The Close Up - Offseason Outlook with Keith Smith

Orlando Magic HQ

The conversation with Keith Smith focuses on the Orlando Magic's performance during the season and their potential moves in the upcoming summer. The Magic showed significant improvement throughout the season and exceeded expectations. The team has a bright future with young players like Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner.

The conversation then delves into the new CBA agreement, which aims to bring spending teams down and lower spending teams up. The agreement introduces penalties and restrictions on high-spending teams and encourages teams to spend in the offseason. The Magic have a clean cap sheet with several options for creating cap space. The discussion also touches on cap holds and bird rights, which impact a team's ability to re-sign their own free agents. The Orlando Magic have a two-year window of flexibility in the upcoming offseasons to make moves and bring in new players. They have significant cap space this summer and next summer, allowing them to potentially sign or trade for big-name players.

The team is well-positioned to make offers for stars that become available. However, the availability of star players in free agency is limited, so trading for a star player is more likely. The Magic have the draft capital and cap flexibility to make a trade for a star player if the opportunity arises. They also have the option to sign solid free agents using the room exception if they go under the cap. The future of players like Gary Harris and Goga Bitadze is uncertain, but there is a possibility they could return to the team.