Orlando Magic: D.J. Augustin or Shelvin Mack their future backup PG?
By Luke Duffy
4. Contract
Luckily for the Magic, both players are on team-friendly deals that are easily moved when the time comes to do so. That’s especially true considering both guys could do a great job for a playoff team coming off the bench as they get ready for a postseason push.
If we can’t differentiate between them that way, we then need to look at how much both players are making, and for how much longer.
Mack is making $6 million this season, and another $6 million next year. He will then be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2019. For Augustin, he is making $7.3 million every season until the summer of 2020, when he becomes an unrestricted free agent.
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With no serious amount of money separating either player, it is still difficult to decide who is the player to keep around this team.
In the end, it comes down to the fact the Magic can have Augustin for the first two years of whatever-young-player-they-draft’s career. Mack, on the other hand, could build up a solid relationship with that rookie, before then leaving in the summer time.
Even though Mack coming off the books next summer makes the team more flexible because it can then go after other players, the Magic need to have continuity in some areas of the roster.
Augustin wins this one, but there are certainly pros to moving him and having Mack for a season before getting another player entirely to back up their future point guard.
Verdict: Augustin