ORLANDO, Fla. — The Orlando Magic have exercised the fourth-year team option on center Mo Bamba for the 2021-22 season, the team announced Wednesday.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, per team policy, but Spotrac reported the deal was valued at $7.57 million.
The Magic clearly are not ready to move on from Bamba, whose progress has been slowed by things beyond his control. By exercising the team option, the Magic show they continue to value the 22-year-old center and remain committed to him.
Bamba has been cleared for contact work and took part in those drills on Wednesday for the first time in training camp, according to a team official. After his bout with COVID-19 in June, Bamba had been held out of contact drills as he worked through some lingering effects the virus had on his conditioning.
Bamba, who was taken sixth overall in the 2018 draft, saw his rookie season shortened by a stress fracture in his left shin. He worked his way back into playing condition for the NBA Summer League in 2019 but the Magic shut down Bamba after one game as a precaution. The team also brought him along slowly in the early part of last season. At one point, Bamba played only one game of back-to-back sets before the restriction eventually was lifted.
Teams have until Dec. 29 to decide whether to pick up the third- and fourth-year team options for players who signed rookie-scale contracts in 2018.
Bamba’s rookie-scale contract included team options for both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons. Orlando picked up the option for Bamba’s 2020-21 contract — for nearly $5.97 million — in September 2019.
Bamba now can become eligible for a rookie-scale extension during the 2021 offseason. If he doesn’t sign a new deal at that time, he would become a restricted free agent after the 2021-22 season.
