{"id":136031,"date":"2025-04-24T10:12:27","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T14:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=136031"},"modified":"2025-04-24T10:12:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T14:12:27","slug":"orlando-magic-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/24\/orlando-magic-offseason\/","title":{"rendered":"The Orlando Magic Could Be This Summer\u2019s Surprise Superteam"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Orlando Magic finished the regular season with the second-best defense<\/a> in the league. At the same time, they were in the bottom five offenses in the league. Despite having two amazing wings in Franz Wagner<\/a> and Paolo Banchero<\/a>, the Magic struggle on the offensive end<\/a>. In the first two games of the playoffs<\/a>, those struggles were more evident than ever. They scored 86 points in Game 1 and 100 in the second game. With such struggles, the Orlando Magic could be one of the most intriguing teams in the offseason.<\/p>\n

The Orlando Magic Could Be This Summer\u2019s Surprise Superteam<\/h2>\n

This offseason, the Orlando Magic have seven players with team options. They will have plenty of work to do before the team is finalized. Their first should be locking up Banchero on a long-term extension. He will have one more year on a team option in the summer. Once that is done and off the table, the Magic will need to balance their roster and add more offensive firepower.<\/p>\n

The Magic Have the Assets for a Trade<\/h3>\n

The Magic have all of their first-round picks<\/a> going forward, which is the starting point for a big trade. They also have a pick swap in 2026 between Washington and Phoenix. Simply put, the Magic are the middle team and will get the second-best pick of the three. Looking at the roster of Washington and Phoenix, that might end up being a late lottery pick. They also have a first-round pick coming from Denver in the 2025 draft, and plenty of second-round picks.<\/p>\n

Then, they have a couple of young players who can help rebuild teams or teams in the middle. Between Cole Anthony<\/a>, Jonathan Isaac<\/a>, Wendell Carter Jr<\/a>, Anthony Black<\/a>, Goga Bitadze<\/a>, Jalen Suggs<\/a>, and Tristan Da Silva<\/a>, the Magic can make a compelling offer for a star.<\/p>\n

Potential Targets for the Orlando Magic in the Offseason<\/h3>\n

The Magic finished the regular season<\/a> dead last in assists per game<\/a> as a team. They averaged only 23 assists per game. For comparison, even the isolation-heavy Suns averaged 27.8 per game. Here is the reality. The two players with the highest assist numbers on the Magic are Wagner and Banchero. Suggs is an amazing point guard who can guard and be pesky on defense, but his playmaking abilities leave a lot to be desired. The same applies to Black and Anthony.<\/p>\n

If players like Trae Young<\/a> became available, the Magic should jump in on the opportunity. Unlike Atlanta, that might be the perfect trade for both teams. Another option is to pursue Damian Lillard<\/a> from the Bucks. If Milwaukee falters in the playoffs, which right now seems like a possibility, there will be changes. The Bucks have a star that the Magic can use, while Orlando can help Milwaukee shore up their roster around Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a>. Last, but not least, they can try to get LaMelo Ball<\/a>, a pass-first point guard who will improve their assists and organize the offense.<\/p>\n

But here is the real kicker. The Magic can also decide to go big game hunting. They have the assets for a Kevin Durant<\/a>, Kyrie Irving<\/a>, or, if all hell breaks loose, a Giannis trade. In any case, the Magic will be a dark horse candidate for a trade in the offseason. They have to improve their offense, and their payroll doesn\u2019t give them the flexibility to go after free agents. Currently, they have $199 million in projected salary<\/a> for next season, putting them over the first apron<\/a>. With plenty of young players and draft capital, the Magic might be the Houston Rockets of the East.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Orlando Magic finished the regular season with the second-best defense in the league. At the same time, they were in the bottom five offenses in the league. Despite having two amazing wings in Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero, the Magic struggle on the offensive end. In the first two games of the playoffs, those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5291,"featured_media":136043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,17],"tags":[4127,306,69,406,3823,1349],"class_list":["post-136031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-magic","tag-franz-wagner","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-kevin-durant","tag-kyrie-irving","tag-paolo-banchero","tag-trae-young"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136031"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136045,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136031\/revisions\/136045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}