The Orlando Magic are officially done with Jonathan Isaac.
Orlando waived the 28-year-old forward on Saturday, just one day before his $14.5 million salary for next season would have been fully guaranteed, per multiple reports. The team only owed $8 million of that figure, so cutting him now saves the franchise $6.5 million against the cap.
The Magic are not using a stretch provision on the $8 million they owe Isaac. That detail matters because it leaves the door open for Orlando to re-sign him on a smaller deal if both sides want to keep the relationship going. Strange business, but not unheard of.
Isaac was the sixth overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. For a stretch in his second season, he looked like the next great two-way forward. He was blocking shots at an elite rate, switching across positions, and showing flashes of offensive skill that Orlando had not seen since Tracy McGrady left town.
Then his knee gave out in 2020. That injury changed everything. Isaac missed nearly two full seasons rehabbing, came back to a smaller role, and never fully looked like the player Orlando drafted. Injuries kept piling up. The Magic kept paying him.
The original Isaac contract was structured around the assumption that he could not stay healthy. It was a two-year guaranteed base with team options and partial guarantees on the back end. Orlando bet that if Isaac played well, those options would be a bargain. If he could not stay on the court, they would not be stuck with bad money.
That structure paid off. The Magic owed only a fraction of the back end. Isaac never quite earned the team options, and Orlando is now off the hook for next season at a relatively low cost.
Isaac becomes an unrestricted free agent. He will probably draw interest from contenders looking for a rotation big with switchability. At 6-foot-10 with his defensive instincts, he can still be a useful piece in the right scheme. He just cannot be a starting forward for a winning team. Not anymore.
The teams worth watching here are Houston, Philadelphia, and Phoenix. All three have a need for length on the wing and the kind of room to take a low-risk flier on a former lottery pick. Isaac would not get the kind of deal you give a starter, but a one-year prove-it contract for around $4 to $6 million feels reasonable.
Orlando’s roster math now gets cleaner. The $6.5 million in savings can be used to round out the bench or to keep some flexibility for an in-season trade. The Magic finished above .500 last year and have one of the more interesting young rosters in the league. That extra room helps.
It also tells you where the franchise is on the Isaac timeline. They are done waiting for the breakout that has been promised since 2019. The patience ran out. That is sometimes the only honest way to move on, even from a player most fans were rooting for.
Isaac will find a new team within the next two weeks. Orlando will find a different forward to plug into that roster spot. Both sides walk away with something. That counts as a win in NBA roster management.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
