Two issues have dominated the discourse around the Magic’s 2024-25 season: injuries and 3-point shooting. The Magic are the worst 3-point shooting team in the NBA, converting only 30.5 percent of their 35.6 attempts per game. That is even significantly less than the Washington Wizards and Charlotte Hornets—the two worst teams in the Eastern Conference.
No Magic player is shooting more than 36 percent for the season. Even Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Gary Harris, and Jalen Suggs are all converting less than 33 percent of their shots from long range. It has been a struggle, as the Magic cannot space the floor, defenses can just crowd the paint, and Orlando currently ranks 28th in offensive rating. Only the Wizards and Hornets have a worse offensive rating for the season.
One big reason for the Magic’s offensive struggles this season has been the team’s injury struggle. Missing all three of their best players for significant time has hurt the Magic.
However, even if healthy, the Magic just do not have a lot of good 3-point shooters on their roster. Garry Harris and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope are the only players with a true reputation as three-point threats across the league. That is not enough to improve the team’s spacing and offense.
Aside from the injuries, struggling to score and create offense has been the Magic’s biggest issue this season and one of the reasons they fell into the Play-In Tournament.
Do the Magic need to upgrade some of their role players?
Much of the conversation about the Magic’s offense has focussed on acquiring a high-level guard, like Anfernee Simons or Coby White, to fix the Magic’s offense. Kevin O’Connor had another solution on The Kevin O’Connor Show.
O’Connor is a big fan of Franz Wagner and his potential but admitted that he and Paolo Banchero need to improve from three. It would make them better all-around players and definitely help on their journey to becoming regulars at the All-Star Game.
However, O’Connor added, “But even if they are, this roster needs an overhaul in the role player department.”
While that may sound harsh, it is not an unreasonable take from O’Connor. The Magic clearly want to build a contender around Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, and Jalen Suggs. They have a great foundation and a clear identity, but building a contender requires more than young stars and knowing exactly what your team is about.
The right role players can make or break a team’s success. Orlando has relied on internal development to build out their roster, and that was great while the team was still in the middle of a rebuild. Now that they want to win at the highest level, it seems to be time to look for outside solutions and upgrades, even if that means parting ways with players who are beloved by fans and have been around for a while. The Magic have plenty of solid role players, but not many of them are consistent 3-point shooters, and that needs to change for the Magic to realize their full potential.
This does not necessarily mean that the Magic have to replace all of their role players, but some upgrades, for example, at the center position or backup point guard and forward spots, could make a real difference for the Magic. After all, surrounding Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner with as many 3-point shooters as possible is the easiest way to put them into a position to thrive offensively.