In a rather unexpected move, the Orlando Magic decided to match the Dallas Mavericks’ five-year, $34 million contract offer in order to keep their backup center. Orlando was put in a tough place by Dallas’ offer — that seemed like it was more money than it was worth it to them to pay Gortat, but also that losing Gortat would hurt the team in a way that there was no obvious way to recover from.
The flipside is that resigning Gortat leaves them with the reverse problem. The guy’s numbers were good enough last year to suggest that he’s worth this kind of money to someone but since the Magic already have Dwight Howard, Gortat has limited minutes to fill. Maybe the thought is that they should play a Howard-Gortat “twin towers” lineup someone more often. Might be a good idea. At any rate, after trading for Vince Carter — which I think was a somewhat questionable move — the Magic seem committed to trying to win a championship next year, and that means resigning Gortat.