Orlando Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman laid down the gauntlet during exit interviews.
He said plainly and clearly that the Magic will be looking to make win-now improvements and vault the Magic to their next phase.
Orlando was not satisfied with a second straight first-round exit. With two All-Star-level players in Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner now coming off their rookie contracts, the Magic need to be more serious about building a championship-level team.
In other words, the Magic's rebuild phase is over. The time to sit and wait on development projects is over. The Magic have been to the Playoffs two straight years. They know, as constructed, they can compete at a higher level. What they do not feel is that they can compete at a championship level.
Weltman is usually conservative and patient with his roster. If there has been a criticism of his tenure, it is that he is too cautious and too patient and that he is too reliant on internal improvement. That appears to be thrown out the window.
Orlando's needs are abundantly clear. The Magic have to find a way to improve their 27th-ranked offense that has not been outside the bottom 10 in the league since Dwight Howard was on the team in 2012. That predates Weltman. But all signals seemed to be reaching the inevitable and necessary conclusion that Orlando must improve its offense.
The question is: How? The Magic have a lot of issues to correct and areas to improve. But they will not be able to address them all in one big swoop this summer. Weltman is not going to abandon his principle of continuity. He is not about to remake the roster completely.
But it is also clear that the Magic are going to make significant changes.
So what would make for a successful summer? What are the Magic looking for, and what should they target?
The Magic's biggest needs were obvious throughout the playoffs and season. Orlando relied heavily on Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner to create off the dribble. Even with a healthy Jalen Suggs, the team relied on their creation and playmaking without much relief.
Orlando also needs to add shooting. The team essentially cannot add anyone to the roster who is not already an established shooter to boost this key weakness.
What makes a "perfect summer" then? Who are the Magic trying to target? What follows is at least a suggestion of how I would attack this offseason and where the Magic should put their focus this offseason.
1. A starter-level guard
Suggested Targets: Anfernee Simons, Austin Reaves, Coby White
Jeff Weltman and his management staff likely have a few iterations of this and a long list of targets they plan to pursue. But they should start and focus this offseason on improving their backcourt and shooting depth. They will need a few summers to address all their issues with finality.
The Orlando Magic are not starting from scratch, even if they are trying to rebuild their offense. They have their two stars set with Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. They have a strong defender in Jalen Suggs to boost their starting lineup.
If the Magic address their starting lineup this offseason, it will come at guard with a replacement for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope or at center, where the team could look for an upgrade over Wendell Carter.
The Magic only got to see its opening night starting lineup together for 82 minutes. Orlando did not get to see what it looked like with the Caldwell-Pope/Suggs backcourt, along with their two stars.
But Orlando was also highly successful with Cory Joseph in the starting lineup -- the Magic's opening night lineup had a -9.0 net rating in 82 minutes and the lineup with Joseph had a +11.5 net rating in 216 minutes. This is at least some evidence that a more traditional, organizing point guard provides stability to the offense, especially.
Maybe this was Suggs, and the Magic need to show some patience to give this lineup a chance.
Orlando could easily turn its attention to center. But the Caldwell-Pope experiment did not work. And the market this summer is more full with wings and guards than it is with centers -- Carter, despite his contract, might have a solid trade market because so many teams are looking for solid big men but there would not be a clear replacement.
It was also clear that the lack of production from the Magic's entire backcourt, even accounting for Suggs' absence, was the biggest need the Magic faced. They need shooting, and shooting comes from guards.
The risk with signing Caldwell-Pope was that he lacked the volume to transform the Magic's spacing significantly. That proved to be truer than anything else, and then his poor shooting season got lopped on top of that.
There are plenty of options from the high-salaried -- like Anfernee Simons -- to the more moderately priced -- like Coby White or Collin Sexton. Those come with their own attendant risks with their expiring contracts.
But the Magic can accomplish this goal and solidify both their offense and their starting lineup. Finding a starter-level player to do this is the big move of the offseason.
2. A Sixth Man/Creator Upgrade
Suggested Targets: Collin Sexton, Cam Thomas, D'Angelo Russell
The Orlando Magic's bench was a big superpower of theirs throughout the 2024 season. Orlando was fourth in the league with 41.5 points per game off the bench. That dropped to 28.0 points per game in the Playoffs (second-most in the league). Depth was a key part of the Magic's powers.
That got taken away with Moe Wagner's torn ACL. Orlando finished 17th with 35.8 points per game off the bench during the regular season this season. The team dropped to 18.2 points per game during the Playoffs, the third-fewest in the league.
The Magic as much as anything suffered because they could not sustain offense off the bench. Injuries this year -- not just to Wagner -- played a role in that. Roles reshuffled and players struggled to step up.
But the bigger issue is the Magic had no creators of their bench outside of Cole Anthony. Everyone else was either a young, theoretical shooter -- the idea of Jett Howard was better than the reality and Gary Harris is not creating for himself or shooting at volume -- or a defense-first or defense-only player -- Jonathan Isaac's poor shooting made him a negative on offense, and Anthony Black's aggression was inconsistent.
Part of the goal for the Magic this offseason is to find players who can play diverse roles and fill in when injuries happen and step up when the game calls for it. Throughout the playoffs, Orlando turned to its bench and looked for relief, and the team struggled to do so.
Anthony did this at his best. There is no win over the Miami Heat or Brooklyn Nets in December without Anthony. There is no Play-In win over the Atlanta Hawks without Anthony.
But ultimately, Anthony has struggled in the past two postseasons. He averaged 5.1 points per game in 2023 and 2.2 points per game in the series with the Boston Celtics. He averaged only 10.2 minutes per game.
As vital and important as Anthony has been culturally to the team, he has struggled to establish himself in the Playoffs. He has been the weak link.
The idea of what Anthony is was a good one. But he has not been able to deliver that role in the Playoffs, and that is what matters.
The Magic probably need to be willing to move on from Anthony -- his $13.1 million salary (with a team option on 2027) should be good salary ballast -- and need to find a way to upgrade this bench role.
Players like Collin Sexton, D'Angelo Russell or even a free agent like Cam Thomas would fit this bill well. Orlando needs players who can perform in the Playoffs and be the bursty scorer and creator that can balance the offense.
3. A 3-And-D Upgrade
Suggested Targets: Royce O'Neale, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Grayson Allen
Similar to the bench role, the Orlando Magic have the right idea with a player like Gary Harris. They need a solid 3-and-D player who can defend his position and fit the scheme and be a simple floor spacer. If they can do a little bit more, even better.
There is a reason the Magic turned to Harris so often toward the end of the season. They could count on his defense and if the ball swung to him, he was theoretically reliable to make a three.
After shooting 37.1 percent form three last year as a starter for most of the season, Harris made only 35.6 percent from three on 2.1 attempts per game. He had nine games with no 3-point attempts and 21 games with only one.
That is the part that rubbed everyone the wrong way. The Magic needed a shooter who wanted to shoot.
Some of that is on the offense. The Magic need to find ways to move the ball and get others involved. They need to work the ball to their shooters. But they still need this true shooting threat.
Like with the search for a playmaker, creator and sixth man, the Magic probably need to find an upgrade for Harris. They want what Harris provides, but someone who is more consistent getting involved in the offense. Someone who probably has a little more aggression searching for his shots.
This is a role player, so this is not a big-money player. The Magic could fill in this role with someone they grab as a secondary player in another trade. They could grab it as a third team in a bigger trade -- watch the Phoenix Suns.
But the Magic need to find shooters who can fill in minutes and add to the team. They need to put this emphasis on shooting.
Going after Royce O'Neale or Grayson Allen in a bigger deal with the Suns or even making a bigger play and moving Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to a bench role could boost the Magic.
The point of all of this is to improve the team's offensive depth and talent. That is the task ahead for this offseason.