In the seasons leading up to these events, the organization did not have luck in the NBA draft lottery and decided to make more short-sighted trades with the hope to overcome their postseason losing streak.
On May 22, 2017, the Orlando Magic hired Weltman as their new president of basketball operations, and they announced they would give up their less desirable 2018 second-round NBA draft pick to the Raptors as compensation.
[7] Around this time, the Orlando Magic had promising young talent with Aaron Gordon, Elfrid Payton and Nikola Vucevic.
Following the 2018–19 Orlando Magic season, Weltman re-signed Nikola Vucevic, Terrence Ross and Michael Carter-Williams and acquired Al-Farouq Aminu.
In 2021, Weltman said the group was confident that Markelle Fultz and Jonathan Isaac would fully recover from their injuries but that the current situation was a "toxic brew".
[11][12][13] With the absence of those veteran players, young talent such as Mohamed Bamba, Chuma Okeke and Dwayne Bacon would be given more minutes to showcase their skills.