FanPost

Put the GM hat on this Labor Day Weekend!

This past summer’s NBA draft has come and gone. NBA free-agency has settled for the time being. The 2014-15 season is just a couple months away, but there’s still business to be done between now and then concerning the Orlando Magic. Some of the decisions Rob Hennigan will make, possibly in September and October, will affect this organization for years to come. Some decisions will be automatic, other decisions may prove to be more difficult.

Here are some upcoming important NBA deadlines that impact up to nine current Orlando Magic Players:

· October 31st – Deadline to exercise option years for players on rookie deals

· October 31st – Deadline to extend players on their rookie contracts who are approaching RFA

· Early November – Opening Night

Please read my rundown regarding Orlando's roster and comment below with the decisions on each player that you would make if given the position of GM of the Magic for the next two months.

Victor Oladipo – Will the Magic pick-up his 3rd year option?

There is nothing to discuss or debate here. The 2nd overall pick will have his team option for 2015-16 honored by Orlando at some point next month.

Evan Fournier – Will the Magic pick-up his 4th year option?

I don’t see any reason why the organization wouldn’t want to take a longer look at the young guard. His ’15-16 salary would still be very cheap (less than $2 million), and the move would give Orlando two seasons to evaluate whether a second contract is something they want to offer Fournier.

Maurice Harkless – Will the Magic pick-up his 4th year option?

Again, there doesn’t seem to be an advantage in this case by not picking up the 4th year option of Maurice’s deal. I would imagine the Magic would like to see more urgency, involvement, and consistency from Harkless this upcoming season. I think Maurice, who is still very young for a player heading into his 3rd season, deferred at times to Jameer Nelson and Arron Afflalo (as he should have in most situations). I look for Maurice to take another step in his development this season, and he’s already shown enough at age 21 to warrant a fourth year to his contract. The financial commitment is miniscule.

Andrew Nicholson – Will the Magic pick-up his 4th year option?

Here is where things get complicated. It will be very interesting to see what Rob Hennigan decides to do with Andrew and his 4th year Team Option. From one perspective, the financial commitment the Magic would be making with Nicholson in 2015-16 would be less than 7% of the total team salary cap (in other words, nothing). Andrew was Hennigan’s first draft pick as the GM of the Magic, so I’m sure there’s some motivation internally to give the Canadian another year to find his place in the NBA.

On the other hand, couldn’t Orlando feasibly decline the 4th year option on Andrew Nicholson’s rookie contract? Possibly. He certainly struggled to find minutes for long stretches of time last season. Though slightly improved, Nicholson has consistently struggled to defend in the NBA, and the 3-PT [shot] experiment that he worked on diligently last summer flamed out as the season wore on as well. Add to the mix the fact that Orlando drafted Aaron Gordon with the 4th overall selection this summer (most likely a PF), as well as signed PF Channing Frye, and one could easily believe that minutes will once again be hard to come by down the road for Mr. Nicholson (O’ Quinn can also get by for small stretches at a time as a PF, although I like him a lot more as a "5"). If the organization decides to NOT pick-up Nicholson’s 4th year, he will become a Free Agent, which may be the best thing for him and his career.

Tobias Harris – Will the Magic reach an Early-extension agreement with Harris, or will he become a Restricted Free Agent?

Rookie deal extensions were agreed upon last October by players such as John Wall, Paul George, DeMarcus Cousins, and Larry Sanders. The benefit from an organizational standpoint to agree to an extension with a player early is that the team won’t risk losing that player to another team in RFA. Josh Cohen reported earlier this summer that Orlando would be willing to sit down and negotiate with Tobias "around Labor Day Weekend" regarding an extension. Harris, entering his 4th NBA season, is still in his early 20’s. If Harris were to become a restricted free-agent, because of his age and ability to score the basketball, I’m sure he would draw plenty of interest around the NBA. Orlando would have the ability to match any offer, but the risk of a team with cash coming well over-the-top with an offer would be present.

With that being said, it’s hard for me to guess if it would benefit either Tobias or Orlando to reach an extension agreement before the upcoming season. Unlike Nik Vucevic, I feel Tobias still has a little to prove in the NBA, due partly to the lack of minutes he received for the first half of his career in Milwaukee. If he can stay healthy enough to play 75+ games in 2014-15, and if he improves his game (like he has every year since his rookie season), the Magic will assuredly feel better about resigning Tobias in the Summer of 2015. I think a fair offer to the versatile forward would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 years/38 million.

Nik Vucevic – Will the Magic reach an Early-extension agreement with Vucevic, or will he become a Restricted Free Agent?

In a FanPost regarding this topic I wrote about a month ago, Evan pointed out that it would "behoove Orlando to reach an extension with Nik early, while it would behoove Nik to test free agency." That perspective makes a lot of sense to me.

Nik has put together a solid body of work already in his young career. With consistent minutes, Nik has shown his ability to rebound the basketball at a high level. Because of his legit size and age, Nik seems like a prime candidate to be overpaid by a team with available cash next summer. If Orlando legitimately wants to build around Nik for the next 5 seasons, they may have to overpay a little now. If not, the Magic could be risking a lot, leaving the door open for a team to make an offer in a range much higher than Orlando is willing to go.

What Orlando wants, and what Nik will agree to, are two different things. It very much is in Nik’s best interest to let his RFA year play out. In a win-win situation for Vucevic, he could either be coming back to the City Beautiful (if Orlando were to match an offer by another team), or heading out of town with a new massive contract. If the organization were to somehow agree to an extension with Vucevic in the next few weeks, I think an offer in the range of 4 years/$48-50 million seems about right.

Devyn Marble – Will the Magic send him to the D-League?

In my opinion, the former Hawkeye is the most likely candidate on the 15-man roster to be optioned to Erie. I liked what I saw from Marble this summer in limited action. With Orlando controlling the basketball operation phase of the BayHawks, obviously the Magic will be making more use of the D-League moving forward.

Aaron Gordon – Will the Magic send him to the D-League?

Here is where I think I may lose some people. I honestly think that when Opening Night comes around in early November, Rob Hennigan will have a decision to make with Aaron Gordon. In the infancy stage of his NBA development, will he be better served playing minimal minutes sporadically at the NBA level, or will his game be better served initially to play 30+ minutes a night in Erie?

If Aaron were to stay with the Magic from the get go, his role off the bench would be cloudy at best (at least for the first couple months of the season). You know Frye will be starting after the contract he signed, and both Tobias and Maurice Harkless will be playing valuable minutes ahead of Gordon. Aaron essentially is a 2nd forward off the bench, in a best-case scenario (perhaps even Andrew Nicholson would be playing in favor of Gordon). If Rob elects to keep Aaron with the team early on, the organization would be making the decision that practicing against the best in the world "day in and day out" is more important than regular minutes with a defined role.

On the other hand, if Aaron started the year in Erie, he could continue to develop his game while not playing under a microscope. In Aaron’s case, I don’t consider playing in the D-League a demotion by any means. He’s 19, his game needs a lot of work in many areas, and Orlando will be very patient with him. They didn’t draft him at #4 to contribute this year exclusively. They are playing the long game…

For the record, I would be all for letting Aaron play 20-30 games in Erie, and then calling him up to the league around Jan.-Feb. to finish out the season with the Magic.

Dewayne Dedmon – Will he make the Opening-night roster?

Dedmon will surely be given every opportunity to make the roster in 2014-15. If Dedmon is still with Orlando on Opening Night, his contract will be fully guaranteed. The Magic could do a lot worse than Dedmon when you’re talking about a 3rd string center. Dewayne strikes me, at the very least, as someone who will work hard everyday in practice and push other big men like Vucevic, O’Quinn, etc. I can’t imagine why he wouldn’t make the team.

Again, comment below with the decisions on each player that you would make if given the position of GM of the Magic for the next two months. Enjoy!

This FanPost was made by a member of the Orlando Pinstriped Post community, and is to be treated as the opinions and views of its author, not that of the blogger or blog community as a whole.

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