Jonathan Isaac is the longest tenured Magic player on the roster, and after the team's offseason moves, it appears as if there will be an inevitable breakup between him and the organization in the near future.
Last season was not only an underwhelming season for the Magic, but for Jonathan Isaac as well. If you go back to the 2023-24 campaign, Isaac appeared in 58 games and averaged 6.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, shot 51.0 percent from the floor, and a respectable 37.5 percent from distance in 15.8 minutes a night.
Isaac was rewarded by the front office with a five-year, $84 million contract extension in the 2024 offseason. Now coming off a productive season, Isaac had gone into the 2024 offseason fully healthy for the first time in a long time, and according to him, bulked up from 219 pounds to 250 pounds in one summer.
The intent behind that was to not only get stronger, but to add more muscle mass for the team to play five-out and run more small-ball lineups. That may have backfired on Isaac as he appeared a step slower last year, and his numbers regressed in almost every statistical category.
Jonathan Isaac's regression
In 2024-25, Isaac averaged 5.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, shot 41.4 percent from the field, and 25.8 percent from 3-point range. This was a season where Jonathan Isaac was healthy and played in 71 games, his most since his second year in the league, and yet he still struggled mightily according to his standard.
The Magic dealt with a litany of injuries last season to top players like Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Moe Wagner, and Jalen Suggs, which all factored into the regression of the other role players. But this allowed Orlando's 2024 draft selection in Tristan da Silva to showcase his talents, and he took advantage of that opportunity.
Orlando's depth
Tristan da Silva showed the ability to be a guy who can handle the rock, move without the ball, be a capable shooter from the perimeter, and play within the flow of the game. If he takes another strong step forward going into year two, that could affect Isaac's minutes and opportunities.
Orlando also has to see if Jett Howard can turn into the shooter that they envisioned him to be going into year three. The Magic will have to continue to give minutes to guys like Anthony Black, Moe Wagner, and potentially Goga Bitadze off the bench. The free agency additions of Desmond Bane and Tyus Jones will both be playing a lot of minutes night in and night out.
And this is all without mentioning both of Orlando's draft picks from this year in Jase Richardson and Noah Penda, who looks like a potential Jonathan Isaac replacement option if he continues to develop.
Orlando clearly has a ton of depth, a lot of top-end talent with their core four, and the more you look at this roster, it's going to be hard to play Isaac 15-plus minutes a night, assuming health. The Magic are also going to be in salary cap hell next season once Banchero's extension kicks in.
That would likely indicate that Jonathan Isaac, who is not a high-level contributor, who can't play 20+ minutes a night, and is on an expensive contract, will get moved sooner rather than later. Orlando will likely be willing to make more moves to free up more space in preparation for next season, and Isaac is the most likely candidate to be sent packing.