The Orlando Magic have some needs on the wing to improve their depth and 3-point shooting. As the offseason looms ahead, the Magic have options to get one.
The Orlando Magic are a playoff-caliber team in the Eastern Conference.
Maybe that line is not saying a whole lot. At 30-35, the team was on track to finish with a worse record than last year’s 42-40 season but still finish as the 7-seed. The season as a whole is viewed as a disappointment, although nobody should reject the reality of a playoff series even if it means a sweep from the Milwaukee Bucks.
The other thing no one should deny is the Magic are not satisfied with finishing seventh once again. The Magic might still be a fairly young team. But with two playoff appearances under their belt, they have to want more and look for ways to break through to the upper tiers of the Eastern Conference.
A lot of that will take internal development. They need that youth — especially in Aaron Gordon, Jonathan Isaac and Markelle Fultz in the short term — to crystallize into something bigger. That is what a lot of people saw in this Magic team at the beginning of the season that did not come to complete fruition.
So there is a bit of emptiness. The team is searching for answers to get better. And that is going to be the difficult task ahead.
Orlando has a clear need for this offseason. The Magic have settled in at 10th in the league in defensive rating as the league hit the coronavirus hiatus. That is lower than last year’s number and the defense has slipped considerably.
But part of the reason the defense has struggled so much overall is the offense has been so poor. The Magic had the top offense in the league in the 10 games since the All-Star Game, showing that the team has plenty of offensive potential when it ramps up the pace. But the team overall has been one of the worst offensive teams in the league.
The Magic are 24th in the league in offensive rating this year, scoring 107.5 points per 100 possessions. That is with a 50.3-percent effective field goal percentage, the third-worst mark in the league.
To be sure, the Magic’s biggest need this offseason is shooting. If the team wants to take another step, it needs to get the shooting respect to run their offense more cleanly. Everything the Magic do this offseason has to have shooting in mind.
Diving through the depth chart, it is clear the Magic need to find some wing help. There is a ton of uncertainty with Evan Fournier’s potential free agency and questions about the Magic’s wing depth. Additionally, James Ennis, Wesley Iwundu and Melvin Frazier can become free agents on the wing too.
The Magic seem set at forward with the grouping of Jonathan Isaac, Aaron Gordon, Al-Farouq Aminu and Chuma Okeke in the fold. They could use another point guard somewhere with the likelihood they will not be able to keep both Michael Carter-Williams and D.J. Augustin in free agency.
A lot can change still. Trades will open up and the Magic could look to make changes via the trade market, shifting where they look in the draft and free agency.
For now, we will assume the roster stays fairly static and look into the early targets to shore up their wing depth.