Orlando Magic UNLEASH Offensive Firepower with Bane and Suggs

Orlando Magic UNLEASH Offensive Firepower with Bane and Suggs

The countdown to camp is on and today we are talking about the most important thing from the off seasonason. Yes sir, it is another shooting episode. The shooters for the Orlando Magic and what they bring 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 18th, 2025. My name is Philip Rosnik. I’m the senior writer over at Orlando Magicaily.com. You can go follow me on Twitter, philipr_omd, credentialed member of the Orlando Magic media since the 2012 season. On today’s episode of Lockdown Magic, we’re going to get into the shooters. We’re going to talk about Desmond Bane, Jaylen Suggs, and Taius Jones. How the Magic’s relationship to three-point shooting will change for the better. I promise this time we’ll get to what those three bring to the table today on Lockdown Magic. Before we do any of that, 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, we upload. We truly appreciate you making lockdown magic part of your day. Every day, you can be part of our Orlando Magic dailies by listening five days a week. We go Monday through Friday, guaranteed, mostly guaranteed. And we’ll hit the weekends once the games start and start talking after games. You got that to look forward to. Get in the habit now. That’s what Training Camp is for. Be you can subscribe every download podcast. All part of Lux on Podcast Network, your team every day. Undoubtedly, the Orlando Magic have a missing piece. The Magic the Orlando Magic have had a missing piece for a long time. Uh, a a thing that they just needed to add to their lineup. A a thing that they needed to add to make this thing work. And no matter how many times Magic have tried to find it, they they they just haven’t been able to find it. It’s shooting. It’s putting the ball in the basket. It’s creating space for their best players to operate. The Orlando Magic have struggled so much on offense. And all of it or a lot of it can just be traced down to shooting. They have an elite driver and scorer in Paulo Manuel. They have another elite driver and scorer in France Vagner. But their struggles to create good shots comes down to they don’t trust their teammates to make open looks. They can’t generate open threes. They can’t stretch defenses and put them into compromising positions. It just always feels like the Magic banging their head against the wall. And again, Paulo and Frons are good enough to put some pretty big dents into that wall, but that’s obviously not enough. The Magic need to make three-pointers. They’re coming off a season where they had the worst three-point shooting season the NBA has seen in the last decade, 10 years at least, and they were just simply not good enough or not a big enough threat from three to be anything more than a playoff team than just making the field. That’s obviously not where the Magic want to be. Obviously, the Magic want to go deeper. They want to do more. They want to take that next step. And so obviously we’re here sitting and talking and dreaming and thinking about a a championship as close as the Magic have been since Dwight Howard was here. We are thinking and and talking about this stuff openly because of the trade they made in June. When we were all picking out the shooters that we thought the Magic would want, we thought they’d have to compromise their values to get that shooting. and instead the Magic delivered a home run acquisition. They got Desmond Bane. They got a player who fits their defensive identity. They got a player who is a capable, efficient, and excellent three-point shooter. They got a player that they hope can relieve the pressure, relieve the tension on their top players, on their top guys. It cannot be understated how much Desmond Bane should change this magic team. Just on its face, Desmond Bane is a far more capable shooter, a far more willing and and and hunting three-point shot shooter than Contavius Caldwell, who yes, disappointed last year, had a bad had a down year. We’re not going to pretend otherwise. Desmond Bane is someone who is on the floor to be a constant three-point threat. From the moment he crosses half court, defenses have to be worried about that pull-up shot where he is one of the best pullup three-point shooters in the league. Last year, he shot 37.8% on 3.3 pull-ups per game. He was seventh in three-point field goal percentage among players took at least three pull-up three three-point attempts per game. He shot 42.3% on 2.6 catch and shoot three-pointers. This is not just a player who’s going to take those kinds of threes, but take a lot of them. Averaging six last year, and that was down. He’s averaged seven, eight. He will have games where he takes 10, 11, 12 threes, and he’s going to make five or six of them. To say the least, the threat of Desmond Bane shooting should not only create the spacing that the Magic so desperately need. It should it should give the Magic the tool that they need, the tools that they need to take an even bigger step. Should give them the tools to have a functioning offense because they have a player who is a constant three-point threat. More than that, and and I think this is the bigger thing. More than that, Desmond Bane relieves pressure everywhere. It’s not just that he has gravity, that defenses have to respect his three-point shot, that they can’t fade off of them. They can’t they can’t linger off of him. It’s that because Bane shoots at such high volume, the Magic don’t need France Vagner to shoot five threes a game. It’s one. If France is going to shoot, let’s let’s be generous and say he’s going to make 33% of his threes. If he’s shooting five or six of them, yeah, that’s one or two threes, but that’s a lot of shots. If he’s taken three and he’s one for three, occasionally has a two for three game, two for four game, two for five game, that allows Fron to focus on things that he’s good at. The Magic don’t need Fron and Powell to shoot five threes per game. Although, I’m sure Powell will still shoot four or five threes per game. So, I’m honestly sure Fran will still shoot four or five threes per game, but the quality of those looks should improve because Desmond Bane is an option because Desmond Bane is a player that defenses have to respect. And that’s the difference. That’s going to be the difference that Desmond Bane brings. And on top of that, he averaged five assists per game last over the last two seasons. He is someone that can make plays off the dribble, can run some pick and roll. He’s not just exclusively a three-point shooter, but he’s always a threat to shoot. And that’s something the Magic have not had really since Terren Ross. And Terren Ross was a heater. He was he’s just, you know, he was putting up volume, had bad games, had good games. Team often went how those went. Product of how that team was constructed. But Bane is a much different kind of shooter. And again, it should be transformational for this Magic team. It should be something that changes how the Magic operate, how the Magic function, and how the Magic get the job done this season. If you watched a Paulo Benurro video and he started this documentary, this like documentary series ahead of the season, he posted or he shared his reaction to the Desmond Bane trade and immediately he was miming passing to Bane in the corner and passing Bane for three. Everybody knows the power that Desmond Bane can have for this team and for a team that has not had reliable volume shooting in a very long time. Terence Ross was like a 32 33% three-point shooter. It’s just the threat of his of him going off is what fed him. The threat of what Desmond Bane is gives the Magic legitimate shooting and legitimate spacing. It’s going to be on the magic to use that. But if there’s one thing Orlando learned from last year, because Kavius Cwell Pope had the same reputation, if not on on the same volume, certainly on lower volume. If there’s one thing the Magic Learn, it doesn’t take just one shooter. Why the Magic have the answer there, too, and why Jaylen Suggs is now in the perfect role. We’ll get to him coming up here in just a moment. But first, today’s episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to you by my friends over at Monarch Money. Most people cannot name all their financial accounts or or even what they’re worth. Whether it’s 401ks, properties, or investments, when you don’t have the full picture, you can end up leaving money on the table. That’s why there’s Monarch Money. It’s an all-in-one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean, easy to use interface on your laptop or your phone. Monarch is built for people with busy lives. If you’ve put off organizing your finances, Monarch is for you. Monarch does the heavy lifting for you. You can link all your accounts in minutes. See clear data visuals. Get smart categorization of your spending. And finally, feel in control of your money without ever touching a spreadsheet. Maximize investments. Increase your savings rates. Easily review your finances with your partner or financial adviser. Keeping a clear view of your financial health week to week and long-term is the way to take control of your finances. Knowledge is power and organization is knowledge. Don’t let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use code locked on NBA atmononey.com in your browser for half off your first year. That’s 50% off your first year at monarchmoney.com with code locked on NBA. I have been screaming this from the top of my lungs all off season. And so I’m going to scream it again. Not scream it because you know your your earbuds are in. You’re listening somewhere. You probably you probably want me to talk a little quieter and and and give you some ASMR here. Um but I have been I have been screaming this all off seasonason long. Jaylen Suggs is due for a fantastic season. Jaylen Suggs is due to be the kind of player the Magic have always needed him to be. Not just the head of the snake on defense, not just a guy that’s going to lead the team in their chosen identity and the identity that they have. Not just that kind of player. He is someone that I think has a major contribution to give on offense and is set to make that major contribution. Is set to be a true difference maker on that end. Jaylen Suggs to me is the ultimate 3 and D shooter. And I know if you look at his stats, it doesn’t suggest that shot only 31 or 32% from three. But in reality, Jaylen Suggs has been miscast. The majority of his minutes last year, he was the second option behind France Vagner. For a good chunk of his minutes and and the few games that he played last year, he played 36 games last year, about 36 games last year. I don’t have the stats directly in front of me, but for most of last season, he had to play a starring role. He had to be a main creator. And while I think Suggs is capable of doing these things, doing them on that team with so few shooting options around him, with so few like heavy options around him with all the injuries the Magic faced, that’s not his job. That’s not where he is strongest. Where Jaylen Suggs is actually strongest is how he played in the first five games of the season when he was shooting nearly 50% from three. But he was shooting 41, 42, 43% on catch and shoot threes at volume, six or seven attempts per game, following up a 39% three-point shooting season on catch and shoot threes in 2024. To me, Jaylen Suggs is indeed the answer for the Orlando Magic. He is someone that gives them a second volume shooter. The Magic don’t need Paulo and France to take this many threes this year because if Desmond Bane is going, he’s going to take 6783 threes. If Jaylen Suggs is going, he’s going to take 678 threes. The Magic don’t need Paulo and France to take those shots anymore. Now, they’re going to have to. They’re going to have to make a few. That has to be part of their arsenal. I’m not saying that. But they don’t have to be the lead the team leaders in three-point shooting anymore, which they were last year. They took the most. They took that they averaged the most threes on the team if I’m not mistaken. It was Suggs, Paulo, and Fron were the top three guys. And knowing that Pow and France had the ball in their hands a lot, very few of those were catch and shoots. They’re all pull-ups or all low percentage threes. Jaylen Suggs had to take a lot of those low percentage threes last year. And I think that’s why his percentage depress because I think he has taken a serious leap in his three-point shooting. But as I argued a few weeks ago, putting Jaylen Suggs in this fourth man role, this third man role, secondary attacker role, gives him more of these three-point shots that he has already proven he can hit at a pretty healthy rate. That he’s already proven he can make at a strong strong level. And that and that is a reason to be excited for Jaylen Sucks. And that is a reason why Jaylen So why it is safe to assume the Magic will get out of the bottom 10 at offensive ring. I think that is a shoein. It’s a reason why it might be possible for the Magic to be even better on offense than anybody anticipates because I think Suggs is a much better shooter than Isan. I think the Sug stuff I think the stuff that we saw early in the season last year is real. Now, of course, asterisk time. A, Jaylen Suggs got to get through the season healthy. He’s had only one healthy season in his career, but B, we don’t know what his status is coming off the knee injury. The knee injury was a little more complex than they let on. It was not just a scope. It was a mosaic plasty. And it was a not a major knee injury. It wasn’t like he tore his ACL or anything, but it’s a little more complicated. It’s a little bit more tricky. It’s probably something the Magic could be watching and managing. Certainly early in the season, Jaylen Suggs ain’t gonna change the way he plays. He’s gonna still go all out, but now the Magic don’t need him to give as much on offense. They can simplify his offensive role a little bit more. So maybe fewer of those wild drives to the basket that might further expose him to injury. Although again, not asking Jaylen Sex to change who he is. But what you are asking him to change is his focus. No longer does he need to initiate and create, although he’ll still have that in part of his diet. Now most of his shots are going to be kickouts from Paulo, kickouts from Fron, kickouts from Dez. Now he’s going to be attacking rotating defenses more should open up lanes, especially if he is the big three-point threat that I think he can be. And more than that, having two potentially elite high volume catch and shoot three-point shooters suddenly makes the Magic Offense a ton more dangerous. Suddenly makes the Magic Offense look a lot different. Shooting unlocks everything. It opens the floor up because now defenses have to make decisions, have to make sacrifice, have to decide, are we gonna double Paulo and leave someone we can’t afford to leave open open. Can’t really leave Fron open on the perimeter either. Even though he’s not a great three-point shooter, because if you’re late on a closeout, he’s going to attack it and get downhill. And he’s unstoppable when he gets downhill. He’s going to make the right decision. He’s going to get to the basket. He’s going to finish or he’s going to kick out to an open shooter that you did leave open that you didn’t want to leave open. The point the point of all of this is the Magic really do have four solid perimeter offensive options in their starting lineup. Now that’s why Desmond Bane is so big because once it was clear Kavius Cwell Pope was going to struggle to shoot, he doesn’t do anything else. That’s the difference between him and Desmond Bane at the end of the day is Bane will do something else. Bane does not need to take a ton of threes to be effective. He does and he’s good at it. But he can do other things. So can Jaylen Suggs. And if Jaylen Suggs is an excellent three-point shooter, that only makes it more difficult. It’s not rocket science to say that shooting just unlocks everything. It has been the thing that has kept the Magic Offense under lock and key for so long. Now though, now they’re trying to open the door. Now they are trying to unleash this monster, this this this huge thing. Now they’re trying to get where they’re going and and get this thing moving. And the Magic’s three-point shooting from their starting lineup looks ready to do so. And it’s the same deal with Titus Jones. Why he too is now in the perfect role for him coming up here in just a moment. But first, today’s episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to my friends over at Open Phone. Sorry, I had to pull up the wrong the wrong thing there. Uh, if you’re running a business, you know that every mis call is money left on the table. Think about the last time you had an urgent need, maybe for a plumber or service provider. If the first person didn’t answer the phone, did you wait? You probably didn’t. You moved on. That’s why you need Open Phone. Open Phone is the number one business phone system built to streamline and scale your customer communications, all from an app on your phone or computer. Open Phone lets you manage business calls and texts from a single app. Their shared inbox feature is a true gamecher so your team can jump into any conversation instantly without missing a beat. And their AI agent handles after hours calls, answers common questions, and captures leads so you never miss a customer. Open Phone is offering my listeners 20% off your first six months at openphone.comlockedonba. That’s openphone. O pen ph.comlocked onnba. And if you have existing numbers with another service, open phone will port them over at no extra charge. Again, that’s openphone.comlocknba. Open phone. Don’t miss calls. No missed customers. Titus Jones does not fit the Magic’s type. Just plain and simple. He’s a smalish guard, not known for his defense. He is not a typical Orlando Magic player. Like his IQ is really high. He’s a low mistake player. He’s not going to turn the ball over a ton. The Magic need a point guard. He’s a good floor floor spacer. Good good guy who’s going to settle the team. but he’s not a Magic player and there’s always a bit of skepticism that the Magic were actually interested in him because a they had a chance at him last year and opted not to go for him and go for what a lot of Magic fans thought they should throw some some money at him. This year they went for him. They moved the money around. They got it done. They got him. And look, Tus Jones is going to come off the bench. I think last year and really his time in Washington kind of proved that he is not as effective as a starter. like he’ll put up numbers, but the defensive shortcomings become real. And this is why Taius Jones might be in the perfect spot because if you look at the players he’s most likely to play a lot of minutes with, they can help cover his weaknesses. They can help take advantage of his assisting and his passing while covering up for his defensive shortcomings. In all likelihood, he’s coming off the bench playing alongside Jaylen Suggs, Anthony Black in the back court. He’ll have Jonathan Isaac behind him. He has a strong defense around him. He was fine in Memphis with a strong defense around him. The Magic are different, great defensive team that needs organization and leadership, and that’s what Taius Jones is going to give them. And so, it’s a nice little trade-off. Tus Jones gives the shooting 41% from three in the last two se in each of the last two seasons. Um gives them the playmaking, the lower turnovers, which is a huge problem for quietly a huge problem for Orlando. The Magic are able to give their guards their perfect role, their ideal role to get the most out of them. And what the Magic hope to get in return is, yes, the low turnovers, but the shooting. We’re talking about the shooters today. It’s all about shooting. And Taius Jones is one of the best three-point shooters in the league. Again, 41% each of the last three seasons, last two seasons, he has been more than solid. Jones may not have the size, but he does everything else the way the Magic want him to do it. And so if he gets back into a winning environment, gets back into a bench roll, gets surrounded by strong defenders, there’s no reason to think that the Magic cannot maximize him, cannot get a lot out of him. But in the playoffs, there will be a question, no doubt. But let’s get there first. And what the Magic need from Tus Jones is to be Tus Jones. They’ll cover for him. They’ll make they’ll they’ll they’ll help they’ll help him be in a spot to succeed defensively, but at the end of the day, the Magic get to put him in a role set for him to succeed. And that’s the exciting part about how this team is constructed. Now, there are questions, no doubt. We got to see guys make shots. Like, I I I’m with you guys. We’re a little scarred. Got to see guys make shots. But the Magic have better have significantly better shooting and have shooting in the right places between, you know, Desmond Bane is such an excellent shooter in such a different way than Godo. Jaylen Suggs has shown us that he can be an excellent shooter. Tus Jones is an excellent shooter. If the Magic get even moderate bumps from Paulo Ben Carro, get Fran Vagner back into the 30s. Like I I’d love to see Fran shoot 33%. I think that would be a huge trip. Anthony Black improving his three-point shot, getting up to again 34% would be awesome for him. Seeing Wendell Carter bounce back, seeing Jonathan Isaac bounce back, maybe there isn’t as much faith in that. But the Magic’s relationship with shooting is so much different now. And that’s why there should be so much more optimism about the way the Magic are going to play because now they have volume. They have guys who are specialists who can do more than just be specialists, but are specialists. And if you get them open shots, they will make defenses pay. And that’s what has to happen. It’s not rocket science. Pass the open man, make the open shot. Not rocket science here. with all the attention that Paulo Beno and France Vagner ultimately always get. Having reliable elite shooting around them puts the defense in these compromised positions. The way defense works in the NBA now is offenses make defenses decide what they’re going to give up. That’s the truth of it. offenses are just so advanced and so so far ahead that really it’s defenses have to have to decide we’re going to give this up and we’re going to live with it and if they beat us doing that they beat us doing that. Orlando’s whole defensive strategy is we’re going to take away three-point shots and we’re going to make you feel feel us if you go in the paint. You’re not going to want to go in the paint because we’re going to bump and hit you. There’s nothing wrong with that. They’ll they’ll take the fouls. They don’t mind getting fouls. The Magic on offense don’t make teams make those decisions. They know we got to take away Powell and France. If we take away the drive, if we take away the paint, this Magic team’s not going to make us pay. So, what happens now? What happens now that, oh, we’re going to take away Paulo’s drive. We’re going to collapse three around him. Well, now we just left Jaylen Slugs open for three. Now, we just left Desmond Bane open for three. Now we’ve left Suggs open. He drives, gets the defense in rotation, kicks it to Bane in the corner. He makes a three. Oh, now we’ve, you know, stopped Paulo. He kicks out to to to Taius Jones. He drains a three. Those are the questions defenses have to ask themselves now when they face the Magic. And early in the season last year, they were asking those questions about Kavius Gope Pope. Kavis Cowell Pope was effective even though he was not making shots. the once a Lee cut win that he’s not making shots, they changed that bet and the Magic’s offense struggled. And look, Paulo and Fron are good enough that if you if you decide, hey, we’re just going to try and stop those guys, they’re still going to get theirs. That’s why they’re the stars. That’s why they’re so good. But the goal now is with the shooting is to make their jobs easier to so that they’re not worn down at the end of games, at the end of seasons, so that they can get an easy shot here and there. And that’s what the magic shooting has done. This should be a transformational season for shooting. This should be a season with incredible, incredible changes to the Magic’s offense just based on the shooting improvement. And whether it pans out or not, that’s what the countdown to camp is for. I want to thank you all again for listening to today’s episode of Lockdown Magic. You can find me on Twitter, phipr_omd, and on blue sky, phipr. You can subscribe to the podcast, on Apple podcast, search, tune in, Google, Spotify, Odyssey, and all the film I see on the you download podcast to your podcast enabled listening device. For the latest on the Orlando Magic, be sure check out Orlando Magic.com. You can find us on Twitter atomagic daily. And for even more Orlando Magic content, be sure to check out my Patreon page, Orlando Magicub, at patreon.com/orlandomagicub. As always, thank you for your support. Be sure to check out the locked NBA top 100. It is here voted on by the NBA hosts of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Our top 100 was formed by experts that cover these teams and players every day. Find the full list on Lockdown Sports Today on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. Don’t miss my reaction. It was last Wednesday was my reaction to the full list. Last Tuesday, we spoke with Cookahill of Lockdown Pistons to break down the Powell versus K debate. Check that out in our archives. All part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. That’s going to do it for me today, though. I want to thank you all again for listening to today’s episode of Locked On Magic. We’ll be back tomorrow. We’re going to break down the centers, all three of them, talk a little about what we could get from them as our countdown to camp continues. But until then, for Orlando Magic Daily and Locked On Magic, this has been Philip Rossman. We’ll see you all again next time for another episode of Locked On Magic.

Have the Orlando Magic solved their shooting woes? New additions Desmond Bane and Tyus Jones could be game changers for the team’s offense, finally helping the Magic break their streak of offensive ineptitude.

Orlando has desperately needed shooting. They went out and acquired two strong shooters. And they should get a shooting boost from Jalen Suggs’ return from injury too.

Will the Magic’s new-look offense propel them to playoff contention?

0:00 Intro: Countdown to Magic training camp
3:35 Desmond Bane’s impact on Magic’s shooting
8:11 Paolo Banchero’s reaction to Bane trade
11:14 Jalen Suggs poised for fantastic season
24:37 How improved shooting transforms Magic’s offense

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