Orlando Magic: Mike Conley The Perfect Free Agent Target

The Orlando Magic moved Channing Frye and Tobias Harris, two of the team’s bigger contracts for cap space this upcoming summer. Can the Magic lure Mike Conley to Orlando to help solve their point guard woes?

Last offseason, the Orlando Magic came an inch away from acquiring a top-15 player in the league. That’s when they made a pretty fair offer to current Hawks forward Paul Millsap to join an upstart Magic team that just made a head coaching change. Millsap declined, opting to stay in Atlanta for $59 million over three years.

The Magic re-signed Tobias Harris to a four-year deal worth $64 million as their big move last offseason.

One year later, not much changed for Orlando. The Magic finished 35-47, missing the playoffs for the fourth straight season. Harris’ contract has since been moved off the books, turned into the expiring contracts of Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova.

The Magic remain loaded with tantalizing young talent, but with head coach Scott Skiles in place and four consecutive losing seasons, the move might turn from adding younger talent to veterans.

Related Story: 25 Best Players to Play for the Orlando Magic

If that is indeed the case, then one ideal fit for Orlando is pending free agent point guard Mike Conley.

More from Orlando Magic

• The most exciting NBA team you won’t see on national TV this season
• 5 NBA teams on the rise that will surprise everyone in 2023-24
• Ranking the 10 championship-less NBA teams by closeness to title
• Orlando Magic draft odds: What are the chances of landing the #1 pick?
• Franz Wagner has smashed the sophomore slump for the Orlando Magic

The Magic opened up cap space at the trade deadline by moving Harris and Channing Frye at the trade deadline without taking back much of anything long-term. With nearly $50 million in cap space to spend this offseason, the Magic could dream big, meaning Conley and “Superstar free agent X” could come to Orlando in a package to join their young players.

But let’s talk specifically about Conley. The nine-year veteran is one of the most underrated players in the league, capable of affecting the game on both sides of the floor. Conley isn’t the most fluid offensive player, but he combines good playmaking with strong three-point shooting.

Conley has knocked down more than 36 percent of his threes every year since his rookie season in 2007-08 and an assist percentage of at least 28 percent in every year since the 2010-11 season.

Defensively, Conley would form a dynamic 1-2 punch on the perimeter with Victor Oladipo. Conley is a good perimeter defender who can play the passing lanes. While Zach Randolph and Tony Allen represent the face of Memphis’ “Grit and Grind” ethos, the emergence of Marc Gasol and Conley on the defensive end created a core that reeled off six straight winning seasons.

So why would Conley leave Memphis, which has a boatload of cap space and Gasol in tow?

The Magic have the aforementioned Oladipo, who finished with per-36 averages of 17.4 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game last season. His biggest question, his three-point shooting, continued to climb, as he knocked down 34 percent of his 282 threes last season.

Evan Fournier, a restricted free agent, seems like a nice sixth man option and Aaron Gordon became one of the must-watch players in the second half of the season, dropping jaw-dropping dunks while sliding anywhere from small forward to center for the Magic last season.

Orlando’s roster is ascending in a so-so Eastern Conference. Oladipo and Fournier are 23 years old, Gordon is an embryo at 20 years old. Add in 2015 first-round pick Mario Hezonja (20), Nikola Vucevic (25) and current point guard Elfrid Payton (21) and you can see what makes the Magic enticing for a pending free agent like Conley.

A hypothetical four-year deal would take Conley up to his age 32 season, attaching his declining seasons to the prime or close-to-prime seasons of Oladipo, Gordon, Fournier and Hezonja.

And did I mention Conley would be moving from the Western Conference to the East? Despite what seemed like a disastrous battle for the eighth and final seed in the West, the Eastern Conference just finished its first year since the 2006-07 season where all eight teams in the playoffs finished with a record of .500 or better.

More from Hoops Habit

• 7 Players the Miami Heat might replace Herro with by the trade deadline
• Meet Cooper Flagg: The best American prospect since LeBron James
• Are the Miami Heat laying the groundwork for their next super team?
• Sophomore Jump: 5 second-year NBA players bound to breakout
• NBA Trades: The Lakers bolster their frontcourt in this deal with the Pacers

Conley’s arrival would provide stability at point guard and other than rim protection, that’s Orlando’s biggest need.

As I mentioned before, the Magic created cap space to sign two big-name free agents, so the assurance of bringing Conley to Orlando could entice another big name free agent to join him. Current Hawks center Al Horford would be the best player to add to the mix. Horford can play both frontcourt positions, step out and defend on the perimeter and space the floor.

He’s also an unheralded passer, capable of initiating offense from time to time. In other words, he’s an excellent free agent.

Mike Conley is going to give Memphis every chance to make upgrades and that’s only right. The Grizzlies will have Gasol and oodles of cap space to redesign their roster with players who provide more of a threat spacing the floor.

However, if Conley finds himself looking elsewhere, the Orlando Magic own a young nucleus of players who need a leader at the point guard position and they possess the cap space to help lure another big name to join him.

More hoops habit: The NBA's 50 Greatest Players of All-Time

Seems like a nice fit and we already know Orlando is looking to move from a team full of youth to a team with some veterans and a chance to make the playoffs. Just look back at last offseason.