Ask anyone the Orlando Magic's biggest problem, and everyone will give some variation of the same answer.
The Magic had the second-best defense in the league during the 2025 season. That was enough to get the team to .500 and earn the 7-seed in the Eastern Conference. But their abysmal shooting led them to have the 27th-best offense in the league and ultimately kept them from taking the step forward they hoped for.
Injuries played a role in this of course. Orlando suffered major injuries to their top four scorers. That disrupted the team's rhythm.
But shooting remained a huge issue throughout the roster. There are still too many non-shooters or subpar shooting.
Orlando finished last in the league, shooting 31.8 percent from three. That went down to an icy 26.8 percent in the five-game series with the Boston Celtics. It was the worst 3-point shooting the league has seen in nearly a decade.
To say the least, in the modern NBA, it is impossible to compete at a high level without some three-point shooting and the ability to occupy a defense's attention to create driving lanes. The Magic need shooting.
That is one of the big reasons the team acquired Desmond Bane in Sunday's stunning move. Bane is one of the best shooters in the league by all accounts. Spacing was the first thing that coach Jamahl Mosley said Desmond Bane would bring to the Magic as they introduced their newest acquisition.
Bane is already promising to change the Magic's fortunes from three.
"Orlando was the team that we circled at the top of the list." -- Desmond Bane on wanting to go to Orlando when he found out that Grizzlies might trade him pic.twitter.com/CmrxgP4YWU
— TheYoungManAndTheThree (@OldManAndThree) June 19, 2025
"When I knew that there was a bit of a chance I was getting traded, me and my agent sat down and talked about some potential teams, and Orlando was the team we circled at the top of the list," Bane said on The Young Man and the Three podcast. "Kept coming back to if I could slide right in there, open up a little space for Paolo and Franz. Jalen is a defender and can guard people all over the floor. It just seems like a great fit."
"The other thing is they were last in three-point eprcentage and makes this year," Tommy Alter interjected.
"We're going to change that," Bane replied. "We're going to change that quick."
Desmond Bane is a different kind of shooter
Certainly, a big part of the Orlando Magic's motivation to acquire Desmond Bane was his shooting. They knew they needed to improve that aspect greatly.
Bane is a career 41.0 percent 3-point shooter and made 39.2 percent from three. He did so on 6.2 attempts per game, his fewest since his rookie year.
Bane fixes two problems for the Magic then -- he is an efficient 3-point shooter and he is a volume 3-point shooter, able to get up a lot more threes than anyone on the Magic has before.
Bane made 46.9 percent of his wide-open three-point attempts (2.4 per game) and made 42.3 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3-pointers (2.9 attempts per game). That wide-open three-point percentage would trail only Caleb Houstan from last year's roster and that catch-and-shoot percentage would have led the Magic last year (and be the only player better than 40.0 percent).
Add in Jalen Suggs, who was a strong catch-and-shoot option before injuries overtook the team early in the season, and the Magic should have a stronger shooting team.
The problem still needs fixing
If there is one thing the Orlando Magic should know, though, is that simply adding one shooter will not turn things around.
They added Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in free agency last year to help solve their long-standing shooting woes. Caldwell-Pope was more in the 3-and-D style of shooters.
His lack of volume hurt him as did his inability to create shots for himself within the Magic's offense. But he also just missed a lot of shots -- shooting 34.2 percent from three.
He was not the only one to struggle.
Franz Wagner struggled to regain the shooting form of his first two seasons, settling at 29.5 percent from thre on 5.9 attempts per game.
While Jalen Suggs had a strong showing early in the season when the team was healthy, with more pull-up opportunities and more offensive responsibility, he struggled to 31.4 percent shooting on a team-high 6.9 attempts per game.
Caleb Houstan was the only player on the team to hit 40.0 percent from distance. The team's top six 3-point shooters from last season either have team options that are likely to be declined -- Gary Harris and Cory Joseph have reportedly already had their options declined -- or were included in the Desmond Bane trade.
The Magic still have work to do to rebuild their shooting even if Bane is a major addition that should improve their outside shooting.
But even with him and the poor shooting on this team overall, it was clear how much 3-point shooting could greatly impact and improve the team.
Orlando had a strong shooting run to end the season, making 34.8 percent from three after the All-Star Break (good for 21st in the league). The Magic shot 36.2 percent (17th in the league!) in a 12-6 stretch to end the season and earn the 7-seed.
If the Magic maintain their defense, they do not need a whole lot of shooting to keep their heads above water.
President of basketball operations Jeff Weltman said the quality of the team's shots varied depending on who was in and out of the lineup. Health too will help the Magic find the rhythm they need too.
But to compete for the championship that Orlando is openly stating it wants to compete for, the team needs a much more improved offense and shooting effort.
Bane will very clearly help in that department one way or another. The team should improve and avoid being the worst shooting team in the league.
But they still clearly must improve from deep.