5 Lineup ideas Orlando Magic fans should be eager to see this season

1. The Big Lineup

PG: Jalen Suggs
SG: Franz Wagner
SF: Paolo Banchero
PF: Wendell Carter
C: Goga Bitadze

A lot of the fun of thinking about the Orlando Magic's lineup possibilities is to think about its versatility and how the Magic can do away with the center and create something unique.

That is the potential of this lineup though. The Magic could go small and remain big. But they could also go big and still field a steady lineup. The point is the Magic can match up with smaller, quicker teams (or dictate that style of play), just as much as they could go bigger and try to overwhelm teams with their size.

Size after all is essential to the Magic's project. And the idea of playing Franz Wagner at shooting guard is just as enticing as playing Paolo Banchero at center. Orlando should be able to downsize successfully as much as they can upscale.

The most intriguing thing to explore though is against bigger teams—like the Minnesota Timberwolves or the Boston Celtics—whether the Orlando Magic would go back to playing Wendell Carter at power forward.

Orlando experimented at times with pairing Wendell Carter with Mo Bamba. Fans disliked it because Bamba was not big enough to defend the taller centers and not mobile enough to deal with the perimeter player.

The lineup was probably better statistically than fans gave it credit for. But it was not something the team stuck with for long.

Two big lineups were all but scrapped last year. Carter played only five percent of his minutes at power forward last year according to Basketball-Reference. He played 48 minutes with Moe Wagner last year at a +14.2 net rating and played 17 minutes with Goga Bitadze at a -5.7 net rating.

There is at least something perhaps to explore and experiment with bigger lineups. The Magic certainly have the perimeter players capable of playing down a position if need be. And that allows them to put a lineup that has a lot more size on the floor.

Orlando could easily go big and be successful. And they could go a number of different directions with any lineup they might put on the floor.