ORLANDO, Fla. – The Orlando Magic come into the 2023 NBA Draft on Thursday night armed with the sixth and eleventh overall picks.
“We have two lottery picks, and it’s a pretty good draft,” Jeff Weltman, the Magic president of basketball operations, said to the media on Monday. “We’re looking at a lot of good options. We can go a number of ways, both sticking to the draft or moving around a little bit. There are several options in front of us.”
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The No. 6 and No. 11 picks came from the NBA Draft Lottery back in May. The Magic secured the No. 11 pick as an exchange from the Chicago Bulls in the Nikola Vučević trade back in 2021. They also have pick No. 36 in the second round.
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“There’s a lot to process for us,” Weltman added. “We all try to get our work done early so that we can kind of predict the unpredictable and organized chaos. The flexibility we now have to go through this process has been hard-earned. It’s not fun to go through tough seasons, but we did it with an objective in mind.”
Last year, the Magic selected Paolo Banchero with the No. 1 overall draft pick. He went on to win the NBA Rookie of the Year, averaging 20 points per game. The Magic will look to build upon steady success from last year, improving to 34 wins and contending for a play-in spot for the playoffs, as well as build a team around their young stars.
“We want to play better basketball,” Weltman said. “We want to make better decisions. We want to have our awareness and maturity level really start to elevate itself and become more of a veteran team. That said, not at the expense of doing what we are doing, which is growing a team organically with young, talented, high character players and trying to maintain as much flexibility through the process as possible.”
Fans can watch the NBA Draft for free at the Amway Center on Thursday. They will need to download a ticket on the Magic site with doors opening at 6:30 p.m. The Draft begins Thursday at 8 p.m.
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