2017 NBA free agency grades: Orlando Magic adding Shelvin Mack
The Orlando Magic’s first deal of free agency will bring Shelvin Mack to town. What does that mean for a team that already has three point guards?
The Orlando Magic have agree to sign their first free agent of the 2017 offseason. ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on July 7 that the team was finalizing a two-year, $12 million deal with backup point guard Shelvin Mack.
This is the first free agent deal made under new general manager John Hammond. The signing may seem bizarre at the moment, considering the Magic now have four point guards on their roster. However, there might be some method to the madness.
C.J. Watson is owed $5 million in 2017-18 if he is on the roster past July 10. The combination of his price tag, his age (33 years old), and his underwhelming production in 2016-17 (9.3 Player Efficiency Rating, 0.9 win shares ) indicates he will likely be waived in the coming days.
Mack comes to Orlando after spending a season-and-a-half with the Utah Jazz. He arrived in Salt Lake via a three-team trade in February 2016. He finished out 2015-16 as the starting point guard. However, he was pushed to a backup role when the team acquired George Hill the following summer.
Mack played 55 games in 2016-17, starting nine of them. He averaged 7.8 points, 2.8 assists and 2.3 rebounds per game in those appearances.
Mack is a solid get for Orlando. He serves as an improvement in size and age compared to incumbent backup points D.J. Augustin and C.J. Watson, despite sporting similar statistics. He stands 6’3″ and weighs 203 pounds. By contrast, Augustin is 6’0″ and 183 pounds, while Watson comes in at 6’2″, 175 pounds. Mack is also younger at 27 years old. Augustin will turn 30 in November while Watson – as mentioned earlier – is 33.
However, despite his solid numbers, Mack does come with a downside. His lack of three-point shooting does nothing to help a team that already struggles in that area. Mack shot 30.8 percent from three in 2016-17, and is now at 32.1 percent for his career. Meanwhile, the Magic went 32.8 percent from beyond the arc in 2016-17. That was good enough for second-to-last in the league in that category.
The Magic needed more point guard depth, and signing Shelvin Mack was a positive step toward fixing that. Assuming Watson is waived, the team will have two solid backup options in Mack and Augustin to play behind developing starter Elfrid Payton.
Next: 2017 NBA free agency tracker - Grades for every deal so far
The Magic currently have $4.5 million in cap space. That number balloons to $9.5 million if Watson is waived in time. It’s hard to gauge the exact direction Orlando is heading at the moment, but this was still a decent move. This likely won’t be Orlando’s last signing, so we’ll see what else John Hammond and the Magic have in their plans.
Grade: B