{"id":137198,"date":"2025-05-03T21:08:01","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T01:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=137198"},"modified":"2025-05-03T21:14:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T01:14:20","slug":"orlando-magic-expected-to-upgrade-offense-this-offseason-what-do-they-specifically-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/05\/03\/orlando-magic-expected-to-upgrade-offense-this-offseason-what-do-they-specifically-need\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic Expected To Upgrade Offense This Offseason, What Do They Specifically Need?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Orlando Magic<\/a> entered the 2024-25 expected to take the next step after ending a three-year postseason drought last year. While the Magic<\/a> were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the sixth straight time, they did a fine job navigating a difficult campaign and “showed out” well against Boston<\/a>. So,\u00a0 what is next for the Magic?<\/p>\n

Orlando is coming off a seventh-place finish in the Eastern Conference with a 41-41 record, one year after earning a fifth seed with 47 wins. It marks the Magic’s first back-to-back 40-win seasons since 2009-11 and their most wins in consecutive seasons in over a decade. The shorthanded Magic did not make it easy for the Celtics in the team’s first-round series.<\/p>\n

Orlando Magic Expected To Upgrade Offense This Offseason<\/h2>\n

Orlando “stole” Game 3 from Boston and was very competitive in three of the five contests. Truthfully, the Magic were “in” each game through the first half of all five games. Paolo Banchero<\/a> and Franz Wagner<\/a> were terrific, combining for 55 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists. Banchero and Wagner were among four key players for Magic to miss at least 20 games this year.<\/p>\n

As good as Banchero<\/a> and Wagner<\/a> were, perhaps the most promising development was their defense. The Magic, who owned the No. 2 rated defense,\u00a0 were fantastic on the defensive end against the Celtics<\/a>.\u00a0 They held Boston, No. 8 in the league in scoring, to 10 points fewer than the Celtics averaged in the regular season at 106.1 a game. More impressively, the Magic held the C’s –one the most prolific 3-point shooting teams in history — to fewer than 12 threes a game and 31.2 attempts from deep. The Celtics averaged nearly 18 threes on 48 attempts during the regular season.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m extremely proud of the way that they competed and represented the Orlando Magic all year,\u201d Magic coach Jamahl Mosley<\/a> said after his team was eliminated Tuesday (va Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel)<\/a>. \u201cYou can go down the list of the things that have happened to this group and every reason to understand that we could have felt sorry for ourselves, and we never did. Everybody found a way, and that\u2019s who this group has continued to be and will continue to be moving forward no matter the circumstances, no matter the adversity [and] no matter what you\u2019re hit within a season. You find ways to step up and into the moment that you\u2019re called upon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upcoming Free Agents and Magic’s Salary Projections<\/h3>\n

While Orlando’s season can’t be considered a failure or a success, one thing is for sure: the Magic will need to make roster changes to take the next step. The first order of business for the Magic will be deciding whether to exercise the team options on Moritz Wagner<\/a> ($11 million), Gary Harris<\/a> ($7.5 million), Cory Joseph<\/a> ($3.4 million), and Caleb Houstan<\/a> ($2.1 million).<\/p>\n

Orlando will certainly not pick up four players’ options, as that would give them a full 15-man roster for next season. Not including the four players with team options, the Magic have 11 players under contract with salaries totaling over $175.2 million. That puts them $11.6 million below the luxury tax.<\/p>\n

Joseph started all five playoff games for the Magic and performed well, though he is just a journeyman at this point of his career who can provide leadership and defense.<\/p>\n

Harris’s production has dipped the past two years, and he was a nonfactor offensively during the playoffs. The 30-year-old is still a solid wing defender.<\/p>\n

Moe Wagner was on pace to post a career season. But the 28-year-old tore his ACL in January and underwent surgery on the ninth of that month. Meanwhile, Houstan showed some improvement with his shooting and defense this season, though he was the ninth man in the Magic’s playoff rotation.<\/p>\n

Orlando has two first-round picks in 2025. The Magic have their own first-round selection, No. 16, and Denver’s, which projects to be the 25th selection. They also have two second-round selections.<\/p>\n

Changes Are Coming For The Magic<\/h3>\n

Orlando, which decided to keep its own free agents a year ago and continued to develop its own players last year, will need to take a different approach this offseason. The Magic has a lot of money tied up to Banchero, Wagner, and Jalen Suggs<\/a>. The Magic also have eight first-round picks and 12 second-rounders over the next seven years.<\/p>\n

So besides getting Suggs healthy, Orlando needs to upgrade its backcourt and depth. However, per Beede, the Magc’s primary focus will be improving their offense efficiency. This will be key as Orlando’s president of basketball operations, Jeff Weltman, said that the Magic are ready to transition to a \u201cwin-now\u201d phase.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve learned about our team this year is that it\u2019s time to enter the next stage of our development,\u201d Weltman told Beede and other reporters<\/a> inside AdventHealth Training Center. \u201cWe\u2019re in a place now where the focus will shift to looking at the world through more of a \u2018win now\u2019 lens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orlando was 27th in offensive rating during the regular season, one of three teams that averaged fewer than 106 points a game. A big reason for the Magic’s offensive struggles was their lack of perimeter shooting. They were 27th in field goal percentage and dead last in three-pointers and three-point percentage. They also ranked last with 24.3 assists per game.<\/p>\n

Orlando was even more inept offensively against Boston in the opening round of the playoffs. The Magic put up the worst offensive numbers of all 16 playoff teams, averaging 93.6 points on 42.3% shooting from the field while making 8.2 threes at a 26.3% clip. The Magic also dished out fewer than 19 assists a game.<\/p>\n

What Is Next For The Magic<\/h4>\n

\u201cWhat we need is proven shot-making, proven offensive play, someone that\u2019s going to come in and help augment our weakness,\u201d Weltman told Beede in another article<\/a>. \u201cClearly, we need to get better offensively. Clearly, we need to shoot the ball better. Those are the goals, and that\u2019s the lens we need to look at as we enter the offseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anything\u2019s off the table. Veteran help, proven offensive help, is what we\u2019re going to be looking for,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

With the roster and salary cap situation, Orlando’s only way to improve is through trades. The Magic recently extended Suggs and Franz Wagner. Weltman told reporters that the Magic plan is to extend Banchero this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of our roster upgrades are going to have to come more through swapping than just adding,\u201d Weltman said. \u201cThe reason we\u2019ve been a good team the last couple of years \u2014 and I do believe we are a good team \u2014 is because we\u2019ve got an elite defensive backbone.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd as we look to improve our offense, we have to be very cognizant of not unraveling the DNA of our team,\u201d he added. \u201cThat\u2019s what we have to balance this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, with Banchero, Suggs, and Franz Wagner off limits, who are the Magic’s most valuable trade chips? Orlando’s treasure chest of draft picks appears to be the most valuable. Goga Bitadze<\/a>\u2014who only played 11 minutes in the playoffs\u2014Jonathan Isaac<\/a>, Cole Anthony<\/a>, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope<\/a> are the Magic’s most tradeable assets. Wemdell Carter Jr<\/a>. also fits as a tradeable asset, but the Magic likely prefers to keep the 26-year-old.<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: \u00a9 David Butler II<\/a>, Imagn Images<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Orlando Magic entered the 2024-25 expected to take the next step after ending a three-year postseason drought last year. While the Magic were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the sixth straight time, they did a fine job navigating a difficult campaign and “showed out” well against Boston. So,\u00a0 what is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3146,"featured_media":137615,"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":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,5,2,62,556,3,17,4721],"tags":[4127,3259,1382,4828],"class_list":["post-137198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-celtics","category-featured","category-nba","category-nba-draft","category-news","category-magic","category-trade-rumors","tag-franz-wagner","tag-jalen-suggs","tag-nba-trade","tag-paolo-branchero"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137198","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\/3146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137198"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137612,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137198\/revisions\/137612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}