
The Magic have been one of my teams for a couple of years now. I love Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, and their collection of young defenders is exciting to watch. Unfortunately, their Achilles heel has
been their inability to score, and they have been ousted from the playoffs in consecutive years due to an inability to make jump shots consistently. Out of their 12 playoff games since 2024, they have scored 100 or fewer points eight times. That will not cut it.
Luckily, it seems like management had a grasp on their shortcomings and went out and got Desmond Bane to help with their shooting. Bane is a career 41 percent shooter from distance, nearly 10 percentage points higher than the Magic’s putrid 31.8 percent mark from three last season. With the same defensive core and a retooled offense, this year is Orlando’s best shot at making the jump people like me have expected for the last two seasons.
Orlando Magic: Over/Under 50.5 Wins (-115/-105)
Last Season: 41-41
Additions: Desmond Bane, Jase Richardson
Losses: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony
In a vacuum, there may be no better one-for-one upgrade at a position this offseason than replacing Kenatvious Caldwell-Pope with Desmond Bane. For a team that desperately needed the creation, shooting, and spacing, they got a guy who adds all of that while still maintaining the level of defense needed for this group to coalesce. This is a talented roster. Assuming they will get better health from Banchero and Wagner (meaning no weird oblique injuries that they strangely both got last season), they should be able to beat up on teams all regular season. This is one of the two or three best teams out East. I love them to win 51 or more games.