ORLANDO, Fla. — Kentavious Caldwell-Pope will help the Magic build on the success they found last season with his play on the court and by sharing what he learned while winning two NBA championships with Orlando’s returning young players, President of Basketball Operations Jeff Weltman said Saturday.

The Magic on Saturday made official the signing of the veteran guard, extensions for forwards Franz Wagner and Jonathan Issac and the re-signings of several other players from last season's team.

“In KCP, we are getting a guy who has won two rings in the last five years and been third and first in minutes played on each of those (championship) teams,” Weltman said. “…..He will make us better defensively. He will improve our shooting, and he will model what championship work is like for our young players. So in every possible way, we think he’s going to be a great addition on and off the court, and we’re super excited to bring him here.”

In addition to Caldwell-Pope, Wagner and Isaac, Orlando announced that it had re-signed center/forward Moe Wagner, center Goga Bitadze, and guard Gary Harris.

The Magic also signed No. 18 draft pick Tristan da Silva and re-signed two-way guard Trevelin Queen, who will split time between the Orlando and Osceola Magic.

The franchise does not publicly disclose the players’ contract terms, including the length or total value of the deal or details like whether option years are built into the contracts. However, multiple media reports indicated that Caldwell-Pope signed a three-year, $66 million deal; Franz Wagner inked a five-year rookie contract extension worth up to at least $224 million; Issac received a renegotiated five-year, $84 million deal; Moe Wagner re-signed for two years, $22 million; Bitadze got a new three-year, $25 million deal; and Gary Harris re-signed for two years, $15 million.

Caldwell-Pope, 6 feet 5 inches and 204 pounds, is an 11-year veteran who has won NBA championships with the Denver Nuggets in 2023 and the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020. He played in Denver the past two seasons.

He was the only player to meet with the media on Saturday.

Caldwell-Pope said he was interested in signing with the Magic as a free agent because he admired from afar the way they played last season and thought he would be a good fit with the team.

“They are relentless on both ends,” Caldwell-Pope said. “Made my choice (in free agency]) pretty easy. I just wanted to come in and fit right into this organization and just do what I do — shoot the ball and play defense.”

The trajectory of the team’s improvement and its continuity appealed to Caldwell-Pope.

“Seeing their progress, them make it to the playoffs, taking Cleveland to a Game 7, that was enough for me,” he said. “They got a little bit of a taste of that pressure and what it takes to make it past the first round. So, I’m just excited to be a part of it.” 

Weltman said he believes that Caldwell-Pope will help the Magic take another step forward on the court and off.

“To have a guy that’s been through it (championship teams) and not just part of it but a significant part of it, those are two very different things,” Weltman said. “… He’s a guy that understands the longevity of the season. He understands taking care of his body. He understands the seriousness and the commitment that it takes to win at that level. And we have a very young team, and our guys haven’t been exposed to that yet. And I think it’s going to really open their eyes and improve them.”

Ahead of the start of free agency, the Magic also had been rumored to have interest in All-Star guard Paul George of the Los Angeles Clippers and forward Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors. George ended up signing a four-year, $212 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers, a more veteran team than Orlando. Thompson signed a three-year, $50 million contract with the Dallas Mavericks, who lost to the Boston Celtics in this year’s NBA Finals.

Weltman declined to say whether he had any contact with representatives for those players.

“Everybody talks to everybody (in free agency), if nothing else even to understand the context of the market, what’s driving certain teams, who your competitors are,” Weltman said. “If you can find out that this team is chasing this player, then that might make you feel differently about your chances with another player.”

“So, you try to figure out everything. A lot of that gets reported. Some of it, honestly, is just generated out of smoke. But even the ones that are real are not really fully contextualized to where maybe we talked to a rep or a team, but it might be with a completely different reason than it was reported…..Rumors beget more rumors. We try to be as thorough as we possibly can with every draft, every free agency and not leave any stone unturned, and part of that is understanding what’s going on around you. And I’ll leave it at that.”

Weltman said he and his team had admired Caldwell-Pope from afar for “quite a while.” He called Caldwell-Pope “a basketball guy’s basketball guy.”

“We came away with an excellent player who’s going to fit to the highest standard of what we could hope for on and off the court,” Weltman said. “He makes our team better, and he really strengthens our DNA. As you guys know, we’re trying to build a team of defense-first mentality, of sacrifice and togetherness, of guys who make one another better. And obviously, KCP also is a high-level shooter. So, he checked a lot of boxes for us, obviously with what else we were able to do.”

On the court, Caldwell-Pope has shot over 40% on 3-point attempts in three of the past four seasons and has established a reputation as one of the league’s top defenders. 

The Magic ranked last, 30th, in 3-point attempts during the 2023-24 regular season, taking 903, according to NBA statistics. They were 24th in 3-point shooting percentage at 35.2%.

“So high volume (3-point shooting), above 40%, with only minimal games missed and an elite-level defender. That is a really hard to find player in today’s NBA,” Weltman said. “And when you couple that with the highest of character, the glue guy ....He’s one of those guys, too, to help bring people together in the locker room, and I know every coach he has played for has raved about him.”

For his part, Caldwell-Pope said he just wants to do what he can to help the team.

“(I’m) Not trying to be the type of guy to come in and demand things,” he said. “I just want to come over here and bring my championship mentality, the knowledge I know from the teams I’ve been on. Also my leadership, just being that vocal leader on the court and off the court and just being able to get these guys, get us to stay connected. The more we can stay connected and have that chemistry together, it’s going to make the season easier.”

Staying locked in and being willing to make sacrifices are key components of championship-level teams, Caldwell-Pope said.

“You can lose focus on the goal or the task at hand,” he said. “Being patient. Being a humble leader, bringing that to the table. I feel it’s going to help these guys out a lot, being that veteran guy with two championships.”

Those are qualities that led Weltman to reach out to Caldwell-Pope in free agency.

“I think KCP is going to help us take a step forward, but part of that step forward is showing our young guys how they take a step forward,” Weltman said “…. We’re not going to deviate from our North star, which is developing our young talent. We have a lot of young talent on our roster. Some of them are already starting to break through and some of them really haven’t been exposed to that process yet. But we’re excited about all of them, and that’s going to continue to be the North star that guides us.”

The extensions and re-signings to which the Magic committed Saturday represent how much the organization believes in its young group, Weltman said.

The largest financial commitment of the offseason went to Franz Wagner. As a player drafted by the team and who had completed his third NBA season, Wagner was eligible under rules in the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement to start negotiations on a rookie contract extension. The Magic could have waited until the end of the offseason, or even after next season, to offer him an extension but were able to complete the deal now.

“The sky’s the limit for Franz,” Weltman said. “I think our fans know that. They’ve seen his trajectory. They’ve seen his work. They’ve seen how competitive he is, how smart he is. He’s 22. We have so many young guys on this team.”

One of those young guys, guard Jalen Suggs, is also available for a rookie contract extension this offseason. 

“Jalen’s obviously a really important player for our team,” Weltman said. “He had a great season last year. He means a lot to us. He has a great agent who we are in constant communication with.”

Weltman also renegotiated the contract of Isaac, who would have entered the 2024-25 in the last year of his deal. He had $17 million left on the contract, but it was not guaranteed.

Isaac was drafted by the Magic in 2017 with the No. 4 overall pick out of Florida State, but he has missed significant parts of all but two seasons. He missed the 2020-21 and 2021-2022 seasons with knee injuries. Last season, he played in 58 of 82 regular-season games and all seven of the Magic’s playoff games, the most he has played since his second season in the league.

“We’ve always had faith in Jonathan. He’s earned that faith through hard work and through the high character that he always exhibits,” Weltman said. “He got to show who he was a little bit last year, and we’re hoping that’s just the beginning. This is a unique situation where we just happened to have the cap space to do something like we did with him. And as I told you guys, this new CBA (collective bargaining agreement) is going to be restrictive for everybody. It’s coming at everybody. And to be able to realign some of the existing contracts so that you can kind of set yourself up to face that was part of what we hoped to accomplish this summer.”

As of Saturday, the Magic had 14 players on their roster for the 2024-25 season, 12 of whom are returning from last season. They also had re-signed Queen to a two-way contract, and they have open spots to sign two more two-way players.

“Continuity is only valuable if your team is winning. There’s no sense in continuously bringing back the same guys if it’s not working,” Weltman said. “But we do feel like we have landed on a good group of players who fit on the court, off the court. We feel that KCP is the ultimate kind of fit-in-and-figure-it-out type of player. That matters to us. Now, with the new CBA being what it is, that’s not going to be able to hold forever, and we are going to have some hard decisions to make. But where we can, we like to bring back familiar faces who know one another, who understand the commitment, who are dedicated to making one another better and focused on winning.”