3 Reasonable expectations for the Orlando Magic’s offseason

After their successful regular season and gritty playoff run, the Orlando Magic are now set up for one of the most important offseasons in recent years. The young core around Paolo Banchero seems ready to take the next step, and this summer is the perfect time to build a better supporting cast. After all, the Magic are one of the few playoff teams with plenty of cap space available. 

The front office has some serious work to do to improve the Magic’s roster. This season, the East was not incredibly strong. Joel Embiid was injured for a huge part of the season, the Cavaliers and Knicks struggled with injuries, and the Bucks went through an adjustment period with Damian Lillard and Doc Rivers. 

Next season, that might look much different. Players will hopefully be healthier, and teams like the Bucks and Hawks might figure out whatever was preventing them from playing up to their potential. In that case, the Magic need to be better than they were in 2023-24. 

So, let’s look at three reasonable expectations for the Orlando Magic’s offseason. 

3. The Magic bring in some much-needed shooting

The Magic finished the season as one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the league and it hurt them in the playoffs. It is hard to keep up with most teams’ scoring ability nowadays without a handful of capable three-point shooters. The offense would just run much smoother if Paolo Banchero was surrounded by more players who can stretch the floor and allow him the room necessary to go to work. 

So, bringing in some three-point shooting should be a priority this summer. The Magic have plenty of cap space available and should be able to solve this issue on the free agency market. There are plenty of capable shooters out there, like Klay Thompson, Paul George, Buddy Hield, and maybe Luke Kennard, for example. 

The Magic’s interest in anyone with a good outside shot should be no surprise to anyone, as the only player who averaged more than three attempts from long range per game in the regular season and came close to shooting 40 percent was Jalen Suggs. Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero both took over four attempts per game but only shot 28.1 and 33.9 percent respectively. 

The two most-renowned shooters on the team—Joe Ingles and Gary Harris—both took few attempts per game. Having one solid volume shooter is simply not enough, so we should all expect the Magic to change that in the summer.