With news that the Magic have been granted a Disabled Player Exception for Fultz's season-ending injury, I thought I'd give a rundown of the options Orlando has with the DPEs they've received for Isaac and Fultz. If you want the short answer, there isn't a whole lot that can be done with them without some creative cap maneuvering. I'll map out the long answer below. I won't explain the money value for a DPE other than its use cases, so I'd recommend reading up on them to know how teams receive the exception they do for certain contracts.
What can the team do with these DPEs?
To start, there are three things a team can do with a DPE:
- Sign a free agent, which does not grant an additional roster spot
- Claim a player off waivers
- Trade for a player
- Jonathan Isaac: $3.6 million
- Markelle Fultz: $6.1 million
Who can Orlando trade for?
Here's a list of all the players who are eligible for a DPE trade:
- Solomon Hill (Atlanta)
- Daniel Theis (Boston)
- Semi Ojeleye (Boston)
- Jeff Teague (Boston)
- Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot (Brooklyn)
- Tyler Johnson (Brooklyn)
- Jeff Green (Brooklyn)
- Bismack Biyombo (Charlotte)
- Garrett Temple (Chicago)
- Denzel Valentine (Chicago)
- JaVale McGee (Cleveland)
- Matthew Dellavadova (Cleveland)
- Boban Marjanovic (Dallas)
- Wayne Ellington (Detroit)
- Marquese Chriss (Golden State)
- Kent Bazemore (Golden State)
- Ben McLemore (Houston)
- David Nwaba (Houston)
- DeMarcus Cousins (Houston)
- Sterling Brown (Houston)
- TJ McConnell (Indiana)
- JaKarr Sampson (Indiana)
- Patrick Patterson (LA Clippers)
- Mfiondu Kabengele (LA Clippers)
- Reggie Jackson (LA Clippers)
- Nicolas Batum (LA Clippers)
- Wesley Matthews (LA Lakers)
- Alex Caruso (LA Lakers)
- Quinn Cook (LA Lakers; implicit no-trade)
- Markieff Morris (LA Lakers)
- Jared Dudley (LA Lakers)
- Maurice Harkless (Miami)
- Udonis Haslem (Miami; implicit no-trade)
- Torrey Craig (Milwaukee)
- Ed Davis (Minnesota)
- Willy Hernangomez (New Orleans)
- Alec Burks (New York)
- Elfrid Payton (New York)
- Reggie Bullock (New York)
- Nerlens Noel (New York)
- Taj Gibson (New York)
- Mike Muscala (Oklahoma City)
- Mike Scott (Philadelphia)
- Furkan Korkmaz (Philadelphia)
- Cameron Payne (Phoenix)
- Abdel Nader (Phoenix)
- E'Twaun Moore (Phoenix)
- Langston Galloway (Phoenix)
- Frank Kaminsky (Phoenix)
- Enes Kanter (Portland)
- Carmelo Anthony (Portland; implicit no-trade)
- Harry Giles (Portland)
- Richaun Holmes (Sacramento)
- Glenn Robinson III (Sacramento)
- Hassan Whiteside (Sacramento)
- Trey Lyles (San Antonio)
- Patrick McCaw (Toronto)
- Stanley Johnson (Toronto)
- Alex Len (Toronto)
- Georges Niang (Utah)
- Shaq Harrison (Utah)
- Ish Smith (Washington)
- Jerome Robinson (Washington)
- Moritz Wagner (Washington)
- Raul Neto (Washington)
The "We haven't given up yet" route
Maybe Orlando still want to push for the playoffs. Maybe they think they're just one PG away from playing competitively again. If that's the case, there are a couple options that the team could aim for without breaking the bank. Ish Smith is the obvious choice here, as a veteran player worth $6 million fitting snugly into Fultz's DPE. Washington would certainly be willing to give him up with little resistance as well. Other guards and wings include Dellavadova, Elfrid Payton, E'Twaun Moore, Alec Burks, and TJ McConnell. I believe any of these guys could be had for the bare minimum.
The "Acquire assets with our cap" route
Probably not likely, given the team would have to send salary out somewhere as well in order to stay under the luxury tax, but there are a few players who could be absorbed if another team was willing to package a 2nd round pick with them. Guys like Mike Scott, Patrick Patterson, and Wesley Matthews would all help their respective teams with getting closer to below the tax line. Like I said, doing something like this would also require Orlando to send money out in a separate trade, but I'll talk more about utilizing other team's room and exceptions in the next section.
The "Shed future salary with simultaneous trades" route
This route is the most interesting and could benefit the Magic the most. As you probably know, any trades that occur between teams over the cap have to trade salaries within 125% of what they're sending out. However, this does not apply to teams who are below the cap! Teams such as Charlotte ($4-5 million), New York ($16-18 million), Oklahoma City ($14 million), and Sacramento ($1-3 million) have cap space to absorb players outright in trades. Moreover (if I understand simultaneous trades correctly), Orlando could theoretically make two trades with the same team at once, first utilizing their DPE to absorb a player, and then sending a player back to the team with their increased room after the first trade. I'll look at the options of each team individually, starting with the lowest:
- Sacramento - Perhaps they were willing to trade Richaun Holmes, which would use up Fultz's $6.1 million DPE. This transaction would give them up to $5-7 million in cap space for them to absorb an Orlando player outright. Valid players would include MCW, Bamba, Anthony, or Okeke. It could be a tough sell, since Holmes is playing fairly well in Sacramento, but if they believed in Bamba's ability, I could see them taking on his contract. This would free up ~$7.5 million towards the cap next summer, putting Orlando under $1 million for the salary cap - which could increase to $5 million if the team waived Bacon and Clark. It's not much, but it is an amount that the team could use in free agency before being restricted in who they could sign.
- Charlotte - If Charlotte traded Biyombo to the Magic, Orlando could use Isaac's $3.6 DPE to absorb him, which would give them ~$8-9 million in cap space. Assuming Sacramento took back MCW for some reason in the previous scenario, Charlotte could take on Bamba's contract in this scenario. These two simultaneous trades would give Orlando up to $8 million in cap room. Again, it's still not enough to be worth more than the MLE and thus would be minor, but it is space that could be spent elsewhere on the roster.
- Oklahoma City - Though enticing with all that cap space, the only available player they have to trade is Mike Muscala, who wouldn't change much in what the team could absorb on Orlando's roster. That said, seeing as they're in the business of taking on bad contracts for assets, I believe they would be interested in taking on Aminu's contract for a future 1st or a player like Anthony/Okeke, if Orlando wasn't convinced in either one's progress. Trading Muscala could also afford them to take on Fultz if they wanted to be patient with his rehab, and it probably wouldn't cost Orlando much more than Fultz himself. The team could also trade nothing for Ross + a 1st, or Muscala for Ross + Anthony/Okeke. The Fultz trade would give Orlando $10-14 million in space next summer, or a little less than the price they ended up giving Fultz, giving them a nice reset on a contract they wouldn't have to worry about anymore. It would be interesting to see if OKC would appeal to such a trade and if they had the patience to wait on his recovery.
- New York - Probably the most interesting option of all, though they will have plenty of options in utilizing all the cap space they'll have at the deadline. Trading Burks using Fultz's DPE would give them a crazy ~$22-24 million in cap space, meaning any player on the team besides Vucevic could be sent to absorb into their salary. Gordon could be traded outright for a protected 1st, which would still afford the Knicks enough space for a max contract next summer. They could trade for Fournier in case New York is still making a playoff push by March. If they're invested in Fultz or Isaac, the Knicks could make a trade for either as well for appropriate compensation. And finally, in the ultimate dump move, New York could accept a pick in order to absorb both Ross and Aminu into their salary cap. No matter which move happens, Orlando could be a lot better off in whichever way they want. If they went full salary dump, the Magic could have up to $24 million in cap space for the price of a lightly-protected 1st round pick. If they wanted to be more conservative, and New York really wanted Gordon for some reason, they could pick up both a pick and have $7-11 million in cap space next summer. It's hard to say who they could afford next summer with all that space, but the short term would mean they could be a lot more flexible in who they could bring in at the trade deadline if they weren't done making moves.