Considering all that has happened to the Orlando Magic through the first half of the season, they are in a good spot for their present and future development.
Paolo Banchero has already established himself as an All-Star player who commands the defense's attention. Franz Wagner took the time when Paolo Banchero was out to establish his own version of stardom.
The Magic have one of the best young cores in the league. Few teams have two potential All-Stars at such a young age. And few young teams are winning at the level the Magic are winning at with such young stars.
The Magic are on track, despite their recent struggles, to return to the playoffs for the second straight year. They are fighting for homecourt advantage for the second straight year—that story is yet to be written. The Magic have carved a clear defensive identity they can build on.
For the first time in nearly a decade, the Magic are probably buyers at the trade deadline looking for ways to improve their roster and advance their future rather than manipulate the cap or acquire draft capital to plan for the future.
Orlando may not be all-in on the current season to mortgage their future, but the team is thinking about a future on the horizon rather than one that requires multiple years to reach.
The last thing anybody is or should be thinking about is breaking up this team's young core.
But it is trade season and perhaps provocatively, the TrueHoop Podcast's Henry Abbott and David Thorpe had this debate: Should the Magic entertain a trade of Paolo Banchero or Franz Wagner?
The answer to that question is of course a resounding: NO!
While they are focused on the sort of "ringz" culture arguments that become important for player legacies, even they acknowledge it is not realistic for a team to consider trading a 22-year-old All-Star at the beginning of his star run.
The debate ultimately centers on how a team measures a success. Is success only measured in championships? Or is success being able to guarantee fans 50-win seasons every year?
Success is probably somewhere in the middle.
Championships require growth
If it is all about championships, it then becomes about whether you believe Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner can be the kind of elite players that lead teams to titles. And there has seemingly been a lot of debate on that front concerning Banchero early in his career.
Drawing conclusions on 22-year-olds is folly. Especially ones who have already accomplished so much. The Magic deserve the chance to grow and make some mistakes—failure is still part of the growth process for a young team.
It is why Henry Abbott argued more teams should try to be proactive with young stars and try to follow the Sam Presti model with the Oklahoma City Thunder to collect draft assets and as many bites at the apple for the transformational stars.
And why Thorpe argued back, the Magic did that while lost in the desert for 10 years and got that prize in Banchero! Sometimes you get the No. 1 pick and it's Paolo Banchero, as they say.
To that point then, The Ringer ranked Banchero No. 16 in their top 100 rankings and Wagner was No. 23. A team with two top 25 players well before their projected primes is a team poised to compete for a title sooner than later.
It is preposterous to think the Magic would entertain trading either of these young stars. Especially when they are still early in their championship journeys and have positioned the Magic to be a playoff team for the foreseeable future.
But it does bring up a point worth discussing: When is the time to trade young players?
Acting early pays off
That is the point the TrueHoop Podcast is working its way around with this provocative question.
When is the time to maximize the trade value of young players and net the most assets? The answer to that question is usually early.
In the star context, the Oklahoma City Thunder filled their coffers consistently by moving early. That has always been at the forefront of Sam Presti's strategy and success in netting trade assets.
It also helps to be able to take advantage of desperate teams. But that is the point too: You make deals when you have a position of power.
The Orlando Magic extracted so much from the Chicago Bulls in the Nikola Vucevic trade because they dealt Vucevic when nobody thought he would be available. They caught a team desperate to make a splash when they had the most leverage to walk away.
In the end, they parted with Wendell Carter and the picks that became Franz Wagner and Jett Howard, setting up this rebuild.
On the other hand, they dealt Evan Fournier at the last opportunity to do so before he became a free agent and Aaron Gordon after he had already publicly hinted at a trade. It was a lot harder for the Magic to get value for those players. Only Gary Harris and a 2025 first-round pick remain with the team from those deals five years ago.
They were veterans and the Magic had non-championship reasons to hang onto them—coming off a seven-year rebuild and back-to-back playoff appearances, it was hard to abandon even this smidgen of hope.
And that is always the thing lost on the "ringz" culture arguments. Championships take time to build and even multiple attempts and failures to win. And success can be defined from the business perspective of putting a winning team together.
So no, Banchero and Wagner are not on the chopping block.
When will the present outweigh development?
But the point they are making should not be so easily dismissed. There is the other side of that coin: Hanging onto development projects when the team is ready to build can be an equally devastating problem.
It is safe to assume for now that Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, and Jalen Suggs are the only truly untouchable players on the roster. But the Magic might also be hesitant to entertain offers for Anthony Black and Tristan da Silva.
The reality though is the Magic are in a different phase of their build. And that too is something that the discussion on TrueHoop is getting at.
The Magic are in the championship business. They at least need to be taking steps to get to a championship. Their next series of transactions are aimed at a championship window in the next 2-3 years but also aimed at advancing them in the playoffs in the short-term.
And that means understanding when to trade young players and when to stay invested in them.
Like with the players at the star levels, it is often better to be proactive. And if there is an opportunity to improve, the team has to be ready and willing to strike.
Even if that means ending a development project.
Orlando may not be fully at that place yet as they enter this year's trade deadline.
Anthony Black, for instance, has shown plenty of signs of progress. But is he the guard of the future?
That is a question the team has to constantly ask themselves. And if the answer is leaning toward no, then perhaps it is time to explore the trade market for him early—especially before the team has to commit a larger salary to him.
That would help the Magic extract a lot more valuable player to improve their roster and push them closer to a title. It is better to act early once that decision is made to maximize value rather than wait before the market catches up.
These are not easy decisions. And they are decisions that take deft touch and a sense of timing.
It is clear that time is coming soon to make these tough choices and advance the Magic closer to a title.