Projecting the Orlando Magic's 2025-26 starting lineup
Shooting Guard: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
The decision to sign Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was rightly celebrated as a major victory for the Orlando Magic. They acquired a veteran with championship experience who builds upon their top-five defense and fills one of their most crucial needs as a shooter.
Caldwell-Pope was about as big of a splash as the Magic could make, and should have quieted concerns that the Magic were not active enough this offseason.
Caldwell-Pope will help the team most with his shooting. He has shot better than 40 percent from three in three of his last four seasons.
Even if he is not a volume shooter, taking about four per game last year, the threat of his shooting and his ability to move and find gaps will be a critical outlet for this Magic offense.
But everyone also recognizes Caldwell-Pope is a bit of a short-term play. He struggled in last year's playoffs—he shot just 32.7 percent in the playoffs for the Denver Nuggets last year and really struggled defending Anthony Edwards in that series.
And he is now 30 years old, one of the few Magic players older than 30.
It is not unrealistic to see this as a short-term marriage, especially if the Magic struggle at point guard and feel the need to slide Jalen Suggs back to shooting guard.
Caldwell-Pope signed a three-year, $66 million deal with a player option on the third season in 2026-27. That leaves Orlando with a lot of flexibility to move off him if they need to. And he has a salary that could net them something very valuable.
Whether they want to or not might depend on who they are bringing in or whether Jett Howard, Gary Harris, and Tristan da Silva provide the kind of shooting spacing they anticipate Kentavious Caldwell-Pope bringing.
A lot of what the Magic are doing this year is invested in seeing whether Suggs can handle the point guard position. If he cannot, then he slides to shooting guard and the Magic could use Caldwell-Pope's big salary to try to make a play for a stronger starting guard that hits the market.