Credit The Orlando Magic, This Was A Quality Jimbo
Whoops! What was supposed to be a harmless tweet about the signing of Patricio Garino, a rookie the Magic just gave a 10 Day contract to, instead turned into a classic Jimbo. We see funny pictures of guys signing NBA contracts from time to time, the Knicks small table comes to mind, but I don’t think we’ve ever seen a team tweet out their entire offseason target board before. Magic gonna Magic. When you’re 27-50, have lost four in a row, and your franchise is an utter joke, this is the kind of shit I expect to happen.
Before we dive into the list, let’s first talk about what position the Magic are currently in.
As you can see, some guys are coming off the books like Jeff Green, Jodie Meeks, CJ Wilcox and some other scrubs, but with $82M already tied up for next year (DJ Augustin LOL), it’s not as if the Magic are overflowing with cap space. I know there is all this talk about how much money teams are going to have because of the new TV deal, but next year is expected to be “lower” than many think at around $102M. Factor in the Magic paying a top 5 pick this summer, and their cap space drops even more.
Now onto the board. We’ll start with the first column, the Hybrid Trades. Obviously if the Magic are going to do anything, it’s most likely going to have to be a trade. That’s OK, they have “assets” with tradable contracts. On that list a few things stick out, for example, why are they going to trade for players they’ve already had? Players like Tobias Harris and Mo Harkless have already played for the Magic and clearly weren’t the answer. Not to mention, to trade for Tobias Harris who makes around $16M, you’re going to have to give up either one of your better players. That seems weird. I also love the Saric name. If there is one thing PHI is going to want to do it’s trade the ROY for a player who you can’t say for sure is better, and is definitely not as good a shooter. The same goes for players like Jabari Parker, Larry Nance, and Justice Winslow. What are the Magic smoking?
Now for the next column, the Hybrid FA’s. Remember the Magic will probably only have around $15M to spend unless they move players, and guys like Gallo, Millsap, Porter Jr, are not only 100% not choosing Orlando, but they also are way out of their price range. I do like how Jeff Green has the (x) by his name. Even a team as bad as Orlando has seen enough of Green to say thanks but no thanks. I think as Cs fans we all understand that. And if the Magic want to throw money at Jonas Jerebko, by all means go nuts!
In the Spread Bigs column, for a second I misread and thought that said Lever and not Leuer and I figured someone just happened to be a big fan of Mickstape. Again in this section more absurd names. Chandler Parsons takes all your cap space and newsflash, can’t stay healthy. The Bucks JUST drafted Thon Maker, why would they trade him?
But the most telling name here is the last name all the way on the right. Kelly Olynyk. The Celts will probably extend a qualifying offer to him simply as good business, but we all know the Magic are about to throw $16M a year at Olynyk, and I would say there is slim to no chance Boston matches that. Here we were thinking only the Celtics thought Olynyk had NBA value, but we were wrong! Another name on that list that made me laugh was Ibaka. Why are the Magic obsessed with players they had and then traded? Wasn’t the reason they had to trade Ibaka was because he made it pretty well known he wasn’t going to sign an extension there? Is nobody in ORL paying attention?
I also want to throw this out there, maybe it’s a little too woke, but at the same time it’s totally plausible. The Magic GM and Worcester native Rob Hennigan is 100% on the hot seat. He probably doesn’t expect to make it through the summer, so maybe this whole picture was a giant fuck you to whoever is going to be in charge of free agency this summer. Don’t say I didn’t tell you so.
I’m sure they’ll come out and make a bullshit statement trying to cover their tracks, but thoughts and prayers to that social media intern that let this one fly. He/she is having a rough day today. If you’re a fan of the Magic this can’t make you feel good, not because the picture got out, but if THIS is your offseason plan, you’re in for another long year again next year, and then the next year, and then the year after that.