ORLANDO, Fla. — The Magic traded away the 16th pick in the 2025 NBA Draft as part of the trade that brought guard Desmond Bane to Orlando from Memphis on June 15, but they still have picks available to them and plenty to do in the offseason.

Unless they make another deal before the start of or during the draft on Wednesday night, the Magic hold the rights to the 25th pick, which is in the first round, and the 46th and 57th picks in the second round.

What You Need To Know

The NBA Draft will be Wednesday and Thursday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn

The Magic currently hold the 25th pick in the first round and the 46th and 57th picks in the second round

The draft will continue what already has been a busy offseason for Orlando and could bring in at least one new player to the roster

The franchise is limited financially in how it can build its roster because of a big jump in its projected payroll for next season 

The 16th pick was their own for this season. They acquired the rights to the 25th pick from the Nuggets as part of the trade that sent forward Aaron Gordon to Denver in March 2021.

That pick comes at the right time for the Magic because it allowed Orlando to include the 16th pick and their swap rights with the Phoenix Suns or Washington Wizards (the worst of the picks) next season in the deal for Bane. An NBA restriction called the Stepian Rule does not permit teams to trade their first-round picks in back-to-back seasons unless they have another first-round pick in one of those seasons.

On Wednesday night, the Magic could make a pick to add to their own roster, or they could make the selection and then include the rights to the player selected in another deal. That is permitted because they would be trading an actual player, or the rights to an actual player, and not consecutive future picks. They also could make a deal with the 25th pick and other assets to move up or down in the draft.

Either way, the selections they have will play a role as they continue to build their roster for the 2025-26 season.

And Orlando has some roster spots to fill. Before the draft, and assuming the team doesn’t make another trade before then, it will have 12 players on the roster for the 2025-26 season.

When the Magic included guards Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Cole Anthony in the deal for Bane, the size of their roster dipped by one. They also are expected to decline their options on the 2025-26 contracts of guards Cory Joseph and Gary Harris, which would make them unrestricted free agents. NBA rules require each team to have a minimum of 14 players and no more than 15 regular-roster players. They also can have up to three players on two-way contracts that allow them to split time between the NBA team and their G League team.

So, they must add at least two regular-roster players before the start of next season — through the draft, trades or free agency. A first-round pick would fill one of those spots.

They also have two other players with contract options that they must make a decision on by June 29 — guard Caleb Houstan and forward/center Moe Wagner — meaning they could have up to four open regular-roster spots.

The 25th pick in the first round would come at a relatively affordable price. The first-year salary for that selection under the NBA rookie scale is an estimated $2,983,320. Only two years must be guaranteed, but the contract could be extended to up to four years, with the last year valued at an estimated $5,910,882.

The Magic could decide to keep or trade both of their picks in the second-round, which will be held Thursday night. It would not be surprising if they trade them because they have dealt many of their second-round picks since Jeff Weltman was hired as president of basketball operations. Second-round picks have no assigned salary slots until players sign contracts. A minimum contract for a first-year NBA player is projected to be about $1.27 million next season, but contracts are negotiable for second-round selections.

Affordable contracts will be a consideration, though not the only one, for Orlando because the team currently has a projected salary for its current roster in the upcoming season of about $190.4 million, a big jump because the contract extensions of forward Franz Wagner and guard Jalen Suggs and the significant raises that go with them kick in this year. Wagner is projected to earn nearly $38.7 million next season, and Suggs will be paid an estimated $35 million.

Adding the 25th pick would bring up Orlando’s payroll to nearly $193.4 million. The projected salary cap for next season is $154.6 million, and the luxury tax threshold is expected to kick in at about $187.9 million. The projected first apron of the salary cap, which brings with it significant restrictions on future moves, kicks in at $195.946 million.

Weltman and his basketball operations team are notoriously mum about future personnel decisions, so it’s unclear who, or what position, they have plans to draft. Mock drafts are usually little help because they rarely forecast Orlando’s picks correctly, and the deeper in the draft teams go, it becomes more unpredictable who will be left to select.

However, between the trade for Bane and the decision to decline the contract options of Harris and Joseph, the Magic are down three guards on their roster. They still have four — Bane, Suggs, Anthony Black and Houstan, if they pick up his option. 

One piece of draft news that likely will interest basketball fans in Florida — not necessarily Magic fans — is former Gators standout Walter Clayton Jr., the Most Outstanding Player in the 2025 NCAA Tournament after leading the team to the championship, is one of 24 players who have received invitations to the green room in the Barclay’s Center at the NBA Draft in Brooklyn. Those spots are reserved for players who NBA officials expect to be drafted in the first round, based upon input from team officials. Those players get to bring with them their families and/or representatives.

NEWS: Florida guard Walter Clayton Jr. has received a green room invite to attend the NBA Draft with his family, a source told ESPN. pic.twitter.com/YScYFonEqA

— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) June 19, 2025

As fasr as the Magic go, they have tended to select the top player left on their draft board in previous seasons, but as the team switches to “win-now” mode, it’s possible that they look to fill team needs. In this year’s draft, projected picks vary more widely than usual after the No. 1 pick, who will be forward Cooper Flagg out of Duke, and the No. 2 pick, expected to be guard Dylan Harper out of Rutgers.

And of course, the Magic still might use trades or free-agent signings to complete their roster instead of the draft.