for Okeke and Houstan. I think this signing will end up in us trading Okeke, which i have been saying all along. 

Wagner, Ingles, Houstan is a really good rotation. We have to figure out if Howard is a 2 or 3 in the NBA going forward.. 

 

 

Ingles has played 45% of his career NBA minutes at the 4. 

Depth implies any kind of quality. It's not depth if you don't actually want (or expect) any of them to play minutes. 

Our "depth" at the 3 after Franz is a bunch of guys yet to prove they belong in the NBA. 

If neither Houstan nor Okeke can beat out a 36 year old Joe Ingles for minutes they don't deserve to be playing any on a team that wants to compete for a playoff spot.

Jett is a rookie and I expect his minutes will be very up and down throughout the season given Weltman's quote of "wanting to reach a point where rookies earn minutes".

[orlandoholic 134]

1 hour ago, CTMagicUK said:

Ingles has played 45% of his career NBA minutes at the 4. 

Depth implies any kind of quality. It's not depth if you don't actually want (or expect) any of them to play minutes. 

Our "depth" at the 3 after Franz is a bunch of guys yet to prove they belong in the NBA. 

If neither Houstan nor Okeke can beat out a 36 year old Joe Ingles for minutes they don't deserve to be playing any on a team that wants to compete for a playoff spot.

Jett is a rookie and I expect his minutes will be very up and down throughout the season given Weltman's quote of "wanting to reach a point where rookies earn minutes".

i’m not sure what your arguing for lol.. I think Ingles is a good signing. And i think i made that clear