2025 Off-Season Thread

[CTMagicUK]

Also just a note, the CBA is absolutely wild. Who looked at the old CBA and thought "this needs to be more complicated actually"?

[jmmagicfan]

Just now, CTMagicUK said:

Also just a note, the CBA is absolutely wild. Who looked at the old CBA and thought "this needs to be more complicated actually"?

+1000 if the forum was still letting me upvote!

[jmmagicfan]

If our goal is to stay use the mid-level, but stay under the 1sr apron, then we really only have two possible options:

1) trade Jett Howard for a cheaper player and/or future draft pick(s), or 

2) waive Moe (and replace him with a veteran minimum contract?) Option 2a) keep Moe, but renegotiate this year’s salary down, by giving him an extension of some sort? (Not sure if/how that would work with the CBA)

Either option might open up a roster spot, but limits our options to fill it.

[CTMagicUK]

27 minutes ago, jmmagicfan said:

keep Moe, but renegotiate this year’s salary down, by giving him an extension of some sort? (Not sure if/how that would work with the CBA)

I've been trying to get clarity on this and I can't for the life of me find out what his cap hold will be if we decline his team option, intuitively I feel like it would just be the declined salary up until he signs a new deal. Which would mean he'd have to sign a new deal before we used the mid level exception.

If that was the case it'd greatly limit what we could actually spend on the MLE (although I suppose either way we're limited by the first apron hard cap) which makes it feel like a sign and trade and/or moving Jett for no salary coming back to a cap space team are our only real options to access real MLE money of like 13+mil.

So I guess if we're keeping Jett we're shopping around at the vet minimum and hoping to attract some guys wanting to rebuild their value for a bigger pay day next summer like Taurean Prince and Gary Trent Jr took last summer in Milwaukee. 

[MagicMan1979]

33 minutes ago, CTMagicUK said:

I've been trying to get clarity on this and I can't for the life of me find out what his cap hold will be if we decline his team option, intuitively I feel like it would just be the declined salary up until he signs a new deal. Which would mean he'd have to sign a new deal before we used the mid level exception.

If that was the case it'd greatly limit what we could actually spend on the MLE (although I suppose either way we're limited by the first apron hard cap) which makes it feel like a sign and trade and/or moving Jett for no salary coming back to a cap space team are our only real options to access real MLE money of like 13+mil.

So I guess if we're keeping Jett we're shopping around at the vet minimum and hoping to attract some guys wanting to rebuild their value for a bigger pay day next summer like Taurean Prince and Gary Trent Jr took last summer in Milwaukee. 

You guys know a lot more about this than me. Orlando Magic Daily claims the smart move is to decline Mo and Caleb to gain access to 18 million.  Then bring them back and sign one or two players. I don’t know if it’s true but it’s been said on several Pod Casts.
 

[jmmagicfan]

28 minutes ago, CTMagicUK said:

I've been trying to get clarity on this and I can't for the life of me find out what his cap hold will be if we decline his team option, intuitively I feel like it would just be the declined salary up until he signs a new deal. Which would mean he'd have to sign a new deal before we used the mid level exception.

If that was the case it'd greatly limit what we could actually spend on the MLE (although I suppose either way we're limited by the first apron hard cap) which makes it feel like a sign and trade and/or moving Jett for no salary coming back to a cap space team are our only real options to access real MLE money of like 13+mil.

So I guess if we're keeping Jett we're shopping around at the vet minimum and hoping to attract some guys wanting to rebuild their value for a bigger pay day next summer like Taurean Prince and Gary Trent Jr took last summer in Milwaukee. 

I believe if we decline his option, then there is no cap hold and we lose his bird rights. If you check out the attached, you will see that Harris and CoJo are no longer listed at all once their options were declined. We might be able to exercise the option, and then renegotiate after we’re into the “next season” in a week or so, to get back under the first apron, but that doesn’t necessarily help with free agency.

 https://www.spotrac.com/nba/orlando-magic/cap

[jmmagicfan]

5 minutes ago, MagicMan1979 said:

You guys know a lot more about this than me. Orlando Magic Daily claims the smart move is to decline Mo and Caleb to gain access to 18 million.  Then bring them back and sign one or two players. I don’t know if it’s true but it’s been said on several Pod Casts.
 

We are already way over the salary cap of $154.6M, so I don’t believe declining Moe and Caleb would benefit us at all. When you decline, you lose rights unless they are a Restricted Free Agent who then become Unrestricted but you retain some exceptions. Neither of them are restricted, so that doesn’t apply. That means you would only have the mid-level exception and possibly veteran exceptions to fill your roster. If you are already over the cap declining an option doesn’t give you that money back to spend elsewhere. Caleb is already cheaper than the veteran minimums. Based on his years in the league, we would actually have to pay him more to sign him after.

[MagicMan1979]

3 minutes ago, jmmagicfan said:

We are already way over the salary cap of $154.6M, so I don’t believe declining Moe and Caleb would benefit us at all. When you decline, you lose rights unless they are a Restricted Free Agent who then become Unrestricted but you retain some exceptions. Neither of them are restricted, so that doesn’t apply. That means you would only have the mid-level exception and possibly veteran exceptions to fill your roster. If you are already over the cap declining an option doesn’t give you that money back to spend elsewhere. Caleb is already cheaper than the veteran minimums. Based on his years in the league, we would actually have to pay him more to sign him after.

https://orlandomagicdaily.com/orlando-magics-post-trade-depth-chart-reveals-where-they-will-go-next
 

With Moe Wagner and Caleb Houstan also facing team options this summer -- again, likely to be declined so the Magic can operate under the luxury tax and gain access to the mid-level exception -- the Magic are missing a lot of rotation players from the past two years.

The other part of that equation is how limited the Magic are financially.

Currently, the Magic have $177.2 million in guaranteed salary for the 2026 season. That puts the team well over the projected $154.6 million salary capand roughly $10.7 million beneath the $187.9 million luxury tax line.

That would give the Magic access to the non-taxpayer mid-level exception worth up to $14.1 million. The Magic have an easy way to jump into free agency. 

However, if the Magic use any part of that, they become hard-capped at the $195.9 million first apron. That leaves the Magic with $18.7 million in room to spend to fill these critical needs and build out depth.

The Magic's No. 25 pick will cost roughly $3 million of that. So the Magic could legally spend the full mid-level exception and then still have a little bit of room to sign a minimum player. But that would mean letting Moe Wagner and Caleb Houstan walk in free agency.

Orlando is again walking a very fine tight rope. The mid-level exception can be split between multiple players -- or the team could use the $5.7 million taxpayer mid-level exception, which does not come with a first-apron hard cap.

 

[Chosen54721]

4 hours ago, All Eyes On Me said:

I love Moe as much as everyone else, but we can’t pick up his team option. He’s going to miss half the season continuing to recover from his ACL. The move is decline it, use the MLE, then use his bird rights to sign him to something more lucrative long term. If he gets a better offer elsewhere, so be it. His injury plays a big factor in what we do with him imo.

Absolutely! This is my understanding as well. We need to decline Mo, (he has stated this himself) and that will allow us to use the MLE, for a PG. Caleb is the other question, as to decline him or not, and bring both MO and Caleb back this summer, if they get another offer. 

[TreyMachine]

10 hours ago, Shine88 said:

BREAKING: Masai Ujiri is out as Vice Chairman and President of the Toronto Raptors, sources tell ESPN

Shocker!

Bring him to Orlando!!! He’s for a long time been seen as one of the best basketball minds behind Sam Presti. Absolutely wild but also Toronto hasn’t been producing, so I get the axe has to fall somewhere. 

[Shine88]

The Philadelphia 76ers intend to sign F Justin Edwards to a new three-year contract after declining his team option, sources tell ESPN. 76ers and Klutch Sports' Rich Paul and Josh Hairston negotiated the new deal for Edwards, who averaged 10.1 points and 26 minutes last season.

Happy for the kid. Reminds me of the Naz Reid situation some years back.

[Shine88]

A 5-year, $125M is a significant step above the 5-year, $109M opt in and extend option for Naz Reid. Wolves are still finalizing structure of Reid’s new deal, per source. With a deal of that size, without making another significant cost-cutting move, the Wolves will not be able to retain both Randle and Alexander-Walker while staying under the 2nd apron.

Good deal for the T-Wolves.