UNDERRATED: Locked On NBA Top 100 LOOKS PAST Orlando Magic’s young stars

UNDERRATED: Locked On NBA Top 100 LOOKS PAST Orlando Magic’s young stars

The lockdown NBA top 100 is here. How does Paulo Ben Carol get into the top 20? Is Fron Vagner still underrated? And what’s Desmond Bane and Jaylen Suggs place? And what does that say about the magic? Today on Locked on Magic, you are locked on Magic. Your daily Orlando Magic podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. And you are indeed locked on Magic. Today is September 9th. It will be September 10th, 2025. My name is Philip Rosenrike. I’m the senior writer over at Orlando Magicaily.com. Credentialed member of the Orlando Magic Media since the 2012 season. On today’s episode of Lockdown Magic, we’re going to dive into the lockdown NBA top 100. Where the Orlando Magic stand, how Paulo Bankur climbs the ranks, why Fran Vager is still underrated, and what it says about the role players and where they’re at. We’re going to dive into the whole list. Not maybe not the whole list, but we’ll dive into a good chunk of the list and begin to flush out what this all means for the Orlando Magic. We’ll get to that coming up here in just a moment. First, we want to thank you again for making lockdown magic part of your day every day. No matter when you listen to us, whether it’s first thing in the morning, whether it’s right when we upload, we truly appreciate you making lockdown magic part of your day. Every day, you can make lockdown magic even bigger part of your day by being one of our Orlando Magic dailies. That means you’re listening five days a week. Truly appreciate all of our everyday listeners. Now is the time to get in the habit. Build those habits now. That’s what training camp is for because we’re two weeks away from media day and the NBA season is right around the corner. Check it all out. You can download it wherever you download podcast or find us on YouTube. It’s all part of Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. I’d be remiss too if I didn’t mention in this part of the episode that we’re doing a live episode Wednesday at 6 after the Euro Basket Games. Join the show live on our YouTube on our YouTube page or on Twitter Magic Daily. Bring your questions. I want to answer your Magic questions heading into the season. Check it out again live at 600 p p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday after the Euro Basket Games. I’m not one for these lists. I I want to make this really clear. Uh I I’m not going to sit here and say I am deeply offended that one player is ranked over another. In fact, we kind of buried that hatchet yesterday. If you didn’t go if you didn’t listen to yesterday’s episode of Locked on Magic, be one of our Orlando Magic dailies and listen every day. Um, but if you didn’t listen, I had Cookahill of Locked on Pistons on, and we broke down where Paulo Bane Caro and Kate Cunningham, probably two of the most promising young under 25 players in the Eastern Conference, where they stand and why they sort of came in on this list where they came up. I’ve got the graphics. We’re going to put the graphics up on YouTube, but Kate Cunningham came in at number 15, uh, coming off a stellar year with the Detroit Pistons where they got they broke through, got to the six seed. Kate Cunningham is a fantastic player. And as I’ve said when we’ve had this discussion, I’m not going to sit here and tell you Kate Cunningham is a bad player. I’m not going to put him down. He had a fantastic season. He was all NBA last year and deserves where he’s at. I’m not even going to be that angry now that I’m actually sitting down looking at this list. I’m not even going to be that angry that Jaylen Williams is number 20. I know that there’s a lot of Magic fans who have feel a certain way about Jaylen Williams, but look, Jaylen Williams had a fantastic playoffs, fantastic job in the NBA finals, just won a championship. That has currency, that means something. The Magic got to win a playoff series. So, Palain Carroll on this list comes in at number 23. And and I’ll maybe pick some nits with Pascal Seakin was very good last year, by the way. But I look at this list of 21 to 30 and and and the way that I sort of look at these lists is more about tears. Who are the players that you are being grouped with? Who are the players that you’re being surrounded by? And you look at this list and you’ve got some stalwart veterans, James Harden, Pascal Seakum, Jimmy Butler, Trey Young, and then you got stars who haven’t quite figured the whole thing out yet. I would argue just looking at this list that that Paulo Bane Caro is in that tier with Jaylen Brown, with Jaylen Williams, he’s in that tier of young guys who are clear stars and should be. In fact, I would argue just looking at this list and just trying to like separate them out into groups of players, Palivo is either at the back end of the group that he should be in or he is woefully underrated. And you’ve heard me make this argument. And I saw some of the comments to our our our our episode yesterday. I didn’t get a chance to make this point, but Paulo Bane Caro is already a lot better than people think. I am willing to say on this episode, freezing cool take me. I’m not a big take guy, but freezing cool take me on this if it’s wrong, which it won’t be. Paulo Vancou is already a top 20 player in the NBA. If I’m not mistaken, when I turned my list in, I had him 19 or 20. I had Kate Cunningham right behind him. I do think Paulo is better than Kate. Um Kate I think had a better season last year but I think this this list was supposed to be looking forward to next year. I think Paulo Beno is in for a humongous season and frankly everyone who is asking when is Paulo going to make the efficiency jump when is he going to make the onoff number jump? I would tell you he has already made it. I told you that last week on the MVP episode. So let’s rehash a lot of those arguments. Don’t listen to that episode. Made an argument on why Paulo was due to be an MVP candidate. Probably not this season, but very, very soon. Paulo Berrow had an injury last year. Not just a small injury. A torn oblique is everything. It’s your core. It’s a core muscle. It it controls everything. And that injury had massive consequences. For a month in the season, Paulo was out of shape and playing really poorly. It sunk and drained all of his stats. And so, we have to look at the periods when Paulo was at full strength. And yes, they are small sample sizes. Yes, they they aren’t the full season, but Paulo Bancerero showed us in those games after the All-Star break that he is ready to take the leap. After the All-Star break, I believe it was about 27 games, again, smaller sample, a little bit more than a quarter of a season. Be Carol averaged 29 points per game, shot 47.3% from the floor and 33.3% from three. He posted a 58.3% true shooting percentage. That put him eighth among players with a usage rate of at least 30%. The comparison is for the full season. For the full season, he had a career best 55.1% true shooting percentage. That’s his whole season that was only better than LaMelo Ball among players with a 30% usage rate. And not to put Fron Vagner down. Fran Vager was only slightly better at true shooting percentage. three-pointers weighing that down a little bit, but two shooting percentage takes into account where your points are coming from. Field goal attempts and free throw attempts and points. It’s there’s a formula behind it. That’s it’s where that comes from. The point being, I think Paulo Beno has already made a superstar leap that everyone is assuming he hasn’t made. There is a narrative out there, an unfair narrative, but a narrative nonetheless, that Pelo Ben Carro’s stats are fluff, that they are just fat. They are just stat padding. Someone’s got to score. He has the ball a lot. It there’s there are people that argue that he does not have an effect on winning. And they’ll point to the onoff argument. The Magic had only a 109.1 offense already with Bane Carol on the floor last year. That’s only 0.2 points per 100 possession better. And because people love to compare it to France Vagner, the Magic had a 111.8 offensive rating when Vagner was on the floor. That was the team’s best among its rotation players. There’s the the on-off argument always skews in Vagner’s favor. Plays a lot with the bench. But again, after the All-Star break, after the All-Star break, things changed dramatically. The Magic had a 113.6 six offensive rating with Ben Carro on the floor after the All-Star break. That was 0.9 points per interceptions better than the team’s overall average. It was fifth highest on the team, but right behind France Vagner. So again, it’s a small sample. I will be the first to admit that. But you take that with the five games he played before the oblique injury and you throw out the 17 games that he played immediately after the oblique injury when he was clearly working himself into shape. He spent his all-star break getting back into better shape and it hints that Paulo Vancero is ready for a breakthrough. He is ready to take a dramatic step forward. He is ready to be an MVP candidate. He is ready to be an allNBA player without a doubt, an all-star without a doubt. All these things that we know watching him every day that he already is. he can have a bigger impact on winning and adding in Desmond Bane, bringing back Jaylen Suds, having a Taius Jones off your bench, a better year from Anthony Black, having this year, this team take another year of growth only makes this more certain. So, if we’re going to freeze and Cole take anybody, Paulo Vancero at 23 on this list is going to look really, really, really, really silly. come April May because the only thing missing from Paulo’s resume right now is homec court advantage and a playoff series win narrative is going to change a lot this season and it’s going to change a lot too for France Vagner why France Vagner is still somehow criminally underrated we’re going to get to that coming up here in just a moment but first Today’s episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to you by friends at FiveHour Energy because it’s time to fuel up and turn it up with FiveHour Energy Transfusion. 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I I I make this very very clear when I hear people try and pit them against each other and say, “Oh, no. France is actually the best player on the team.” And and I would argue like, look, I think their personalities mesh really well. Paulo is the sort of like typical superstar alpha that we remember from the 90s and the 2000s. Fron is very happy being a uh for for lack of a better way to phrase it a Scotty Pippen. He’s very very happy in that role. I think I think he has less of the instinct of I’m just going to score here. And that’s something you’re always trying to get out of him. And maybe that’s why Fran Vagner ended up where he ended up on this list because I I do think France Vagner is still very underrated on this list in our lot again, we’re going to talk about this in terms of tiers of the players around him. So in so in our list of the top 100 players, Franager comes in at 35. He is next to borderline all-stars like Bam Adabio and Damonte Sabonis and Darren Fox. Been to a few all-star games, but they’re not like, “Oh, these are the creme de la creme.” He’s alongside Jamal Murray, who is an all-star in all but honor only. He’s next to Alpr Shenun and and like to those who have filled my inbox because I was tagged to the tweet as well as said like Alpurn Shenun is much better. I agree with you. Alpr Shenun is criminally underrated on this list too. And so it just feels like this group, this group 31 to 40 are just the guys we don’t know what to do with with with some hints of highlevel role players. And that’s meant in the most respectful way possible for Derek White and Vita Zubas who are very very very very very good um and probably deserve to be a little bit higher on this list as well. to me I can understand why no one’s quite ready to pull the trigger and say and sorry for the phrasing on that uh is quite ready to say I’m ready to believe that Fran Vagger is better than a bam bio a more established player a player that everyone kind of knows what they’re going to get having said that I look at that list and to me Fran Vagger is a surefire all-star this year like Eastern Conference Magic supposed to be good. The way the international team is going to be composed, Fron Vagner will be an all-star for the first time this year. He already has shown us that he could take over games and that he can average 24 25 points per game. And so I’ll go ahead and group France Vagrant Alpurn Shengun. And to my Rockets fans listening, like I’m I’m not going to argue that Fron is better than Shangun. They’re just going to pair them together for now. They’re in the same tier. They’re in the group of guys who are clearly good enough to be allstars, but just haven’t gotten the Albert got it last year, but they’re clearly on the verge of something bigger. And so I find it hard to believe that they’re not better. If we pull up the 21 through30 list, they’re not better than Jimmy Butler. They’re in that group with John Morant, Darius Garland, Trey Young, if not maybe certainly with Shangon, I would argue he’s better than Trey Young at this point. And I’ I’d potentially argue he’s better than Jiren Jackson Jr. at this point. I would argue he’s better than James Harden. Like, do we want to have the argument about Paulo? I’m not quite there yet with Shenon, but the way he’s played at Euro Basket, I I think we could I think they’re in that same grouping, that same tier of of guys of players. These are players that are about to hit it big and now have rosters around them and players around them that are going to help them hit it big, that are going to help them take that next step, take that next leap. At the end of the day, what a guy like Fran Vagner is missing, the same thing that Paulo Ben Carroll is missing and to some extent the same thing that Alpurn Shenun has missed because I I’ll I’ll I’ll bat for Alpurn Shenun and say he is criminally underrated on this list. We turned these in before Eurob Basket started, so we didn’t get to watch Eurob Basket, but if you’ve watched any of Turkey and Eurob Basket, they look every bit as good as Germany. That the game against Greece on I believe it’ll be Friday is going to be insane. That is going to be one heck of a basketball game. If you can get if you can find a way to watch it, I have my course 1891. That’s going to be fun. It’s going to be a fun day on Friday for for for basketball before the final on Sunday. Fran Vagner just isn’t in front of people. I mean, I I don’t watch NBA Today, but I had a I had a bunch of people complain to me that NBA Today talked about Euro Basket and didn’t talk about tournament favorite and Eurobasket MVP favorite Fron V tournament favorite Germany or Euro Basket MVP favorite Fron Vagner once. And that’s just the reality of things. So just like Kevin Alpurn Shenun is about to get an injection of attention because of Kevin Durant joining the Rockets, France Vagner is about to get a big boost just like Palan Carro is about to get a big boost from Desmond Bay and the spacing and opportunities he’s going to create. In fact, I’ve gotten accused of this. I’ll I’ll take it. I’ll say that yes, we’ve been talking about it too much. It feels like everyone is so focused on what Fran Vagner can’t do, and that is his three-point shooting. They’re so focused on getting that part better that they missed the forest for the trees. I know I say this every time I talk about France Vagner, especially in the context of the shooting because it is important. It’s a it’s a swing skill that’s going to matter in the playoffs. And as the Magic get deeper and deeper and deeper into the playoffs, that’s going to mean a whole lot more. I always say this when we talk about his shooting. Fran Vager is already a really good player. If he doesn’t make a single three-pointer for the rest of his career, that that would stink. But if he if the three-pointer is just not part of his game, he’s still going to average 20 points per game, do it efficiently, and be a player that everybody on the floor is worried about at all times because he’s just so good at getting to the basket and so smart and methodical in his approach and understands when he doesn’t have it and takes that attention, gives it to someone else and and and gives that space to someone else. Somehow for all the attention and love that France Vagner gets, people still doubt him in a major way. And maybe that changes if he wins the O basket and gets another gold medal in international competition. It’s not like he hasn’t done that before. It’s not like he hasn’t shined on the international stage in a bigger role. It’s not like he hasn’t done this for the magic already. But nationally, Fran Vagner is still anonymous. I’m not going to blame the voters. I, you know, even the even the NBA people, I think, underrate what Fron Vager does. In fact, I’ll go ahead and say I probably underrate what Fron Vager does. I’m pretty sure I had him in the late 20s. I don’t remember exactly what my ballot was. I apologize for that. I didn’t keep it. I did it, sent it in, and that was that. I would argue I underrate what Fron Vagner does because I’m so focused on the big picture all the time, too. But the fact of the matter is Fran Vagner is knocking on the door of stardom. He is not some borderline all-star. He is not a guy who’s going to miss the All-Star game. He is not the token representative like frankly Bamio is. I probably I think I had Tyler Hero ahead of him, but he’s not a token representative like no offense to Bontus Sabonis and our friends that locked on Kings. The Kings aren’t a factor. As long as the Magic are competitive in the Eastern Conference, as long as the Magic are championship contenders put Paulo Beno and France Vagner on the All-Star team inc. And you know what that does? You know what that does? You know what that does? That makes him one of the 30 best players in the NBA. Not where we had him on our list. A big piece of the puzzle to both Paulo Ben Carro and France Vagner improving their perceptions around the league is the improvement of the role players. Magic have two more players on the list and one who just missed it. We may talk a little bit about him. Let’s get to the rest of the top 100 coming up here in just a moment. Obviously then the big move of the offseason for the Orlando Magic was Desmond Bane. It was a transformative move. It was the the opening salvo of the summer. It was a statement of intent. The magic acquiring Desmond Bane was two things. First, it was adding shooting was is it was filling a weakness and maintaining the team’s culture. The reason why we didn’t have Desmond Bane on the list at the at the beginning of the offseason because we didn’t think why would Memphis trade him. He’s just so good and so solid for what they do. The reality is Desmond Bane is probably a better fit in Orlando than in Memphis where he’s probably asked to do a little bit too much. There’s a little bit more burden sharing now. Now I I will say I have some concerns about the pace and I think picking up the pace and getting getting out in transition more will help him and help maximize him and that’s something the Magic are going to have to change for him. But the threat of Desmond Bane changes everything. And ultimately what getting Desmond Bane does is it increases the talent level. The fact of the matter is when we did this list last year, if we did this list last year, when we we looked through these top 100 lists last year, we saw only three Magic players. There’s Paulo, there was Fron, and there’s Jaylen Suggs somewhere in the 60s or 70s. If Wendell Carter made it at the tail end, great. If Contavius call, well, Pope made it in the 90s, great. But the Magic lacked a third guy. And if you look through this list, you know, if you look through these list, and they’re all on on the locked on uh if you go to locked on NBA, you can listen to them break down the list there. They’re everywhere. If you look at these lists, the top teams, and it’s a chicken or egg thing, but the top teams have multiple guys, have four or five guys. The Thunder have like five guys on this list, and we’ll get to one of them in a minute. Ultimately, the Magic get in this trade the number 46 player in the NBA. And you look at the players around him, you’re looking at guys who are borderline allstars. Scotty Barnes, Julius Randall, Jaylen Johnson, probably an all probably will be an all-star. Tyler Hero is this low. I don’t know if I would have had him this low. Um I don’t think I did. LaMelo Ball borderline allars. And to some people, Desmond Bane is a borderline all-star. Is someone who has been really really close and it’s just a competitive Western Conference. Maybe this this the lineups didn’t break that way. But there’s a reality where Desmond Bane becomes a third Orlando Magic All-Star, but you really look at this group 41 through 50 and you see elite role players, guys who just help their teams fit together. I’m not going to include Scotty Barnes and Jaylen Johnson in that, but they do that role, too. Those are those are star level players and I would put Desmond Bane behind both of those guys. Um, but those are the kind of players that I would comp them to and as far as as far as their role and their impact. You get an Aaron Gordon, Mr. Nugget himself. We love AG here. Um, we don’t love OG as much, but we love AG. But putting Desmond Bane in this group with like Aaron Gordon, OG Anobi is perfect. That is exactly the group he belongs with. Guys who are just somewhat overqualified for their roles but embrace it and love it deeply. Who perform those roles to their absolute pinnacle. But the magic hope you get from Desmond Bane is someone who’s going to help create space, create freedom, create a chance to exhale, to take some of the scoring burden so that Paulo and France, as I’ve said a million times, aren’t just banging their head against a wall. someone who can have a 25-point night so Paulo and France don’t have to carry that burden and can make it to the playoffs and in a playoff game can have that big game that turns a series from a 1-1 series to two-1 series which is huge from a two-1 series to 3-1 series those are huge that’s what Desmond Bane is he is not quite a role player I think that’s going to going to be thought of pjoratively but he plays a role for this team he’s not a star but he can be when he needs to And those are the kind of players he is grouped with. I think there might be some people who say he could be in the 30s and and and I look at the guys in 30s and I I think frankly he is put in the exact right spot. I think he’s about number 43 in the in the 40s early mid-40s. Um sorry he was 46. Um somewhere in the mid-40s I think is the exact right spot for him. And and again you look at who the Magic sent out. Contavius Calwell Pope and Cole Anthony. Love those guys to death. KCP is a great dude. Cole is Cole is everything. I’m I’m really excited for him in Milwaukee. They’re not Desmond Bane. Those five first round picks the Magic sent out, the odds of them being one Desmond Bane are extremely low because the Magic have a top got a top 50 player in that trade. The last guy to talk about is Jaylen Sucks. He does crack the top 100 despite the injuries last year. He’s still very well thought of around the league. And if I click the right one, I did not click the right one. Sorry about that. Uh where is he? There he is. He comes in at number 67. And again, I’m looking at grouping players. And if you look at this group of players, you see where he is considered. Dyson Daniels, a potential allNBA, all defensive team player. Uh Jaden McDaniels, another great defender. I might put Jaylen Suggs over Jaden McDaniels, but but I understand injury concerns and all that. Just ahead of Alex Caruso, probably a good comp for him. Isaiah Hartenstein, another really solid solid just solid role player role player there. Jaylen Suggs in about in the mid60s sounds about right. We’ll pull up the 50s here and see. You know, Trey Murphy might be a little high on that. Austin Reeves is certainly high. I would I would definitely keep Mal Burges and Orin Powell above him, but that sounds about right. 67 sounds about right. We can argue the Zack Lavine stuff and Zack Lavine has a different role and you know Brandon Ingram has a different role and Fred Dane Vleet has a different role but mid60s sounds about right. this tier of guys who are all just excellent defensive specialists. And what’s left for Jaylen Suggs to prove, of course, is that he can be healthy, that he can scale back his usage now that the Magic have three guys ahead of him who need the ball. And Suggs has to continue to add that defense. At the end of the day, his value is his defense, and he is a culture changing defender. You can’t help but play hard because Jaylen Suggs is held together with with scotch tape and super glue all the time and he does not care and it sets the tone for everything the Magic do. Suggs can certainly climb this list. I’ve been big on this. I’ve been big promoting this. I’ve been shouting this from the ceilings. Jaylen Suggs is an excellent catch and shoot three-point shooter and I think this season he is going to take off. I think this season with far less on ball responsibilities beyond maybe bringing the ball up with far fewer onball responsibilities, he is going to be unlocked as an ultimate catch and shoot, ultimate 3D player. I am really excited for the potential that Jaylen Slugs has to play a role that fits his skills the absolute best. He shot 39% on catch and shoot threes in 2024. Before Paulo’s injury, he was shooting 42 43% on catch and shoot threes on like heavy volume. We’ve been begging the Magic to have to get a volume shooter. They got one in Desmond Payne and they’re getting another one in Jaylen Suggs. It’s just going to be about making him, which again is tricky. But everyone, I think, recognizes the value that Jaylen Suggs has when he’s healthy and the value that he brings to this magic team to change and shape their culture. In the end, like I’m not one to get angry about these lists because ultimately they are just us guessing. They’re just, you know, we try to pull a big enough sample to get rid of outliers and make a representative list. There’s a lot of things to be angry about on these lists. At the end of the day, what we want to see is the team prove itself on the floor. And ultimately, like when I scale back and look at these lists, like yes, I think Paulo is underrated. Yes, I think France is underrated, but ultimately we have looked at these lists for much of the last decade and just hope to get a player on the back end of the list. Now, we’re debating whether Paulo is a true superstar and one of the top 20 players in the league. I think he is. We’re debating whether Fron can crack that top 22. And we’re looking at this list and seeing that the Magic have much more talent than they’ve ever had or at least had in a very long time since Dwight Howard was here. And the fact of the matter is this. Perception drives these lists and the Magic haven’t won anything yet. Win a playoff series, I can guarantee Jaylen Suggs cracks the top 50. Win a playoff series, Powell’s in the top 20. Fron might be in the top 20 if you win a playoff series. Win a playoff series, Desmond Bane might crack the top 40. Win a playoff series and Desmond Bane is going to get some All-Star buster, be in position to be a top the number one seed. Desmond Bane is going to be in the All-Star conversation. Winning changes everything. And right now all we have is the expectation of winning. All we have is that we expect the magic to win. In two weeks, we get to work actually winning basketball games and make all these lists feel kind of silly because I think a lot of things on this list are going to be silly, especially where the magic ultimately end up. I want to thank you all again for listening to today’s episode of Lockdown Magic. Of course, follow me on Twitter, philipr_omd, and on blue sky, philipr. You can subscribe to the podcast and Apple podcast tune in to him, Google Play, Spotify, Odyssey, and all the fun places you download podcast to your podcast enabled listening device. For the latest on the Orlando, you can also check us out on YouTube. Just search for locked on magic. For the latest on the Orlando Magic, be sure to check out orlandomagicdaily.com. You find us on Twitter, Omagic Daily. Again, for even more Orlando Magic content, be sure to check out my Patreon page, the Orlando Magicub, at patreon.com/orland Magicub. As always, thank you for your support. You’ve heard me drone on about the Locked NBA top 100 list over the last half hour. Now, you get the chance to hear from the NBA experts what they think of the list. Voted on by the NBA host of Lockdown Podcast Network, our top 100 was formed by experts that cover these teams and players every day. You can find podcasts talking about from every team essentially talking about this list. It’s it’s kind of required. You can find the full list on Locked on Sports Today on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. I’ve done my reaction. I want to hear yours. Tomorrow or Wednesday at 6 PM Eastern time. Wednesday at 6 PM Eastern time. We are going to go live and talk about the Euro basket games between Georgia and Finland as well as Germany and Slovenia. some really good basketball games coming up. We’ll break those games down and I’m going to take your Orlando Magic question. So, join us on Wednesday at 6 PM Eastern time on the Lockdown Magic YouTube page or on Xpaces at OM Magic Daily. We’re going to do a live episode. Take your questions. Get ready for the NBA season because we are just two weeks away. It’s very, very, very, very, very exciting. But that’s going to do it for me today. I want to thank you all again for listening to today’s episode of Locked on Magic for Orlando Magic Daily Lock Magic. This has been Philip Rossman. We’ll see you again next time for another episode of Locked On Magic.

The Locked On NBA Top 100 is here. The Orlando Magic are well represented, but still coming a bit under the radar. Were they underrated?

They will not be for long. Paolo Banchero is knocking on the door of being a top-20 player in the league. Franz Wagner is still somehow overlooked despite his own flirtations with stardom. And Desmond Bane and Jalen Suggs are among the elite role players in the league.

Will the Magic defy expectations and continue their rise this season?
0:00 Intro: Locked On NBA Top 100 rankings
5:07 Paolo Banchero already a top 20 NBA player
14:51 Franz Wagner criminally underrated at #35
20:58 Desmond Bane acquisition transforms Magic’s outlook
26:34 Jalen Suggs’ defensive impact and future potential
31:09 Winning will change perceptions of Magic players

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