Regardless of how the Orlando Magic's season ends up, the team will have a lot of questions to answer this offseason.
Why did this season not go according to plan? How do you get this team to a championship level? How does the team avoid the Play-In ringer?
With the team's payroll kicking in and the team entering the apron next season, the Magic do not have the time to wait. They need to be as good as possible as quickly as possible.
The problems -- or at least the questions facing this roster -- will not come at the top of the roster. The question is how to maximize those players and make the most of them. That is still the question.
Even though the Magic have salvaged something from their season -- and there is plenty of work to do to secure that spot -- the Magic will need to ask a few big questions.
No question may be bigger than the one that has plagued the team for years now. And is still the biggest question facing the team: Are the Magic set at point guard or do they need a natural point guard?
It may indeed be time to have some difficult discussions. And already, there are a lot of pundits and experts wondering if the Magic make a push for a point guard to solidify the roster.
No player then is under more pressure to prove his place and his worth in the final 14 games this season and the playoffs than Jalen Suggs.
Suggs has often been miscast as a point guard. He works because the Magic put the ball so much in their forwards' hands. They do not need a traditional point guard. And Suggs' ability to spread the floor as a shooter has steadily improved, not to mention his defensive contributions.
Suggs' passing and playmaking have also greatly improved. Still, he has a lot to prove as the season draws to a close. This is one of the areas -- Wendell Carter at center is the other -- that the Magic may look to upgrade this offseason.
Orlando's roster is mostly set because of long-term contracts for Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Desmond Bane and Jalen Suggs. Even Carter starts a three-year extension next summer. Any major change to the roster would require breaking up a core that the Magic mostly believe in but have yet to see fully unleashed.
But the summer forces decisions. And the Magic need to be real about their roster. It starts at point guard.
Boosting Paolo Banchero
The goal is, of course, to find a way to make the most out of the top players.
To the national media, a lot of the attention and frustration with this team has been put on Paolo Banchero.
The former number one pick has been able to put up stats throughout his career, but he has been criticized constantly for his poor efficiency and statistical impact on winning. He has mostly bounced back.
The question is how do the Magic make the most of Banchero. Every question centers on that as Banchero begins his five-year max extension.
And that has ultimately come to the question of whether the Magic have the right point guard to get him the ball.
That is what Iman Shumpert claimed on his Shump Street Podcast in February:
"They don't have a roster that is set up for him," Shumpert said. "It's not like he is paired with somebody that can just deliver him the ball. They don't have Chris Paul over there. There is nobody setting him up for his gifts. They are just playing within their actions. Their mission is not to get him going. Until they get with someone who has a mission to get him going, it's not going to happen."
Banchero has gotten better since the All-Star break -- where he is averaging 25.5 points per game and shooting a 59.6 percent true shooting percentage with a +8.4 net rating with Banchero on the floor. He has taken over games a lot more than he was earlier in the season.
Still there are a lot of games where it feels like the Magic need more organization and someone to set him up.
It is why Bleacher/Report's ideal offseason trade for the Magic revisits the long-held LaMelo Ball idea that has mostly been rejected or pitches the Magic acquiring a veteran and champion like Kyrie Irving (even coming off a torn ACL).
It seems the Magic will be thinking about the point guard position again.
Suggs at the point
That is why the attention is clearly on Jalen Suggs to close the season.
Suggs has had another up-and-down season as he has dealt with various injuries once again. He has appeared in 45 games and is on track to play the second-most games in his career, eclipsing 50 games played for just the third time in his career.
Injuries and availability have been a bigger concern for Suggs than anything else.
His offense too has been up and down. He is shooting 32.7 percent from three, although he is making 40.1 percent on catch-and-shoot threes, according to Second Spectrum.
But the question is whether he is the best point guard and set-up man for this team and for Banchero.
To that point, Suggs is averaging a career-high 5.3 assists per game (nearly a full assist higher than his previous high set his rookie year). He has had some big assist games.
The Magic have a +8.3 net rating (115.2 offensive rating and 106.9 defensive rating). It is the best two-man net rating with Banchero on the court. Jalen Suggs has the best net rating playing alongside Franz Wagner among players Wagner has played 10 games with too at +8.4 points per 100 possessions.
Those numbers suggest Suggs as a point guard is not the problem everyone might think it is. He is still a booster for this team.
His problem has mostly been consistency and staying composed. Those are the intangible point guard skills that he sometimes lacks. He will turn the ball over at the wrong times or go through long three-point shooting droughts -- he has made only 10 of his last 36 3-point attempts.
This is all part of the big question the Magic must begin asking themselves. Is Suggs still growing into the role or do they need something more solid there?
There is evidence on both sides. And the Magic know that his value goes beyond his offense. It is about his defensive energy and intensity as much as anything.
But everything should be under review as the Magic go through their playoff chase and their playoff series.
And it is on Suggs to show that he can still make this team better and take them to the next level.