Magic guard Anthony Black is eligible for a rookie scale extension until October 19. He said at Monday’s media day that he’s not sure whether a deal will be reached ahead of that deadline but he isn’t stressing it either way.
President of basketball operations Jeff Weltman says the team hopes to extend Black, though he acknowledged the Magic are in a tricky spot financially, according to Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel.
“Always hopeful, but I don’t know what that means. We’re in a lot of tighter quarters than we’ve been in years past,” Weltman said. “I know that he’s got great representatives. We believe he’s a bright young player in this league who’s just going to get better and better, and we’ll have continuous conversation with his people up until the deadline. And we’re hopeful that we can arrive at something.
“But if not, we expect Anthony to have a great year. (Extensions) don’t always get done right now. Sometimes they get done later, so we’ll see. But I don’t want to kind of make any predictions or anything. I know that you know both sides have the best intentions.”
If Black doesn’t sign an extension in the next few weeks, he’ll be a restricted free agent in 2027, assuming he’s given a qualifying offer.
Here’s more on the Magic:
- Head coach Sean Sweeney provided injury updates on Black (minor ankle sprain) and second-year forward Noah Penda (tweaked hamstring) on Friday, Beede writes for The Orlando Sentinel. Sweeney said Black has “definitely made progress” and “feels good,” though he suggested he hasn’t been doing full contact work. “They’re both pretty close to being back and ready to go,” Sweeney said of the duo.
- Sweeney, a first-time NBA head coach who spent last season as the top assistant in San Antonio, said he’s been encouraged by what he’s seen of the Magic so far during training camp, per Beede. “I learned that we’ve got talented players,” Sweeney said. “I certainly had a feeling that we had that, but I learned that we’ve got that in-person. I really like the communication level that we’ve had and I learned that about our players. Just in general, I thought there would be more (of) trying to get them to do things and really pushing them, but they’ve been pushing themselves, which is a great sign. The way they communicate with each other is strong.”
- According to Beede, Sweeney recently singled out Tristan Da Silva as a player who has a high-level understanding of offensive spacing. The third-year forward was asked what goes into that. “For me personally, it’s really shooting the shots that I can get,” he said Friday. “You know, no really passing up any open shots. Actually hunting them. That’s a big thing because it allows to space the floor for others players to attack.”
- Second-year guard Jase Richardson said he worked to add muscle this summer after he got “picked on a little bit” as a rookie in 2025/26, tweets Beede. Richardson said he’s adapted a more physical approach to the game. “Just being the first guy to hit, first guy being aggressive every single time on the ball, especially being 94 feet (away from the basket),” Richardson said. “Just being an irritant, somebody who annoys you all game. So, just working on that every day.”