Magic President Jeff Weltman Reveals Draft Goals

Orlando Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman spoke to the media ahead of Thursday's NBA Draft.

Orlando Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman laid out the team's framework ahead of Thursday's NBA Draft. 

While he didn't specifically state who the team was targeting - outside of a few pre-draft visits - he did mention what the team is looking for in a first-year player. 

"We want to move the team forward ... we want to play better basketball ... we want to make better decisions," Weltman said. "We want to have our awareness and our maturity level, really start to elevate itself and become more of a veteran team. That said, not at the expense of doing what we're 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."

Orlando has been successful over its past two drafts, taking reigning Rookie of the Year Paolo Banchero with the No. 1 pick last year and a pair of top-10 picks in Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs in 2021. 

With the trio as proven building blocks for the future, the Magic have an opportunity to continuing add young talent with another pair of lottery selections (No. 6 and No. 11) and an early second-round pick (No. 36). 

With numerous different options swirling at what direction it will head in the first-round, such as Ausar Thompson and Gradey Dick, or even packaging the picks for a better return, Orlando certainly has a unique hand heading in Thursday. 

But if recent history has suggested anything, it's that the Magic front office does its pre-draft homework. 

The NBA Draft is held on Thursday, June 22 at 8 p.m. from Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

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