Predicting the Orlando Magic’s stat leaders for the 2024-25 NBA season
By Elaine Blum
The 2024-25 season is right around the corner and with it the return of Magic basketball. Magic fans will be able to watch pretty much the same team play as last season. The only significant changes the Magic made were letting Joe Ingles and Markelle Fultz go in free agency and bringing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cory Joseph, and rookie Tristan da Silva instead.
There will be many familiar faces in Magic uniforms in the 2024-25 season but that doesn’t mean that everything will stay the same. Especially offensively, there should be some significant changes as the Magic continue to try to improve on that end of the floor.
So, let’s look at who the Magic’s leaders in each major stat might be next season.
Points per game
Last season, Paolo Banchero was the Magic’s leading scorer, averaging a whopping 22.6 points over 80 regular season games. For a second-year player, that number is incredibly impressive and earned Banchero his first All-Star appearance. It seems it was only the beginning, though. Banchero is still growing and improving as a player and should be set up for the third-year jump we see so often with NBA players.
Plus, the Magic added some shooting to the roster to give Banchero more space to go to work offensively. All of this should lead to an increase in Banchero’s scoring numbers and he should be the Magic’s leading scorer again. Predicting that he will average around 25 points a game doesn’t feel crazy at all.
Rebounds per game
Last season, Wendell Carter Jr. and Paolo Banchero both averaged 6.9 rebounds per game and both have a good case to be the Magic’s leading rebounder next season. It seems that Carter Jr. will end up taking the lead, though.
Averaging 6.9 rebounds per game was a down year for Carter Jr., which was likely because of his hand injury. Even when he returned to the court, Carter Jr. didn’t look quite like himself. In the two previous seasons, he averaged 8.7 and 10.5 rebounds. The 2024-25 season should see Carter Jr. bounce back from last season’s down year and upping his rebounding average is a big part of that.
If Carter Jr. can get back to averaging around 9 rebounds per game, it will go a long way for the Magic and himself. The Magic still need to find out if Carter Jr. can be their starting center going forward.