No Way They Actually Let This Happen...

No way they actually do this. The Orlando Magic could be making a huge gamble with Anthony Black, and it's one that could cost them millions. With the contract extension deadline just days away, the latest reports suggest the deal might not get done, and that could have some serious consequences. Meanwhile, Paolo Banchero's preseason struggles are raising some uncomfortable questions of their own. Is there a reason to be concerned? We'll break all this down and more on today's episode of Magic Digest. What's good with it? It's your big uncle, Eric, back again with Magic Digest. I appreciate you jumping in, always showing your love. We're going to get right into today's comment of today. And this is dropped by my actual kinfolk, a.k.a. T. Millitron. I salute you and thank you for always leaving a comment. He said, let's see Paolo get some buckets and not just get back in the old habit of trying to draw a cheap foul. This was on my video where I brought up a brief mentioning of Paolo's early preseason struggles. We'll get into it a little bit more today, but we're not going to harp on it because it's the preseason. And when we think about the regular season, I am still very high on this team doing very well in the regular season. In fact, when I look at that market and I see that 45, I'm like, I just don't know. I feel like that's kind of low. But the good thing that market is brought to you by our good friends over on Kalshi. On Kalshi, you're trading directly against other users, not the house like traditional sports books. You're buying yes or no contracts on the outcome of events across sports, politics, and even the weather. For example, if you want to be like me and you feel like the magic could be better than 45 wins and might even crack 50, you put your 25 down you can get a max payout of 107.72 that's thanks to our good friends over at Kalshi if you're interested in trying it out use the link in the description and pin comment and code digest nba to get 55 added to your account instantly when you trade your first 25 big thanks to our good friends over on Kalshi and again we're not going to spend too much time harping on Paolo, but I did want to bring up some of the struggles that it seems like he's dealing with in the off season or the preseason so far. And when we look at his early struggles across two games, first against Memphis, the second game against Cleveland, he is shooting three of 17 from the field. That's total. That's 17.6% total. It's not a good look, man. If he's going to show that he is taking another leap. He's got to get that up. He's got to be able to connect and get into a normal range again this preseason. So we're pumping the brakes, but I just want to put this in your head as something to watch. Now from three-pointer, he's one of five again. I don't believe that's going to ever be his specialty, but I would love to see if he could get to a respectable, you know, 35%. I would love that. That would just be perfect to add on to his his threat as a premium player and from the free throw line the good thing is he's still getting to the free throw line with a lot of intensity he's 14 of 20 from the field so you guys let me know is there reason to be concerned about Paolo early on or is this just a preseason it doesn't mean anything the magic have shown this new offense it does seem to be like the ball is moving a lot more so maybe that has to do deal with just the fact that he's trying to find his way in this new offense so i'm not again i'm not going to harp on it but it is something that i did want to watch out as we prepare for this game tonight against the Cleveland Cavaliers um there is no update about the lineup that will play but i'm hoping that the magic go out and treat this game almost like a regular season game uh because the starters have only played like the first half in both games i want to see them go out and put a full dress rehearsal on display so that we can see what this team is looking like going into the regular season and with that we do have some breaking uh injury updates these happen literally minutes before i recorded this podcast thanks to Jason Beattie of the Orlando Sentinel. This first one is about Jalen Suggs. He said that Magic Coach Sean Sweeney said Jalen Suggs is no longer under the weather and he's doing well. Now, Sweeney didn't say either way when he was asked about Suggs playing in tonight's game. Sweeney also said whenever he's ready to play, it'll be great to get him out there. Secondly, we look at Anthony Black. Now, he said Magic Guard Anthony Black, who's dealing with the right ankle sprain, is quote progressing well unquote and the team will continue to be smart about how they handle his rehab this comes from Jason Beatty over on the Orlando Sentinel and that leads me to think about the main topic of today Mark Stein reports that a Black extension is unlikely now the Stein line did come out and report this and they said they have been advised by sources briefed on the situation to classify an extension for Magic swingman Anthony Black as unlikely at this current juncture and that's something that we've talked about we brought it up last season that this is going to be a emphasis of struggle between the team and Anthony Black because both sides want to do what's best not only for themselves but for the team going forward and the Magic are in a really sticky place when it comes to their finances like right now in the 26 27 season that even next year when an extension would kick in the Magic are only 3.8 million dollars under the second apron and if you don't know anything about the apron and the first and second just know that the second apron is like being treated as a de facto salary cap even though we have a salary cap you're allowed to go over it luxury tax first apron second apron but when you get into that second apron it really puts some serious constricts on building your team going forward and so teams are doing everything they can to stay out of that we've seen other teams that are you know letting players go the Knicks let you know uh their center go who was a big part of them winning a championship and they're like hey we can't do this second apron i appreciate you, you got a championship, holler back. It's just how it's going and it's going to affect team building going forward. When we look at the contract extension status right now, the deadline extension is October 19th. It's been reported that there's no meaningful negotiations reported and that will have him possibly going into restricted free agency. Restricted free agency in 2027 now Anthony Black when asked about this he said if it happens it happens again that's a player you know he's young he's that i can understand that uh idea but we do want to see what happens with this team with this contract situation even Jeff Weltman came out to say guys you know we're in a lot tighter quarters than we have been in years past and that's just due to the fact that you've given big contracts to four guys. You gave Suggs, Franz, and Paolo big contracts. Then you brought in Desmond Bane, who was on a max type contract. So you don't have a lot of money left over to pay remaining players. So this season, we've talked about it, is pretty much going to be, in a lot of people's eyes, an AB versus Suggs system where Anthony Black is either playing for a larger contract to see if he'll be the one the Magic go with and possibly move on from Suggs, maybe ship him out of here to recoup some assets or get just under the tax and be able to move forward smartly or will they end up moving on from Anthony Black if they decide Jalen Suggs is that much a part of the core now for Anthony Black honestly for him it said it let's just say for him the best idea is to bet on himself because if he signs the extension now he's locked into whatever. But if he bets on himself, he can up his leverage considerably. Now we look at how he's grown so far in three seasons. He went from four point, about five points a game as a rookie to under 10 points to almost 15 points a game last year. And he does have some defensive versatility, playmaking, optionality. He does need to improve. He is kind of slight, but he is a six, seven athletic guard wing who can do it all on the floor and if he had continued growth this season it could really make this whole contract situation even more stickier in fact the Magic believe in him Jeff Weltman said we believe he is a bright young player in this league who is just going to get better and better and he says it could be some conflicting reports with him saying that will have continuous conversations with his people up into the trade deadline. So I would love to know, are they going to actually get a deal done? We'll see. Now, again, like I said, they have that money committed to four guys. You know, you're sitting here with that money going to, uh, Suggs, Bain, uh, Franz and Paolo, unless you're ready to move on from someone in that core, unless you're ready to do that Anthony Black may be the odd man out what could be the cost of waiting again it's just he could get that leverage if he comes in and has a crazy year it's really going to make it tough on somebody who is in that core because if you're not going to pay a young athletic 6-7 guard I'm sure there are plenty of teams that will in fact It's been already rumored that teams that will have roster space and salary cap space like the Clippers, like Sacramento, could come in hot with a big contract and really make restricted free agency tough if he has to go out and get an offer sheet. But I ask you, I'm going to get up out of here, man. If you've been watching, I appreciate it. And I definitely want you to go down in the comments and let me know what you think. should Orlando extend Anthony Black now today if you believe so press A if you don't say hey let him prove it man let him go out there and earn it if he goes out there and earn it then cool but if not we ain't giving him nothing drop the B let me know what you think down below in the comments it is your big unk Eric i'm gonna get up out of here excited to watch another magic basketball game we're gonna check in afterwards holla at your boy Thank you.