Magic guarantee contracts of Fultz, Harris for 2023-24
The Orlando Magic have guaranteed the contracts of guards Gary Harris and Markelle Fultz for the 2023-24 season, the Sentinel learned via league sources on Friday.
Fultz is set to earn $17 million in guaranteed salary while Harris will earn $13 million. The Magic could’ve bypassed picking up their options, which would’ve opened their roster spots and made both unrestricted free agents.
While Orlando guaranteed the contracts of Harris and Fultz, the franchise is waiting to make a decision on big man Bol Bol.
The guarantee date for Bol’s $2.2 million salary has been moved to a future date, league sources said. The future date was not disclosed.
This all comes one day after the Magic exercised its team option on center Goga Bitadze for the 2023-24 season while declining options on Admiral Schofield and Michael Carter-Williams.
Fultz provided Orlando stability while he was on the court throughout what was a much-improved season for him and the Magic.
His averages of 14 points, 5.7 assists, 3.9 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 29.6 minutes were all career highs.
The 6-4 guard played in 60 games, marking just the second time he’s played in that many during his injury-plagued six-year career. The Magic could’ve bought out Fultz’s deal for $2 million.
Although Harris only played in 48 games — missing the season’s first 15 games while recovering from an arthroscopic surgery on his left knee after tearing cartilage during the offseason and another 11 games midseason with a strained right hamstring — he made an impact on and off the court.
He averaged 8.3 points, 2 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 24 minutes while shooting a team-high 43% from three-point range. He ranked sixth in the NBA in 3-point field goal percentage.
At 28 years old and nearly 10 years into his NBA career, he was one of the Magic’s more veteran players.
The Magic initially traded for Bol in February 2022 and re-signed him last offseason on a 2-year, $4.4 million deal that included a non-guaranteed salary for next year.
Following a bumpy start to his pro career with the Denver Nuggets, Bol was able to showcase why he was considered a 5-star prospect in the 2018 high school recruiting cycle.
The 7-foot-2 big man with a 7-foot-8 wingspan recorded career-high averages of 9.1 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.2 blocks and 1 assist in 70 games (21.5 minutes).
His 1,505 minutes played in a Magic uniform more than tripled his career total minutes (328) that he played in his first three years in the NBA.
Bol’s season, however, was up and down. At one point he made 32 consecutive starts but came off the bench during a stretch of games from mid-January through mid-March. Then, he was out of the rotation completely for seven games before closing the season back on the court.
Despite how the second half of the season played out, Magic coach Jamahl Mosley saw improvement from him.
“Bol’s showed a great amount of growth in his level of understanding the game,” he said. “We’ve said it before: He’s got a very high basketball IQ, he understands positions where he’s supposed to be.”
Email Jason Beede at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com or follow him on Twitter at @therealBeede.
Source: Orlando Sentinel
