ORLANDO, Fla. — With the NBA Draft and free agency coming up in the next week, the Orlando Magic are forced to focus on both simultaneously as they look for ways to improve their team and try to get back to the playoffs, President of Basketball Operations Jeff Weltman said Monday.

As expected, he didn't give any hints about what moves the team is hoping to make.

“We just do our work and hope that good things follow,” Weltman said.

The draft comes first, starting at 8 p.m. Wednesday. The Magic currently have the No. 18 and No. 47 picks. What happens there could play a role in the steps they take in free agency, but both methods of team building are important to the team’s success, Weltman said.

“(The number) 18 (pick) is different than where we’ve picked recently,” he said. “You have to recalibrate your expectations to that (compared to picking in the lottery).”

Since 2021, the Magic have picked high in the draft, looking to bring in top talent on which to build the team’s foundation. They added free agents that could help them win games but also serve as mentors for their young players.

“I don’t know what’s more important. It’s always important to get your draft picks right if you can,” Weltman said. “It’s a chance to add a good young player who will continue on the legacy of what you’re trying to build—  on the court, off the court, in the locker room.

“The beauty of the draft is you get to bring somebody in who becomes what the Orlando Magic are about from Day 1. So, hopefully if that person and that player can grow into that and become a meaningful player for your team, it’s worth their weight in gold.”

At that spot, Weltman said the Magic will pick the best player.

"If it lines up that the player that addresses your needs is also the player that you think will have a meaningful career, that is pretty good work where we’re picking this year," Weltman said. "But by in large, you have to lean toward the player who you think will be able to sustain a good NBA career.”

This year, they are preparing for multiple modes of building the team. He pointed out that the goal is to win a championship and that there are different ways to achieve that. In addition to the draft, teams can acquire players via trade and free agency, and they can grow internally, he said. The new collective bargaining agreement could change some of those methods, including the length of some contracts, he said.

The Magic plan to pursue each opportunity they have to get better, Weltman said. But they also are following their own roadmap, not just trying to mimic the paths of other successful teams, he said.

“I can tell you that we’re spending a lot of time now preparing on these parallel paths — for the draft on Wednesday, and (what) free agency (will look like) on July 1. We’ll have to see where that takes us. Strategies are one thing, and executing them is a completely different thing.”

Weltman said the Magic are at the point in the growth of their team that they ready to add the right player or players in free agency but not players who will change what leadership wants the team to be.

“We’re not going to lose the Northstar of our team,” Weltman said.

The Magic were happy to make the 2024 playoffs, perhaps a little earlier than pundits had expected, but they know they have a lot of work to do, he said.

“There’s no one in this building who is patting themselves on the back right now. We haven’t done anything yet,” Weltman said. “We’ve got to work to get back to where we were last year. And it’s going to be hard to do that. So, our guys are putting in a lot of good quality work already.”

Each situation must be looked at on a case-by-case basis, he said.

Under NBA rules, teams cannot talk with representatives for any players they hope to acquire who played for other teams last season until free agency begins at 6 p.m. Sunday. He called any media reports about possible moves “speculative at this point.”

“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.

Both the draft and free agency are “wildly unpredictable,” he cautioned.

“You have to prioritize what your hopes would be, and you have to be ready to quickly pivot because things happen [slaps hands] like that,” he said. “A lot of that is in the preparation. So, we’re being very deliberate. We’re spending a lot of time.”

Many NBA talent evaluators have criticized this year’s draft class and said some teams are looking to trade out of the draft. But Weltman said he thinks it’s similar to most drafts.

“Drafts get regarded by their upside. So, are the top three guys (to be selected) superstar-potential players? This draft has been batted around a little bit for that,” he said. “Most drafts are pretty similar, if you step back and say how many rotation players did it yield. How many starters did it yield?  … You’re going to have your outliers every once in a while. But I think this draft is kind of a more typical draft. There are players in here. We just have to find them. That’s our job.”

Weltman said he thinks the Magic can do so.

“I think we’re looking at some good players at 18, and our guys have been working really hard on the draft,” Weltman said. “And it started about this time last year. And this is the culmination of all their efforts. … We do a lot of background work. The person is as important to us as the player. So we’re excited about the draft.”

How draft picks fit with the team is key.

“We pride ourselves on the development of young players. I think we do that well. We spend a lot of time on planning and orchestrating and mapping out a design for each guy here. We’ve got a lot of guys whose careers we have to navigate, so adding another one is something we have discussed,” Weltman said. “…The better your team is, and hopefully we can maintain the level that we got to last year, you start to recalibrate what that looks like. When you’re not drafting in the lottery, how you develop players may be looked at a little differently….

“It’s a different mindset bringing in a player to a winning team as compared to what we’ve been through the rebuild. I just hope we can maintain that level because we’re trying to do both.…We’re trying to win and develop young players. It’s something we spend a lot of time on.”

With all the talk about how the team could change in the next week, Weltman said he and his team have continued to have conversations with the players from last year’s roster who are free agents now and their agents. They include guards Markelle Fultz and Gary Harris, forward Chume Okeke and center Goga Bitadze. He said they remain important to the Magic.

Team leadership also must decide whether to pick up its options on forward/center Moe Wagner and forward Joe Ingles before free agency begins June 30.

The Magic also have plans for their No. 11 pick from last June, Jett Howard, who spent most of last season with their G League team in Kissimmee.

“We think Jett could be a very important part of our team. He’s put in great work this summer. He looks terrific. I know he’s kind of out of sight, out of mind. But we look at his rookie year as wildly successful for him,” Weltman said. “The guy accomplished all of the goals we set out for him. He just happened to be in Osceola, not Orlando. But he comes back a different kid, a different player, a different prospect. And obviously, we’re hopeful he becomes someone that integrates into our team successfully. I would never project timelines on that, but we try to clear a path for guys when we can. So, that’s part of the draft discussion.”

Howard and Anthony Black, the No. 6 pick last June, have spent much of their time since the Magic got knocked out of the playoffs in early May working out at the AdventHealth Training Center downtown.