ORLANDO, Fla. — The Orlando Magic want to move forward, but they don’t plan to give up their ability to develop their team organically, or maintain as much flexibility as possible to do so, Magic President of Basketball Operations Jeff Weltman said Monday.

In his last news conference before Thursday’s NBA Draft, Weltman said that is another way of saying the team does not want to “skip steps.” So, fans probably shouldn’t expect any shocking surprises during the draft.

As you would expect from a team that keeps its intentions close to the vest, Weltman did not reveal any secrets, but he did give indications about the factors they consider for bringing in new talent. They remain mostly the same as in previous years, but since they have more key pieces to the team, there are even more to consider.

“We want to play better basketball. We want to make better decisions. We want to have our awareness and our maturity level up,” Weltman said. “But we don’t want to do it at the expense of doing what we’re doing, which is growing the team organically with young, talented, high character players and trying to maintain as much flexibility through the process as possible.”

He said the flexibility the Magic has — two picks among the top 11 and three among the top 36 in the draft with salary-cap space available — is “hard-earned.”

“It’s not fun to go through tough seasons, but we did it with an objective in mind. And we do have some ability to…look at different avenues to explore. Not every team has that, and we still want to be disciplined with our flexibility.”

He said the Magic have a lot of good options with two picks early. Considering the number of roster spots already filled, it would not be surprising if they traded that No. 36 pick.

“It’s a pretty good draft," Weltman said. "We can go a number of ways, sticking to the draft or moving around a little bit.”

He said the team is still trying to assess what those options look like, which means they have not decided, or do not want to share at this time, how they plan to proceed Thursday night.

“Every day you’re gaining so much new information,” Weltman said. “You’re processing it. And your competitors are as well (with visits from prospective draft picks). So, the ground beneath your feet is constantly shifting.”

The team’s flexibility has led them to discuss the possibility of moving up or down in the draft, but it’s just one of the considerations, Weltman said.

“It’s all about the players….how they would fit here,” he emphasized.

“Then you blow up the room to the rest of the league,” Weltman said. “What’s the price for that? What’s the value of that for us?”

Weltman did give some insights into what factors they consider. He said that starts with the person — “character, development path, timetables for the players, how they fit into different sectors of our organization.”

A key consideration, Weltman said, is to give each player they add to the team “a pathway to success and to growing into their player potential here. And so that is part of our discussion as we go through the process….”

“What you also hope to get to is a place where rookies aren’t just handed minutes….Hopefully, where our team is growing to the place that it will be more difficult for rookies to earn minutes.”

Even though the draft is just days away, Weltman said a lot of work remains. The process is collaborative between basketball operations, coach Jamahl Mosley and all of the basketball scouts and development staff.

“We all try to get our work done early so we can kind of predict the unpredictable and organize chaos,” he said.

Weltman said he is happy with the players they have been able to meet with during their draft preparations.

“One of the things I do feel confident about is we are becoming a destination.” Weltman said. “I think a lot of players want to be here, and a lot of agents like what we are doing.

“The beauty of the NBA is the locker rooms are open. Every player in that locker room has an agent. And those agents have players in other locker rooms. So, they compare, and they know. So, if you feel like you are doing it right, that’s good for you. That being said, agents have difficult decisions to make on where their guys are going to go and what positions teams are already saturated with. And they have their own decisions to make. But having said that, we’ve had a pretty good group in, and we’ve gotten to see who we want to.”

Within about a week after the draft, free agency begins. Weltman said team executives have had plenty of dialogue about free agency, but the focus is on the draft right now.

The biggest part of free agency is what the roster looks like after the draft, Weltman said.

“That will inform free agency a little bit, but you have to be prepared to go in any direction," Weltman said. "And that’s what we try to do.”