WELCOME to the 2025-26 Orlando Magic season | How the Magic have the season they HOPE for

WELCOME to the 2025-26 Orlando Magic season | How the Magic have the season they HOPE for

We are finally here. After months and months of anticipation, it’s media day. The 2026 is here. Welcome to the next Orlando Magic season. 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 28th. It will be September 29th, 2025. Happy media day and welcome to a new season of Orlando Magic basketball. My name is Philip Rosnike. I’m the senior writer over at Orlando Magicaily.com. You can follow me on Twitter, philipr_d, credential, member of the Orlando Magic media since the 2012 season. On today’s episode of Lockdown Magic, we officially welcome you to a new season. If you take a little break from lockdown magic, welcome back. We’re ready to get this thing rolling. Get ready with the season. get some actual magic basketball, some fresh magic content, some sound, all that good stuff. We’re gonna talk today about keys to a successful season and where things could still all go wrong. We’ll get to that coming up here in just a moment. But 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 could be one of our Orlando Magic dailies listening to Locked on Magic five days a week because we are going five days a week. Plus on the weekends when there are games. We won’t go immediately after Saturday’s game. I’ll explain why later in the week. But we’re in it. We’re we’re locked in. We are in here for the duration. Five days a week. Be one of our Orlando Magic dailies. All part of Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Today’s episode of the Locked On Magic is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Head to fanduel.com to get started. We’re here. Just plain and simple. We’re here. We made it. We’re at the beginning of a new season for the Orlando Magic. There’s just so much excitement and so much anticipation for this season that I honestly don’t have much more to add. Like, I have my questions for me. I have the things that I want to know and the things that I want to get into, but we’ve been talking about them over and over and over and over over the last three months or over the last Yeah, three months or no, four months since the big trade that changed everything for this team. It has been a long four months since the Orlando Magic were eliminated from the playoffs against the Boston Celtics. It feels like the entire earth has changed. Yes, we had big expectations for the Magic last year. We had big expectations for this team regardless. We all understood why the Magic struggled last year. We all understood why the Magic didn’t have the season they wanted. I would argue that they still made a lot of last season despite everything to rally to get to 41 wins, to make the playoffs the way that they did, to win the games that they had to win down the stretch. It wasn’t a success. It didn’t make the season a success, but it was a major step in the right direction or or at the very least it was a major step in saying this team has done what it needed to do and showed what it needed to show. If the Magic were healthy throughout last season, I have no doubt that the Magic would have very come very close to accomplishing their goals. They would have been in the hunt for the four, five, and six seed with Indiana, Milwaukee, and Detroit. They would have been good enough to give those teams a push and to have a real chance in those series with Milwaukee, with Indiana, with Detroit, maybe even with New York to get out of the first round and accomplish their key goal. After all, when you lose a first round playoff series in game seven, the only way to improve is to get out of the first round. Nevertheless, I remember what I said my goal was coming out or coming into the 2025 season, coming into last season, was to have a clearer picture of what the Magic needed to do to win a championship to get a chance to test yourself against one of the best teams in the league and to come out and see exactly where you you stand up, exactly where you measure up to that team. And the blessing of playing the Boston Celtics in that first round was that the Magic got to see that. They got to see, oh, this is what a championship team looks like. And yes, I know Boston lost in the second round, but defending champs, this is what a championship team looks like, and we aren’t there yet. Yes, Paulo Ben Carro and France Fagner had great playoffs, building on their first playoff experience against the Cleveland Cavaliers, but it was clear the rest of the supporting cast just wasn’t there. That this team was deficient and that it felt like to some extent the Magic missed an opportunity to make the team better by betting on internal growth and obviously the contavius call signing. It just didn’t work. And so the Magic took those lessons into this off season. The Magic took the lessons and saw the frustrations that they had throughout last season and turned it in turned kinetic energy into or turned potential energy into kinetic energy. If I remember my science terms correctly, the trade for Desmond Bane back in May was an earthshattering ch trade. It shook the NBA up. The NBA took notice. Not only was it a trade that happened during the NBA Finals or right before the NBA Finals, but it was a seismic shift in an Eastern Conference that suddenly felt more wide open than ever and would seemingly get more wide open with what the Milwaukee Bucks ultimately did. The Orlando Magic now enter this season with real expectations. Expectations they aren’t hiding from. The Magic over the last two years have not hidden very much from what they believe this team can be. It’s actually been very refreshing after so many years of avoiding saying the play saying the P word in playoffs. They’re openly talking about winning a championship. Paulo Vancero spoke to Josh Robbins of the Athletic and said there is no excuse for us not to make a deep playoff run. They’re the third favorite on our friends at FanDuel to win the East. The FanDuel over under is 50 and a half wins. And again, to put all this in context, these aren’t conversations we could realistically h we have not realistically had since 2012. That is 13 years ago, 14 seasons ago. The Magic changed the paradigm this off season. They want you to expect a championship. They’re not hiding from that. And while yes, I I I don’t think it’s going to happen this year. Maybe maybe you can’t. Maybe Paulo has taken that leap. Maybe France has taken that leap. Maybe Desmond Bane is truly the thing that unlocks this offense and eds that godforsaken streak and the Magic actually have a functioning offense that we’re not like pulling rope through our teeth to watch. Floss, by the way. It’s It’s good for you. the Magic have these expectations that they have to meet now. And it’s not just that, it’s the payroll, too. We can’t escape the salary cap. The payroll is there, too. And so, it all comes back to how does this team handle those expectations and that pressure. Pressure again and expectations they’ve set on themselves. We could say all we want, but Paulo said it, Dez has said it, Galen said it, Fran has set the bar high. Everybody is expecting this thing to work. Everybody is expecting great things. Everybody is expecting this Magic team to take that step forward. Certainly Jeff Welman and the Devos family are paying for this team to be an elite team in the league. There is no running and hiding from it anymore. There is no dodging and ducking. we’re going to hold this team to a championship expectation and championship level. And while again like my goal and my expectation for the season, what I think makes a successful season, as I talked about with Jason Bey on on the podcast on Friday, what I think makes a successful season is seeing that this team is on a clear path to a championship, a close series against one of the East favorites in the second round, getting to the conference finals, knowing that we are just a few breaks, maybe a few years of seasoning, maybe another battle scar away, away from seriously think seriously looking at ring sizes just just just to use the metaphor. This is a season and this is a team that has that capability. They’ve got the talent. We could go through all the top 100 list including the locked on NBA top locked on NBA top 100. The magic of four players in the top 50. They have two players conceive in the top 35, conceivably in the top 30 depending on how how much you want to argue with people. Desmond Bane has Desmond Bane’s very much in that conversation to you to be a top 35 player. The Magic have more talent than they have had since 2010. And now they just have to put it all together. Now there’s no running and hiding. There’s no sneaking up on everybody. Everybody knows this Magic team is a danger and a pain to play to boot. So, what is going to help this Magic team have a successful season? Let’s dive into that a little bit coming up here in just a moment. But first, today’s episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to my friends over at Fivehour Energy. Caffeine just got a flavor upgrade. Five Hour Energy Shots deliver tasty caffeine in 17 bold flavors. Each 2 shot packs the caffeine of a premium 12 ounce cup of coffee. You go from this to that. If you’re watching on YouTube, I I went small to big. Um, plus B vitamins and nutrients with zero sugar and zero crashes. What I love most is how portable they are. They literally fit in your pocket. Big taste, tiny shot. You can take it anywhere and get that boost when you need it. You reach, we all have that feeling. And we’re gonna have that feeling tomorrow because media day is tomorrow. It’s a lot of standing around. I’ve been working on my delts, you know, making sure making sure I got to hold that recorder up. We’re going to get to the end of that day. I’m gonna have 15 hours. Not 15 hours. That’s a lot. Gonna have a lot of hours, a lot of time of audio to sift through and find a way to put together a story and put together an episode. I’m going to need that kick to cross the finish line to get me over the hump and get me get me past those afternoon blues. That’s where five energy comes in because they’re sugar-free that kicks in fast and you don’t have to worry about crashing later so you can just keep powering through to the end. Enough with boring flavorless caffeine. It’s time to give your caffeine a flavor upgrade with five hour energy shots. Get the favorites you love or be bold and try something new in store and online at www.5ourenergy.com or on Amazon today. So, how do the Magic have a successful season? What’s going to be the thing that tips them over? What’s going to be the thing that makes this work? Well, I feel like we’re so obsessed with the offense, which we should be. We we we’re kind of taking the defense as assumed as we’re taking the defense a little bit for granted. And I you know what, that’s fine. We shouldn’t worry too much about the defense. The defense is still going to be really good. There are enough players who know this defense works, that knows that is a key to their identity. They’re not looking to be an offensive team. We could talk about trying to push the pace, which is going to be key. We can talk about making more threes, which is going to be key, but everything for this team is still going to sprout from their defense. Now, are the Magic can be the second best defense in the league? Again, it can be a lot harder to maintain that level of defense, especially if he could score a little bit more. One of the reasons the Magic need to be better on offense is so that the defense doesn’t have to carry that weight and and lift the team the entire time. The Magic have to be able to win those 130 to one those 130 to 125 games that happen for every team in the league. Every team has to deal with that. The Magic are going to have to say, “Oh, our defense isn’t clicking night or they’re getting good three-point luck. We got to be able to score with the other team and trust that our defense will be there in the key possessions of the game. And that’s fine. That’s that’s part of the league. There’s so many games things randomly happen. It is what it is. On top of that, like yeah, like Jaylen Suggs might not be ready for the start of the season. It’s going to be one of the key questions we ask during media day. The Magics defense might start a little slow and find themselves. You know, Desmond Bane is a willing defender. He’s a He’s going to fit this team perfectly culture-wise. He is going to talk. He’s gonna He’s going to jabber. The Magic are going to love this guy. You’re going to love this guy. You watch him play. He doesn’t back down from anybody. He knows his defensive shortcomings. He does not care about them. He goes out there, he plays hard. It’s all you can ask for from a guy like him. So, the defense should be a given, but I I I’m like I’m worry warps. I’m always gonna be a little concerned. Defense is something you have to build every single year. It it it it’s just it’s not something that you just click on and it’s there. It’s it’s something you got to build. It’s trust. It’s rotations. Enough of these players have been on this team. They know what’s expected of them. They know what to do. They know those rotations, but you got to find it. You got to find the will to do it. And again, like Jaylen Suggs is really important because he always has that will and you always have to try and match it. Obviously, like on top of that, like the things that the Magic struggled with last year, the Magic doing better in those categories, is going to help. The Magic cannot be the worst three-point shooting team in the league that next year, let alone the worst three-point shooting team of the last decade. That cannot happen again. They have to be healthy. They cannot Jaylen Suggs can’t play 36 games. Like, as much as I think, you know, we could talk about the point guard position, the Magic don’t have another guard like him. Like, he is the crux of this thing. He’s a thing that could make the whole thing work. The magic need to be healthy, you know. Yes, they could probably survive a random sprained ankle from somebody. They could probably survive a random sprained ankle from Fron or Paulo. They’ve had that happen, miss like eight, nine games, you know, miss a week or whatever. The Magic could probably survive that with the offensive talent they have on the roster. But they can’t have another major injury. Like that’s and that’s nothing you can control. But really, I think the key to this season and key to making this season more successful is the Magic have to do a better job using their defense to create offense. One of the areas that they like bafflingly struggled in is they weren’t good in transition. Yes, they were the lowest possession team in the league last year. Slowest pace in the league by possessions by per 48 minutes. And a lot of that has to do with like look, you’re a defensive team. You’re stretching the shot clock. Your defense is limiting your possessions anyway. And that’s fine. Like that’s that’s okay. You can you can live with that. Um you know that that that’s fine. Um but despite being one of the best teams at creating turnovers, the Magic were still kind of middling in fast break points per game. they were not particularly good in transition points per possession. So, they were getting a lot of these transition opportunities and not converting off of them. Now, some of that is simply they didn’t have spacing. Guys couldn’t, you know, they no team was afraid of guys spraying out to the three-point line. So, they walled up, forced difficult shots in transition, and the Magic struggled to create those shots or struggle to make some of those shots. Now, we could talk a little bit about it like Jaylen Suggs can be a little wild and get a little over his skis. We talk about that a lot. You know, Palo Beno is a bulldozer. I I think he prefers to slow the game down, but he’s actually quite efficient in transition. I’d love to see him get out on Greg Moore. We saw in Eurob basket how like scared everyone in the tournament was about Fran Vagner being in transition. And the Magic never really used that. And so I think like as much as a three-point shooting is important and look, even if the Magic are slightly better, they went 31% from three last year. If they get to 34, you know, 34, 33 and a half percent. They don’t have to be league average in three-point shooting. They’ll be better. I think they’ll be closer. Like, don’t get me wrong, it’s better to be better at that than not. Um, they don’t have to be an elite three-point shooting team. They just have to do enough to get respect. And that’s really what Desmond Bane’s about to do. And really what Jaylen Suggs might do if he’s the kind of volume shooter that I think he can be. But the magic being able to get out in transition, spread the floor, have Fran Vagner going down the middle of the lane, Desmond Bane filling in the lane to his right, dishing back to him, dishing to Jaylen Suggs, and making threes in transition. That’s going to be the ticket. That’s going to be the way the Magic really attack these teams. And so really, the Magic are leaving points on the board because their defense is creating points they’re not scoring. And again, like the Magic were 27th in offensive rating. The difference between 27th and 19th is not that much. It’s shooting below average from three instead of abysmally bad. It’s getting a few more of these transition opportunities. It’s making a few more free throws. Like, yeah, Paul needs to make more free throws. Like, he gets the line enough and his free throw shooting is good, not great. He leaves points on the board. These are the things that the Magic are going to need. It’s it’s it’s there are big things and big ideas that the Magic of course address this off season, but I think the key to a successful season is winning these points on the margins that the Magic are leaving on the board. It’s finding these little things because you’re already so good at so many things. Like everyone around the league understands the Magic were better than their record last year. The national media might be a little slow on that. People who don’t watch the Magic a lot or don’t pay a lot of attention to the NBA might be a little slow on that. They might see this Magic team and be like, “Uh, they were 41 and 41. Why is everyone so excited? Why did the Magic give up five first round picks for Desmond Bane?” And it’s like, “No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This was a 47 win team two years ago. They got better and injuries knocked them down. Now they’re even better than that 47 win team.” And again, like I think last year they probably would have ended up at 46, 47, 48 wins. I think they were I I still think the Magic were a better team last year. We just never saw them healthy enough to really show that to us. Even with all the things they struggle with. And again, even if and I’ll I’ll repeat this too. Even if the Magic had a healthy season, I think we would have still come to the same conclusion about what the Magic needed to do this season or this off seasonason. And they would have done something similar to what they have. So again, like last year taught them a lot, but there’s still a lot more to go. The Magic are set up for success. Again, I want to make that clear. Um I I share the anticipation and the excitement for this season. I think the Magic are going to win 50 plus games. I think the Magic are going to be the three seed and a lot closer to the two seed than people think. I think they’re going to win a first round playoff series. I I I am really OP. I think the offensive streak ends. I think the Magic are going to be in the top half of the league in offensive rating. Not top 10. I’m gonna probably put them at like 14 or 13. I think there’ll still be some struggles, but I think this team is going to be really good and point us in that positive direction. But there’s still a lot of things that could go wrong. So, let’s talk about the concerns as we enter camp coming up here in just a moment. But first, today’s episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to our friends over at FanDuel. The NFL season is here and FanDuel has an offer you do not want to miss. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get 300 in bonus bets if you win. That’s right. Pick a bet, put down five bucks, and if it hits, you’ll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. FanDuel gives you so many ways to play. You can build parlays, try player props, or even follow the live lines during games. The Dolphins play on Monday against the Jets. If you’re a sicko like me who watch Northwestern UCLA, you’re going to want to watch that game, too. It’s like a car crash. You can’t avoid it. These these things make even bad football games more exciting. When you’ve got a little something riding on the action, you can’t help but get involved. So whether you’re a casual fan or love diving into the stats, FanDuel makes the game day experience so much better. So what are you waiting for? Visit fanuel.com to download the FanDuel app today and get started. So, where could things go wrong? Because like again, I want to stress this, like the Magic did everything we asked of them this off seasonason. The Magic are a more talented, better team than they were last season. But the one thing we don’t know is how all of these elements combine. The one thing we don’t know is whether this will actually work. and how to make this work. We’ve talked about it throughout the course of the offseason, but Jeff Welman was under pressure to make this team better. He did that. Now, the pressure turns to Jabal Mosley to use this team, to put this team together in a way that enhances them. And look, Mosley has done the job on defense. I know there are a lot of people that have some issues with Jamal Mosley and some of the rotation decisions and some other decisions he makes and I would agree that he is a coach really well suited for the rebuild phase and this is the challenge now is to see if he can as as he would put it level up if he can take his game and do that. I I look I’m a Jamal Mosley guy. I love Mo like just just genuinely like him as a person. Um, I think he has proven that he is up to the task tactically. I think outside of the decision to start Jonathan Isaac in games one and two against the Cavs, his playoff adjustments and his playoff strategies have been insanely good. I think the Magic overperformed in both of his playoff series. And again, they were up 17 in game seven. We could argue, well, why did they lose that? And there’s a lot of reasons why, but I I I think Jamal Mosley has shown he will step up in the playoffs when coaching can really make a difference. And again, I I will say this unendingly, he is really good at seeing the big picture at all times. And so again, we shall see. We shall see how he puts this team together and how he makes this whole thing work. Obviously, injuries are still a factor. Magic have a lot of injury-prone players. Jaylen Suggs has missed a lot of time and is entering the season with a lingering injury. You don’t know when Mo Vagner is going to be back. Wendell Carter played a career-high in games last season, played the most consecutive games he’s played in his career, but he still misses 12, 13, 14 games a year. So, again, you kind of plan on him missing 15 to 20. Um, Desmond Bane actually, um, he’ll play a lot. Like, he’s not like some injury-prone guy, but he’s very I think he’s only hit 70 games twice in his career, so he’s potentially going to miss some time. And he had an oblique injury last year, too, actually. Health is always something you can’t control. But the question, like, honestly, the question of where things could all go wrong, I still I’m still a little concerned about this team’s depth. Um, there isn’t that go-to scorer off the bench. The Magic are leaning a lot more heavily on their top four guys than they have in previous seasons because, you know, again, go back to December. Cole Anthony carried the magic. He was capable of putting up big games. Now, he may not do it every night. You’re not going to win a lot of games doing that way. But when you have a big Cole Anthony game, that game against the Bucks, speaking of that game against the Bucks in March that kickstarted the finish to the season, that was a big Cole Anthony game. When I look at the Magic’s bench, I asked myself, who’s going to have that big game? Who’s going to be able to change the game on a dime? Now again, like Paulo is going to average around 30 points per game. Fron is probably going to be around 25, probably more than 25 this year or around 25. Let’s just say around 25. Desmond Bane is going to be hovering around 20, maybe probably above 20. I don’t know if the Magic have ever had three 20 point scorers in a in the same season. Definitely a distinct possibility that happens this year. Jaylen Suggs is probably going to be above 15, somewhere between 15 20. I’d peg him at 17 18 per game. So, the Magic have capable scores, but it feels like there’s a big drop off after that. Like maybe Wendell Carter is at 1112. Anthony Black you would hope is at 1011 maybe 12 maybe more. Tus Jones is probably gonna be around 10. Tristan D Silva I would hope is near 10 but I would protect I would expect him around 8 to nine with you know again occasionally having big games here and there. He just makes a bunch of threes. Movagner should be up around 10 when he’s healthy if he comes back well and goat is probably around eight or nine but none of those guys are main creators are bucket getters there’s no traditional sixth man like a Jamal Crawford like Mover can do it but centers are different and so my concern is that the Magic while improved offensively and I think they’ll be better and get better shots they have a lot of unproven guys off that bench like the Magic need Anthony Black to have a big season. They they need Anthony Black to really show us what he can be. And I get it. He has his fans. And And I’m not going to tell you you’re wrong, but he’s got to prove it. This is a huge, huge, huge prove it season for Anthony Black. And there are going to be games where the Magic need their bench. Now again, granted, when we get to the playoffs, two of the Magic’s big four players will always be on the court. So maybe this is a concern that’s rooted in the old kind of ecosystem of the team. Maybe this won’t matter. I tell you what, like I think the Magic needy Black to win them a playoff game. Like Bo Vogers won them NBA Cup games. They’re going to need someone someone unexpected to win them a game or to keep them in a game that they can win in the playoffs in a way that that this roster is very unproven. And at the end of the day, that’s like the big thing missing from this Magic team. They are still incredibly young. Tus Jones is the one of the older Tus Jones and Desmond, I think, are the oldest two players on the team at like 31 and 29. This is an incredibly young team that is very, very short on playoff experience. Yes, Tus Jones and Desmond Bane have won playoff series with the Memphis Grizzlies. That is about it. And this season is about getting those battle scars and, you know, understanding what getting to the second round is like and what winning a playoff series is like. It’s it’s it’s about gaining that experience. But there are a lot of guys that are having to step into bigger roles that should be ready for them, but we don’t know. We just don’t know. And so it would not shock me if we get to February and the Magic are hunting for some veteran help, hunting for some depth just to just to give them that little bit of a boost would not shock me if that’s the case. I I think things going wrong, barring like tragic injury, things going wrong for this team is the Magic being right where they were last year. Like even like honestly like again barring like tragic injuries, this is still a succeed. This is still a team that’s making the playoffs. Like I am not concerned about making the playoffs. Like the defense will not fall off that that badly and the offense will be better just by an infusion of talent. But that’s not the goal. That’s not what this team is telling us they’re about. They’re telling us we want to win a championship. They are telling us that we are going for the big gold trophy at the end of the season. And falling short of that would be or falling short of like being on that track would be a huge huge issue for this team because the way the salary cap works, the way the trade system works, this is it. This is the group for the foreseeable future. And if the Magic can’t make this work, reconfiguring this team is going to be a lot harder than it looks. And so there is a lot writing on this season to take that next step to take and make that progress. And that journey starts today. I want to thank you all again for listening to today’s episode of the Lockown Magic. You can find me on Twitter, Philip R_OMD, and on Blue Sky, Philip RR. You can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast. Search your tune in home, Google Play, Spotify, Odyssey, and all the films on podcast to your podcast enable device. You can find us as well on YouTube. Just search for locked on magic. For the latest on the Orlando Magic, be sure to check out Orlando Magic.com. Find us on Twitter, OMagic Daily. Be sure to follow me at Omagic Daily. I will be I will be media day on Monday. Um, so I’ll be dropping some notes and talking points in there. You can also check out my newsletter at patreon.com/orlandomagichub for another complete recap, another original article in my newsletter coming Tuesday. Again, you can check that out at patreon.com/orlandom magicub. As always, thank you for your support. Now that you’re listening to locked on magic, be sure to check out the lockdown NBA top 100 voted on by the NBA hosts of the lockdown podcast network. Our top 100 performed 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. You can miss you can see my reaction to the list. I did an episode last Thursday on the list. I did episode down three weeks ago on Tuesday. Three weeks ago Tuesday when I talked to Cookahil of lockdown pistons about the Cade Paulo debate as well as two three weeks ago last Wednesday when I talked about what it means where the magic are located in these on this list particularly. Check that out in our archives at lockdown magagic. But that’s going to do it for me today. Hey, I want to thank you all again for listening to today’s episode of Lock the Match. We’ll be back tomorrow to recap media day, what Jeff Welman says, what Jamal Mosley says, the true expectations for this team, and whatever else pops up during media media day, including some injury updates. We’ll get to all of that on tomorrow’s episode of Lockdown Magic. But until then, welcome to the 2025 2026 season. We’ll be here five days a week through throughout the season until a champion is crowned and even beyond that because we have the offseason stuff. But welcome to the 2025 2026 Orlando Magic season for Orlando Magic Daily and Lockdown Magic. This has been Philip Rossite. We will see you all again next time for another episode of Lock Dod Magic.

The Orlando Magic are set to begin their 2025-26 season with major expectations to compete and win in the coming years. Can they make the step to reach new heights?

The Magic have a lot on the line to reach the new heights they are chasing. They need to lean on their defense and improve their offense to be the team that can contend for a championship.

As the season begins, the Magic have a lot riding on this season. But they will still need plenty of players to step up. They will still need to fill in their new bench and hope for better injury luck to take their next step.

0:00 Intro: Media Day and new Magic season
5:05 Magic’s lessons from last season’s playoffs
10:12 Keys to a successful Magic season
15:53 Importance of defense creating offense
23:09 Potential challenges for the Magic
28:50 Lack of playoff experience on young roster
33:27 Outro: Welcome to 2025-2026 Magic season

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FanDuel
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FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)