By Fawzan Amer
The ground is shaking beneath the Kia Center. In a season that has taken a variety of forms, first a gut-wrenching blow sidelining All-Star forward Paolo Banchero, the ascension of Franz Wagner as the primary option, only for Wagner to face the same gut-wrenching injury of his own. The team remained afloat under Jamahl Mosley, the Magic’s head coach for the past four seasons. Taking the form of one of the most reliably competitive teams despite injuries, Orlando started ripping off one miracle comeback after the next under a new mantra: "We have enough."
Fast forward a month later, Orlando sits at 8th in the Eastern Conference, with a record of 25-27 through the first 52 games. In their last 10 games, they've notched a 2-8 record, which included a four-game losing skid. Defeat after defeat, each glaring hole on the roster became more apparent than the previous game. These weren't just normal losses. compiling on the win-loss column, these were grounds for a breakup. Unfortunately, that’s where things get thorny.
People are excited to watch Orlando Magic Basketball again. To see whether Magic Basketball can take the next step. They are eager to see the leaps Banchero and Franz Wagner might make in their third season playing alongside one another. They are ecstatic to see how quickly this inexperienced team can bloom. But that’s the thing: no one knows when it will happen. How it will happen. Yet another trade deadline passed with Jeff Weltman sitting idly by, while his peers across the league weren't gun-shy in pulling the plug on partnerships for the faces of their franchise.
In the same week, San Antonio landed first-time All-Star phenom, Victor Wembanyama, his point guard of the future, dealing their way into the services of former Kings guard, De'Aaron Fox. Lakers General Manager, Rob Pelinka, officially pressed the "all-in" button, pairing his newly acquired 25-year-old superstar guard Luka Doncic with a lob-threat big from Charlotte named Mark Williams.
The hardest part of building a contender is collecting stars, and the Magic have a pair of young, two-way, All-Star wings in place for the long haul. And once again, have failed to surround either with the necessary tools to elevate their game and Orlando into bigger and brighter horizons.
In part, the lack of trustworthy guard play beyond Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner stems from disappointing table-setting performances from Anthony Black and Jalen Suggs. But it also results from a recent drafts. Despite holding a pair of picks in the 2023 draft, President of Basketball Operations Jeff Weltman selected Black, with Markelle Fultz already on the roster and Jett Howard, whose only minute consistency takes place in garbage time when games are decided,
"I would rather be more of an offensive hub than the point guard, if that makes sense," Paolo Banchero told the Washington Post earlier this offseason.
Instead, the Magic have rewarded him with nearly a 33% usage rate and Franz Wagner with a 35% usage rate. A ridiculous number that could have played a factor in the duo suffering the same right torn oblique injury earlier in the season, sidelining each for large portions of the NBA calendar year.
Maybe I'm being too harsh on Jeff Weltman. After all, every success or triumph that the Magic are experiencing was once considered questionable. The Franz Wagner selection, the acquisition of Wendell Carter Jr through trading Nikola Vucevic, and the offseason signings to fill out the roster were all met with their share of skepticism. Naturally, these results are not a complete representation of the record; they heavily involved player development from Orlando, too. But whatever the underlying cause, the ultimate outcome is fairly decisive.
Weltman's recent transactions outside of the draft have tended to balance out, too. He hit the jackpot by landing now starting center Goga Bitadze for pennies on the dollar. On the other hand, his decision to extend Wendell Carter Jr and bring back Gary Harris looks mostly curious. Meanwhile, the backwards progression of injured point guard Jalen Suggs to second-year player Anthony Black is a saga all on its own. Both lottery picks have developed the same bad trait of picking up their handle once the play-call breaks down, causing Franz and Paolo to have to exert additional energy to bail the team out of its offensive woes even further.
Progress in this league is rarely linear at the front office, player, or team level. In a time of rampant parity, even steady evolution might not show up in the standings. And the thing is, the Magic did evolve this season. Franz Wagner has bumped up his scoring and showed signs of becoming a primary option badged with All-Star status. Moritz Wagner was one of the leading candidates for Sixth Man of the Year before a season-ending ACL injury in December. Stand-out rookie forward Tristan Da Silva has begun emerging as an impact floor spacer, providing steady play after the Magic lost both Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. Banchero was setting a career-high in scoring (nearly averaging 30 points) on top of hanging a career-high 50 points on the Indiana Pacers.
The positive is that Paolo Banchero sees hope as he scans the top of the East standings, and a common trait throughout the league, patience. It took the Thunder five years to make this leap after acquiring Gilgeous-Alexander in 2019. It took the Timberwolves four years after drafting Anthony Edwards. It took the Denver Nuggets four years just to make the playoffs with Jokic—and another four after that to win the championship. The leap from good to great takes time.
Internally, the Magic remain relentlessly optimistic. Their two stars haven't even reached their primes, and they have one of the younger rotations among the top 10 East teams, with Black (21) and Da Silva (23) still evolving.
The frustration has stemmed from the lack of movement to better shape a foundation around the Magic core in a weak Eastern Conference, which at present features not a ton of heavy-hitting teams. There’s no telling how the offseason will play out or what reinforcements may arrive this summer. But the Magic will most assuredly be back in the mix. When the time comes, will Jeff Weltman pull the trigger, or will he remain sitting idly by?
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