The Orlando Magic are entering a critical summer for improvement. They are entering an important moment in their development when they have to add players in free agency with available cap room and plant a firm flag at the top of the Eastern Conference.
The Magic had an incredible 2024 season and claimed a spot in the Playoffs for the first time. Now, it is about building on that success.
Orlando can celebrate its season. But the Magic still have to look themselves in the mirror and find a way to improve. They need to find a way to grow their roster. The league is not going to sit and wait for them.
The Playoffs indeed had the effect of revealing many of the Magic’s weaknesses. Many of them were already pretty well known—shooting chief among them. But the Magic found ways to work around a lot of them to get to a Game 7. The Playoff series with the Cleveland Cavaliers laid a blueprint for the team to take its next steps.
This is a big summer. The Magic have lots of cap room—somewhere between $25-50 million, depending on what they do with contracts and cap holds on their roster. That has put a lot of focus on filling many of these needs on free agency.
Orlando is likely looking for at least one starter. And the team should be looking to give second-year players Anthony Black and Jett Howard a pathway to play.
That may make it tough for the Magic to find room for another rookie. Orlando may be using the 18th pick with the thought of giving that player a gap year in the G-League to improve.
Even if the Magic end up shopping the No. 18 pick in the first round, so long as they own the pick, they should be aiming to add something of value to the roster and fill a need on their roster. They may not get a starter at No. 18, but depth is always valuable.
This stage of the offseason should be spent really assessing what the Magic need and evaluating all the options to fill those needs. The draft will be an opportunity to add to the roster and fill those needs.
5 draft prospects who can fill a need for the Orlando Magic
5. Distributing Point Guard: Tyler Kolek, Marquette
The Orlando Magic are probably in the market for a point guard at some point this offseason. While Jalen Suggs has proven to be a capable scorer, the team was lacking much push from their guard play, and the team seemed like it needed an organizer to help manage the lineup during the Playoffs.
A veteran point guard is probably more of what the Magic need. But they will be looking everywhere for players who can help manage and conduct the team. They need some players who can keep the ball moving. The Magic ranked 28th in assists at 24.7 per game.
Getting the ball moving more consistently is going to be something the Magic will need to boost their offense at some point.
A lot of the point guards in this draft are not traditional distributors. There are scorers like Jared McCain of Duke. And there are bulldozers like Providence’s Devin Carter and Pitt’s Carlton Carrington. Getting a traditional ball distributor is tough.
The best option in that category is Marquette guard Tyler Kolek.
Kolek averaged 15.3 points per game and 7.7 assists per game as a senior last year, his second straight year averaging more than 7.0 assists per game. He shot 38.8 percent from three.
Kolek seems like a player who could come in and help as a point guard pretty immediately, assuming he can attack off the dribble and get into the paint. That will be the concern.
As will his size at 6-foor-1.25 without shoes and only a 6-foot-2.75 wingspan. That does not fit the Magic’s typical profile. And that might be why he is not considered a universal first-round prospect.
But as far as pure passers and point guards who can set others up, Kolek may be as good as there is in this draft class. Certainly, he is the best of the options the Magic have available to them.
4. Downhill Attacker: Jared McCain, Duke
At times, it felt like the Orlando Magic were banging their heads against the wall during their Playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers. That speaks to how one-dimensional the Magic’s offense can be and how little space the team could find with such little shooting.
But it also spoke to how little confidence the Magic, at times, had to do anything else but give the ball to Paolo Banchero and let him try to crash his way to the basket. Banchero found a way to make that successful—and the Magic did a better job of using Jalen Suggs or Franz Wagner to initiate actions and get him the ball.
But getting good spray-out shots or creating secondary drives to set up Paolo Banchero or Wendell Carter for easier shots around the paint proved difficult. Jalen Suggs was not a good driver—although his 6.1 drives per game in the Playoffs was up from 4.5 per game in the regular season, according to data from Second Spectrum.
Orlando needs another guard who can get downhill and pressure the defense. The more players the Magic have who can drive to the rim, the easier it will be to attack and score.
That is why the team is looking for a point guard overall. And while the Magic seem more likely to fill that guard need through free agency, they can look to the draft for a few options.
The biggest one is Duke guard Jared McCain.
McCain averaged 14.3 points per game and 5.0 rebounds per game. He shot 46.2 percent from the floor and 41.4 percent from three (on 5.8 attempts per game). The 3-point shooting stands out most and is one of the reasons he has long been on the Magic’s draft list.
But McCain is excellent at getting to the basket. And despite a perceived lack of athleticism, he is an expert at finishing over bigger players. Whether that translates to the NBA will be the big thing that determines his ultimate NBA success.
But McCain is someone who can get downhill and to the paint. That checks off a box for what the Magic need from the guard spot. McCain would be a solid choice to help boost the Magic.
3. 3-Point Marksman: Kyshawn George, Miami
The Orlando Magic need shooters. There is no getting around it. It is the biggest need the team has.
Orlando was 24th in 3-point field goal percentage and 29th in attempts. Teams packed the paint and dared the Magic to shoot. And at a certain point, the Cleveland Cavaliers were just willing to live with whether the Magic made or missed shots.
The Magic had some players who made shots, but far too much of the team could not hit when it mattered. The team’s volume shooters were not strong 3-point shooters—Franz Wagner was sub-30 percent, and Paolo Banchero shot about 33 percent as two of the three highest-volume shooters on the team.
Orlando is going to spend its offseason looking for shooting—Malik Monk, anyone?—and the team will have to find a way to give Jett Howard an opportunity to see if drafting a three-point shooter last year meant anything.
In the end, there is no such thing as having too many shooters. Being able to parade floor spacing threats helps a team resist injuries and provides the team with some real depth. Orlando should not be afraid of adding shooters.
There are not a ton of great shooters in this draft. The draft experts love Pitt’s Carlton Carrington as a shooter, but he shot just 32.2 percent from deep although he had to do a lot of self-creation that he will not be asked to do in the NBA.
There are not a lot of knock-down shooters that will slip out of the Lottery—Reed Sheppard and Dalton Knecht figure to be top-10 picks.
Miami wing Kyshawn George is then the guy to watch for the Magic. George averaged just 7.6 points per game but he shot 40.8 percent from three on 4.2 attempts per game. His threes accounted for 68.4 percent of his field goal attempts in his freshman year. He shot 77.8 percent from the foul line, suggesting that his three-point shooting is something that can translate.
His size likely will attract the Magic as he measured really well at the NBA Draft Combine—6-foot-7 without shoes with a 6-foot-10.25 wingspan. And the skill level is something the Magic could use.
George will need some time. He is still developing as a basketball player, so consistency will be an issue. But he is as much of a high-upside swing as there is in this range with a skill that should translate quickly to the league.
2. Rim Protector: Kel’el Ware, Indiana
The Orlando Magic may not be feeling the pressure to make a massive change at center quite yet. But the thought should be lingering in the background.
Wendell Carter was fine when he played. His scoring was down, and his injury early in the season probably slowed him down all year and led to a general sense of a lack of aggression. His rim protection numbers were virtually the same as in previous years.
But the question should still linger whether Carter as a floor-spacing, position-based defender is the way the Magic ultimately win a title or win at a higher level. Do the Magic actually need better rim protection?
Orlando finished the season 13th in the league with 5.2 blocks per game. The team was 12th in the league with a 64.1 percent defensive field goal percentage at the rim according to Second Spectrum. Maybe the lack of rim protection is an issue of perception rather than reality.
Opponents shot 58.4 percent at the rim against Wendell Carter specifically, 18th in the league among centers who played at least 24.0 minutes per game and the same as Evan Mobley. In the Playoffs, opponents shot 67.4 percent at the rim against Carter, so there was some concern in the postseason.
This will be an issue for the Magic to ponder as they examine how to make their team better.
Likely, this is not an issue they should resolve in the draft. The players who typically fall under the rim protection wing of centers are raw and just rely on their athleticism.
That is the case with a pair of centers in the Magic’s range. But Kel’el Ware of Indiana is the one who could be the more dynamic of those types of players.
Ware averaged 15.9 points and 9.9 rebounds per game for the Hoosiers last year. He added in 1.9 blocks per game. On top of this, he hit 42.5 percent of his 3-pointers, showing at least a willingness to step out of the paint and hit jumpers (his free throw percentage suggests this is not something to rely on).
But Ware is a big presence on the interior. He measured at 6-foot-11.75 without shoes with a 7-foot-4.5 wingspan. He had a 32.5-inch standing vertical leap and 36.0-inch max vertical leap at the NBA Draft Combine.
If Ware can bring some defensive awareness to the table, he would be an excellent addition to a team looking for some rim protection.
1. Forward Depth: Tristan Da Silva, Colorado
No player has been connected to the Orlando Magic in the draft process as much as Colorado forward Tristan Da Silva.
He is a player who seemingly fits the Magic’s type. He is a 6-foot-8 forward from Colorado who is known for his basketball IQ and smarts. He can attack off the dribble at his height and run something resembling a point forward.
Da Silva averaged 16.0 points per game, 5.1 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game, all career highs. He had shooting splits of 49.3/39.5/83.5. He is widely considered a solid player who can plug in pretty immediately in any system.
That is the benefit of having a senior player.
Da Silva does not have the same college resume as other players, but he may be this draft class’ Jaime Jaquez Jr. Da Silva has seen a lot in his four years in college and is coming into the league with a pretty well-defined sense of who he is as a player.
And there is at least some belief he could expand his scoring and playmaking with more spacing.
The Magic have a type of player they want to build around. They want players who have high basketball IQs and can play multiple positions and multiple roles. They love having playmaking from the forward position. The whole team is built around that with Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner.
Drafting Da Silva is certainly not an effort to replace either of them. But having a mini-version of those two players so that their bench plays much the same style is something that could be advantageous. Especially if the Magic aims to use Cole Anthony off the ball from the bench or add some more shooting.
Everyone is expecting the Magic to have Jett Howard or someone else fill in for Joe Ingles’ minutes with his future on the team up in the air.
Da Silva helps fill this need. He is a sharp player who makes good decisions and can score in multiple ways. That is the reason he has been one of the more popular players mocked to the Magic.
