The Orlando Magic made their intentions very clear in the days after the season ended.
President of basketball operations Jeff Weltman said during the team's exit interviews that the team would be looking to make moves with a win-now lens. He made it clear the team needed to seek offense, shot creation and shooting to take the next step as a team.
It did not seem like business as usual for this offseason.
So far, fans have been pouring over the possibilities and players the Magic could chase -- from big names like Darius Garland to potential free agents like Nickeil Alexander-Walker.
While inevitably, this means the Magic will give something up and not be so precious with the roster they have largely drafted and cultivated, the real question is what will the Magic offer in a trade? Some of those answers might be fairly obvious. But there was nothing concrete.
Ultimately, what the Magic are willing to offer will go a long way to determining what they will be able to get. It already sounds like the Magic are shopping around two of their biggest tradeable assets.
Kevin O'Connor of Yahoo! Sports said he had heard the Magic are interested in trading Jonathan Isaac and Cole Anthony along with their first-round picks.
That is certainly a mega trade package that could tip the scales for the Magic on a major deal. From a contract standpoint -- that is $28.1 million if completed after July 1. That would be more than enough to make a splash on the trade market -- almost perfectly fitting popular trade target Anfernee Simons.
Most of the trade ideas and proposals floating on the Internet likely involve Cole Anthony or Kentavious Caldwell-Pope as the main salary, giving up big-priced players without drastically affecting the team's rotation or roles. There have been some discussions about whether the team would need to include Anthony Black as a prospect to get things done.
Whether the Magic would be willing to part with Isaac after a second straight healthy season, albeit one where he admittedly struggled with his shot and his decision to put on weight to play more center, was also part of the big question.
For whatever anyone wants to say about Isaac, he is still a potentially elite defender. And those are still valuable and hard to come by, even if the Magic had less use for him than ever this season.
At the very least this is as bold a trade offer as anyone has seen from the Magic, giving up a player the team has previously been hesitant to give up. But that is what it will cost to get something done.
Orlando knows it must make a move -- and a bold move -- to push this team forward.
The Magic are repeatedly listed as one of the most intriguing teams to watch around the league -- getting a small write-up from Bobby Marks of ESPN earlier this week. That is what Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated said to Kevin O'Connor too.
While they brought up the Orlando Magic in the context of the Utah Jazz almost certainly trading Lauri Markkanen -- an idea both agreed was not something that made sense for the Magic -- they acknowledged the Magic could be bold in this way and make a big splash.
"Their defense is championship level," Mannix said. "Banchero is good. Franz Wagner is good. They need one more shot maker. Maybe Lauri Markkanen is not ideal. I'd probably want somebody in the backcourt that is a shotmaker more than a 6-10 forward who clutters things up with Paolo and with Franz. If that is on the table, if that's available, I would be surprised if Orlando didn't make a move. They are one shot-maker away, one offensive player away from being a top-4 team again."
That is what a lot of Magic fans feel too. It will not take much to get the Magic over the hump with their top-end talent and the hope for a healthier season next year after all four of their top scorers missed at least 20 games -- and for one stretch all at the same time.
But to get something good, the team will have to give up something good. That would seem to be the part of the equation that has gone unreported as the Magic typically operate quietly during these transaction windows.
It is easy to go shopping without looking at the price tag.
What the Magic are willing to spend is becoming a bit clearer. And it is clear that the Magic are indeed looking to shop big to add to their roster and take that critical next step.