Anthony Black’s future in Orlando is already on the clock, but the Magic aren’t treating it like a crisis.
Black is eligible for a rookie scale extension through October 19, and he said at Monday’s media day that he doesn’t know whether a deal will get done before then. He also made it clear he’s not losing sleep over the deadline.
That same message came through from president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman, who said the Magic want to extend Black while also acknowledging the financial squeeze the team is dealing with, according to Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel.
“ Always hopeful, but I don’t know what that means. We’re in a lot of tighter quarters than we’ve been in years past,” Weltman said.
“ I know that he’s got great representatives. We believe he’s a bright young player in this league who’s just going to get better and better, and we’ll have continuous conversation with his people up until the deadline.
And we’re hopeful that we can arrive at something.
“ But if not, we expect Anthony to have a great year. (Extensions) don’t always get done right now.
Sometimes they get done later, so we’ll see. But I don’t want to kind of make any predictions or anything.
I know that you know both sides have the best intentions.”
If Black doesn’t land an extension in the coming weeks, he’d be a restricted free agent in 2027 if the Magic extend a qualifying offer.
The injury updates around camp have been encouraging, too. Sean Sweeney said Friday that Black, dealing with a minor ankle sprain, and Noah Penda, who tweaked his hamstring, are both moving in the right direction, Beede reported.
Sweeney said Black has “definitely made progress” and “feels good,” though he added that Black hasn’t been doing full contact work. On both players, Sweeney said, “They’re both pretty close to being back and ready to go,”
Sweeney, now in his first season as an NBA head coach after serving as San Antonio’s top assistant last year, said the early read on this group has been a strong one. Beede reported that he came away impressed by the talent level, the way the players talk to one another, and how little prodding they’ve needed.
“ I learned that we’ve got talented players,” Sweeney said. “ I certainly had a feeling that we had that, but I learned that we’ve got that in-person.
I really like the communication level that we’ve had and I learned that about our players. Just in general, I thought there would be more (of) trying to get them to do things and really pushing them, but they’ve been pushing themselves, which is a great sign.
The way they communicate with each other is strong.”
Tristan Da Silva also drew a nod from Sweeney for his feel for offensive spacing, and the third-year forward explained his approach simply: he wants to keep defenses honest by taking the shots that come to him. Da Silva said Friday, “ For me personally, it’s really shooting the shots that I can get,” he said Friday.
“ You know, no really passing up any open shots. Actually hunting them.
That’s a big thing because it allows to space the floor for others players to attack.”
Second-year guard Jase Richardson said he spent the summer adding muscle after he got “picked on a little bit” as a rookie in 2025/26, tweets Beede. Richardson said that work has helped him lean into a more physical style.
“ Just being the first guy to hit, first guy being aggressive every single time on the ball, especially being 94 feet (away from the basket), ” Richardson said. “Just being an irritant, somebody who annoys you all game.
So, just working on that every day.”
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