ORLANDO, Fla. — Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is going to bring his championship experience to the Orlando Magic, a person with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press.

The shooting guard, who has won championships with the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets, was finalizing a three-year, $66 million deal with the Magic after free agency began on Sunday night, a person with knowledge of the decision said. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press because the deal cannot be signed until the league’s offseason moratorium is lifted on July 6.

It’s a big get for the rising Magic, who won 47 games — their most in 13 years — and got back to the playoffs this past season. Caldwell-Pope, 30, was part of title-winning teams with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020 and the Denver Nuggets in 2023. He averaged 10.1 points for the Nuggets this past season while shooting nearly 41% from 3-point range. He also is considered a strong defender, checking the boxes on two key attributes Orlando was seeking in free-agent signings.

According to AP, Los Angeles Clippers guard Paul George has agreed to a four-year, $212 million free-agent contract with the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Dallas Mavericks, Golden State Warriors and Charlotte Hornets have agreed to the framework of a deal to allow Klay Thompson to join the Mavs.

The Magic's deal with Caldwell-Pope likely took them out of the running for George anyway. He ended up agreeing to a four-year deal valued at about $53 million per season.

The Magic entered free agency with up to about $50 million this summer to sign free agents.

On Saturday, multiple media reports indicated the Magic had declined their second-year contract options on forward Joe Ingles and center/power forward Moe Wagner, who is the brother of Orlando forward Franz Wagner. In 2023, Moe Wagner had signed a two-year, $16 million contract and Ingles was inked to a two-year, $22 million contract. The Magic had a team option on the second year of those deals.

That decision made both players unrestricted free agents, which means any team can sign them in free agency.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that the players won’t play for the Magic next season. Multiple media reports, including those by Wojnarowski and Beede on Saturday evening, said the team and the players showed interest in talking with each other about new deals after free agency began Sunday. However, they also could be lured away by big offers from other teams.

Moe Wagner has been with the team since he signed as a free agent in the 2020-21 season after being on three other teams over three seasons. He had a career year last season, averaging 10.9 points, 4.3 rebounds and shooting 33.3% from 3-point range in 17.7 minutes per game. The intensity he showed on and off the court also helped swing the momentum in many games.

Ingles came in as a veteran free agent at the start of last season who was good at setting up his teammates and shooting the ball. He finished the season with the team's best 3-point shooting percentage at 43.5% but perhaps most importantly was a good leader for a young team.

So, why would the Magic decline their contract options? The moves opened up additional salary-cap space that Orlando could use to sign free agents who played for other NBA teams last season. The total value of their contracts for the upcoming season would have been about $19 million.

Orlando also did not announce that it had extended a qualifying offer for forward Chuma Okeke, so he is an unrestricted free agent. Okeke was paid nearly $5.3 million last season.

The team has six players from last season’s roster who are now free agents — Moe Wagner, Ingles, Okeke, guards Markelle Fultz and Gary Harris and center Goga Bitadze. The Magic have to shell out some money in free agency to fill their open roster spots. The final year of forward/guard Caleb Houstan's contract was guaranteed when the team did not cut him Sunday, the deal's guarantee deadline.

Not only that, but Orlando has to spend 90% of the salary cap on player salaries, which this year is $126.529 million. If it does not, the difference between the team’s payroll and the salary floor will be distributed evenly among the players who are on the roster for at least 41 games during the season. Last year's payroll was about $131 million, including Fultz's $17 million salary. The Magic could get to 90% with free-agent signings or by taking on players with higher salaries in trades, but trades would require them to give up some of their existing players or future draft picks.

The NBA announced on Sunday that the salary cap for the 2024-25 season is $140.588 million. Teams have to pay the luxury tax when their payroll exceeds $170.814 million.

The only other All-Star-level players still available in free agency are the Chicago Bulls’ DeMar DeRozan ($28.6 million) and forward LeBron James ($47.6 million) of the Los Angeles Lakers. On Sunday, James Harden (nearly $35.7 million) reportedly agreed to a new deal with the Clippers.

George, 34, and Thompson, 34, could have negotiated new deals with their current teams before the start of free agency but were not been able to agree on terms for new contracts. According to media reports, they were seeking longer-term contracts or more money than the Clippers and Warriors offered. George's reported deal is worth about $53 million per year. James, whose son Bronny was drafted by the Lakers on Thursday, is expected to sign a new deal with the Lakers. DeRozan has said he would favor staying with the Chicago Bulls.

Multiple teams besides Orlando, such as the Philadelphia 76ers and Detroit Pistons, had enough salary-cap space entering free agency on Sunday night to at least enter into negotiations with the free agents who will sign the biggest contracts.

That complicates the deals because players and their agents usually want to boost the total value of their new contracts as high as they can. In negotiations, they can pit one team against another to drive up the price. The teams also have to try to discern exactly what their rivals are willing to offer and what the players are thinking amid the often vastly different news stories floated to media outlets about the status of the talks.

Not only that, but free agents weigh many factors besides salaries when deciding where they want to play next, such as how close the team is to winning a championship, style of play, the coaching staff, the players currently on the teams they are considering and lifestyle.

Thompson had played his entire 13-year career and won four NBA championships with the Warriors. He, forward Draymond Green and Thompson’s “Splash Brother,” Steph Curry, were key to all those championships.

The Magic have to consider multiple factors when they consider bringing in new players as well.

They cannot afford to get bogged down in negotiations for long without knowing their targets' intent, or they will miss out on the chance to sign other free agents if their initial target chooses another team. Players tend to come off the board quickly in most NBA seasons.

Although the Magic have plenty of salary-cap space now, their payroll will soar after the next two seasons because forwards Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero and guard Jalen Suggs will be due contract extensions. Orlando actually can begin negotiating extensions with Franz Wagner and Suggs this summer. They have to project forward to upcoming seasons how their payroll will be positioned under new salary-cap rules to remain flexible enough for them to make moves to improve. That could affect how many years they are willing to offer in free-agent contracts.

The Magic have to add veteran free agents who they think can contribute significantly to being more successful in the playoffs and vying for a championship by next summer because they likely won’t have enough salary-cap space after that. But if they go too far over the salary cap, a variety of rules could kick in that would limit the moves the team can make.

The "First Apron" of the salary cap kicks in when a team's payroll gets to $178.132 million, which starts to affect the salary cap exceptions available to sign players and the ability to add players in sign-and-trade deals. The "Second Apron" rules start making it very difficult to make roster changes when a team's payroll gets to $188.931 million. At that point, no salary cap exceptions are available, it's very difficult to make trades, and a team mostly is limited to re-signing its own players and draft picks and signing players to minimum contracts. 

The Magic also are looking to build a roster of players who mostly share a common career timeline. The front office seeks people who will fit in to the close-knit roster it built that helped the team increase its wins by double digits each of the past two seasons. President of Basketball Operations Jeff Weltman calls that the team’s “North Star.”

“If we have the opportunity to add veteran players who are like-minded to what we’re trying to do, who understand the overall scheme of where we’re trying to take the team, and add to our talent base — add to our experience level but can blend in — then yeah, we’ll pursue that,” Weltman said.