What the Orlando Magic’s REAL NEEDS? What makes a PERFECT OFFSEASON?

What the Orlando Magic’s REAL NEEDS? What makes a PERFECT OFFSEASON?

The Orlando Magic’s needs seem obvious, but if they’re so easy, they would have solved them last year. Right. Right. Right. What the Magic need and what makes a perfect off seasonason today on Lockdown 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 May 8th, 2025. My name is Philip Rosenike. I’m the senior writer over at Orlando Magicaily.com. of course. Follow me on Twitter, phipr_omd, and on blue sky, phiprr. On today’s episode of Lockdown Magic, we previewed this yesterday, ended up running out of time, so I saved it for today. What are the real needs for the Orlando Magic? What are the Magic actually looking for? Because it’s not so simple. I’ll talk about that plus what my quote unquote perfect offseason is, or at least where I’m targeting what the Magic should do this offseason. And guys, Boston’s making us look bad. Like, what the heck? What the heck, Boston? I had so much faith in you. What the heck? We’ll talk about 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 in the morning, whether it’s right when you upload, we truly appreciate you making lockdown magic part of your day every day, you can make lockdown magic a bigger part of your day by making it your first listen of the day. Whether you’re listening to us right when we right when we upload or first thing in the day, we truly appreciate you being part of our everyday team, one of our everyday listeners. We truly appreciate that. We’re still going strong five days a week until the end of the offseason till like July. There’s gonna be a lot more to be coming. We’re all part of Lockdown Podcast Network. Find your team every day. Today’s episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code lockdown NBA for $20 off your first purchase. So, what do the Magic need? Like seriously, like I’m gonna sit here. I’m going to ask a question. It’s rhetorical. I know you can’t answer me. Put in the comments, whatever. What do the Magic need? The first answer is obviously shooting. Like, the Magic need to be able to make shots. It was a huge factor in the series against Boston. They got a decent amount of open looks against a good defense and they ended up missing a lot of those shots. They shot less than 30% from three. Um, I it wasn’t good. Now, everyone’s known the Magic have needed shooting for a very, very long time. The Magic have not had an offense outside the bottom 10 in the league since Dwight Howard was here. The Magic, I think, had one year, maybe two, since then where they were not bottom 10 in the league in three-point shooting. One of those years was 2019 when the Magic broke through and made the playoffs. And despite all the maybe fine-tuning or adjusting or saying we’re better than our numbers show, the numbers are the numbers. Last year, the Magic were the worst shooting team in the league at 31.2%. Well behind the next best the next worst team, the Washington Wizards. And the fact of the matter is, while you can still win games with your defense, you can still win games and be competitive. It’s very very hard to win at the highest levels when you’re not a threat to shoot. Now again, I I I want to make this point because I think it’s really really important. Gravity in this sense, the threat of your shooting is just as important as your ability to make shots. We’re going to talk about the Boston New York series, but Boston just being a threat to put up 60 40 threes. the threat of their shooting. It complet it completely warped the Magic’s defense. Orlando didn’t have the greatest defensive rating in their series. Like I I will praise their defense. I loved what they did defensively. Boston still found ways to beat it. And and part of that is because Orlando had Orlando knew it couldn’t keep up with the three-point shooting. And so taking away the three, giving up mid-range shots, forcing them into isolations, that was strategic. That was a decision. Giving up a Christopheris post up on Corey Joseph. That was strategic. And Boston’s goal every game was to try and make the Magic regret that decision. And they did it four times. We all know that the reason Orlando lost in the series in the playoff series was their offense was not good enough to take advantage of their defense. And that was the case all year. Frankly, while the Magic’s offense wasn’t so sterling in 2024 and had a lot of these same problems, they made enough threes, they shot they shot at a high enough percentage that it was enough to be okay. Again, they were like 21st, 22nd into offensive rating. I’m not sitting here saying the Magic’s offense was brilliant. But Orlando came into this season saying, “We need to take more threes. We need to increase our volume to increase our number of makes.” because the Magic shot the second fewest threes in the league last year at least per game. Denver was worse, but they’re so much more efficient from three. The Magic came in the season saying we need to shoot more threes, but they assumed that would lead to more makes. They made about the same number of threes this year as they did last year. Now, adding a shooter obviously isn’t enough. Say what you want about the Contavius Cwell Pope experiment. Say what you want about his addition and and we’ll dive deeper into him and what went wrong probably next week. Say what you want about that. The reality is the Magic added a shooter. Their big offseason addition was a shooter. A low volume shooter about four or five attempts per game, but a shooter nonetheless. A guy who could be a threat. guy that teams had to be aware of. Guy who shot 40% from three in three of the last four seasons and the one season he didn’t shot 39%. It is still frustrating to know that he shot 34% from three this year. It is still frustrating to know that he had this weird bad season. And there are a lot of reasons. There are a lot of possible reasons for that. But it also becomes clear that shooting wasn’t the need the magic needed to fill. It is like again don’t get me wrong, get shooters, get guys who can make shots, but it seems like the magic for whatever reason, it could have been what was available on the market. It could have been just that’s this is what we had to go after or we wanted to see if we could fix the problem elsewhere. I don’t think shooting is the primary need for the Magic. As important as shooting is, I think it was clear after the playoff series, and I think it is clear now. The Magic need creation. They need playmaking. They need guys who could put the ball on the deck, get downhill, get to the basket, do all of those things. The Magic don’t necessarily need a point guard, but they need more players who can do what point guards do. If the Magic are going to do this point guard by committee thing, and again, be critical of that, I I think that’s fair, but if the Magic are going to insist that Paulo and Fron are your main playmakers, I think what the playoffs showed both this year and last year against Cleveland is the Magic need more players who can attack off the dribble. the way this offense is designed and it’s not like completely, you know, designless and it’s not I know a lot of people bang on this offense. There is purpose to it. The problem is the Magic don’t have the personnel to run this offense and that’s a fair criticism of Jamal Mosley. That’s a fair critic criticism of his coaching staff. They’re not run and and it’s been this way since Mosley got here. I have said this a million times on this pod. I believe Jamal Mosley is running the offense that the team will run when they’re at their peak. They’re not running an offense tailored to their personnel. And that is a fair criticism to say, why are they doing that? If that’s the case, why are they doing that? I agree. I don’t think the Magic’s offense optimizes their players. But if this is the style they want to play, and even if it isn’t, they need more players who can attack off the dribble. They need more players who are creators, who are playmakers. To me, part of the shooting issue is passing. They don’t pass the ball well. Go watch Go watch tape. See a lot of guys fumbling basketball. You’ll see a lot of really tough passes. The reason why I think the Magic were so focused on crosscourt passes to the weak side corner throughout the early part of the season, like Paulo Vancou would literally force it. it wouldn’t be there and he’d force it is because it was something they could practice and something that could get them high high quality shots. Those quarter threes, Magic’s quarter threes were up this year by the way. There are good things happening within this offense. I promise you they just missed a lot of shots. And so if I had to say what is the biggest need for the Magic, it is a playmaker. It is not a shooter. To me, that is the central thing the Magic have to figure out this summer. And again, you could go back a year ago, probably a year ago today. I know I did a podcast, lessons from the playoffs or five things we learned from the playoffs or something like that. And my number one lesson was the Magic needed more creation. I think I I know I said this a million times. Last year’s playoffs against Cleveland, it felt like Paulo and France were banging their head against the wall and they put a few dents in that wall, but it eventually knocked them out. Against the Celtics, it felt like the same thing. And look, Jaylen Suggs was out. Mov was out. Two like big offensive engines. We’re not going to pretend that this is like the fully healthy, fully optimized version of the Magic, but very very clearly they need more players who can attack off the triple. So, how do they do that? How do they find that? And how do they add to this team in the meaningful ways that Jeff Welman’s talking about? Well, I can’t speak for Jeff, but I can speak for myself what my quote unquote perfect offseason looks like. I will name some names perhaps, but I’ll talk more about what I think the Magic are looking to accomplish this summer coming up here in just a moment. But first, today’s episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to our friends over at Upwork. 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That’s upwork.com upwork.com to connect with top talent and grow your business today. Today’s episode of Lockdown Magic is also brought to our friends at Game Time. There is nothing like the atmosphere of an NBA playoff game. I miss it so much. Playoffs are so much fun. Every bucket, every defensive stop, every moment feels huge. It’s electric in the arena. And with Game Time, you can be part of it without the stress of lastm minute ticket hunting. Game time makes it fast and easy to get playoff tickets even when demand is skyhigh. Prices on the app actually go down as tip off gets closer and their last minute deals can save you up to 60%. Game time gives you lastminute ticket deals. Saving up to 60% off buying last minute for sports concerts, comedy, theater, and more. It’s not just for sports. And they’re all in pricing means no surprise fees at checkout. What you see is what you pay. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app. Create an account and use code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Again, terms apply. Create an account. Redeem code locked on NBA. That’s L O C D O NA for $20 off. Download Game Time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. So, I haven’t, you know, we we we’ve known this off seasonason was coming for a little bit. Um, you know, the issues that we saw in the playoffs were not new. We didn’t learn necessarily anything different. Um, you know, as far as as far as what we knew this team would need would need. We learned that Paulo and Fron will step up to the plate. We, you know, we learned the Magic’s defense and their defensive identity are very, very real. But look, we knew the Magic would struggle with three-point shooting. We knew that was going to be a big factor in the series. We knew that the Magic’s playmaking and creation was lagging and that there was going that that was going to be a struggle as well that Pow and Fron would have to do a lot. So, I’ve done a few podcasts like talking about the Magic season. They’re still one of the most intriguing teams around the league. Everyone is still curious about what this Magic team will become and still very optimistic about their future because Palo and again Pal and Fron are two allNBA level players. The Magic have not had two allNBA level players since Shaq and Penny. Uh you know maybe T-Mac and Grand Hill. I’ll give you T-Mac and Granhill. Since T-Mac and Grand Hill, it’s been 25 years regardless uh since the Magic had two highlevel players of this quality. Obviously Grant Hill was out for most of it. That’s why I go back to Shock and Penny, which was 30 years ago now. This is as good as the Magic have been in a very, very long time. As talented as the Magic have been in a very, very long time. And it is incumbent on Jeff Welman to get this right. The clock is ticking now. Fron Vagner begins his extension. Paulo Van Carroll will sign his extension. It is time to be serious. It is time to get very, very good and make the most of this group. And obviously Jeff Welman believes that too. Last week at exit interviews he went out and said we’re going to be aggressive. We are going to make win now moves. We are going to sacrifice some of our future to make our present a little bit better. I think the Magic should still be careful should still be cautious. I think the Magic should be aggressive, but they should un but they should have that mindset. A draft pick ain’t going to do much. It’s going to be about adding the right veterans and adding the right supporting cast to the team. Now, look, if there’s a great draft pick, go for it. I’m not against draft picks at all. Um, but I think, you know, a rookie is going to be very, very tough to help you out, even if it is like a Walter Clayton. Even if it is, uh, you know, Noah Song is is really, really raw, but really but a very Jeff Welman prospect. Um, Nolan Trayor is looking very very good in in Euro League, but very very long way from him being a a really high level NBA player. You know, you’re gonna have to make these decisions like I mentioned yesterday on Anthony Black and whether he can be part of a win now team or whether he needs more time to develop and grow. But let’s look at the other side of the equation. What do the Magic need? That’s the theme of this episode is what do the Magic need? And so what is a perfect offseason? I’m going to pitch some names. I’m not sitting here saying go after this guy, but this is where I see the Magic going this summer. First, I do think the Magic need a starting caliber guard. I do think that they will shop Contavius Calwell Pope, that they’ll not admit that the experiment went wrong because I think there’s a lot that did go right with it. And I do think this is an aberration here. I I just think this was just a weird bad year. Uh injuries played a role. The injuries to to the big players played a role. Like Kenny never got settled into where he was supposed to be. We saw what he did at the end of the season when he shot 46%. But the Magic need volume. Like the issue with Kavius Coloop, and I’m pretty sure I noted this on that pod last summer, the Magic need volume. They need a guy that’s going to take six or seven threes. Right now, the Magic’s um main three-point shooters are Jaylen Su or the leading three-point shooters were Jaylen Suggs who took about six six or seven threes per game. Palo Mano and France Vagner took about six. It’s great that they take that many threes and I think that those numbers should stay that level, but your top three players can’t be your volume shooters. They need a three-point shooting specialist like Malik Beasley who could be a free agent. I think he stays in in Detroit. I don’t think he’s available. Um, that’s why Anthony Simons is so intriguing. He’s a guy who takes seven, eight threes per game when he’s the the lead scorer. You can probably get him higher quality looks than he’s getting in Portland. And and conversely, he can get others higher quality looks. Like I said, I think the Magic need to probably swap Contavius Calwell Pope out for a player who can be more of that lead guard. I’m not saying it is a point guard type. And I’m not saying go get a point guard, although I think the organization helps. I think the Magic need a lead guard who can create off the dribble for himself and be a volume three-point shooter. So, I am thinking Anthony Simons. I am thinking Colin Ston, who, you know, again, a little bit more of a driver, cheaper, too. Um, not as not as prolific as a three-point shooter. I am thinking Austin Reeves who again not as prolific a three-point shooter as Anthony Simons but someone who can get downhill and yes is a little bit more affordable salary w salary-wise if I do think the Magic are going to target one of those three players and Kobe White’s in that group too. I think Kobe brings some other complications. Uh he currently makes $12 million per year so matching salaries. It’s essentially Cole Anthony and and I don’t think Chicago’s interested in Cole Anthony. And then you’re going to have to pay him double. So unless you’re moving Kavius Cwell Pope for an expiring contract, just the apron issues and the the salary cap issues, like managing the cap is is going to be very difficult and I I don’t think the Magic are ready to be a second apron team. Um so I would I I I’m not out on Kobe White. I really like Kobe White. I don’t think he’s the option from there. I want to see the Magic upgrade positions. I want to see them upgrade the role that Gary Harris is supposed to play. Gary Harris is supposed to be your 3 and D guy off the bench. You bring him in, he spreads the floor, defends at a high level. Look, say what you want about Gary Harris. His defense at the end of the season, his defense over the last 20 games plus the playoffs, essential. He like, look, I know he doesn’t score. I know he doesn’t shoot enough. That is a product of an offense that does not move the ball effectively. That was missing a lot of offensive weapons in that second unit. He was excellent on defense, but yeah, the Magic needs scoring and Gary Harris going down to such a low volume and shooting 34%. It hurts. Um, I said this a million times about Terrence Ross, the kind of volume shooter the Magic are looking for. Not Terence Ross, he’s retired. Um, but like Terence Ross, we judged him on his ability to make threes. He could go two, he could he could take eight threes, but he’s got to make three of them. And that’s fine. But when he had his one for eight games or his one for nine games, it hurt that he needed the volume. He needed the threat of that shooting. The Magic need to find a Gary Harris that will be a more efficient shooter. I’ve mentioned him a few times. I really, really like this idea, but if the Magic can get in on the Kevin Durant trade, and I do think the Magic will be third or fourth team in some of these big trades that might be happening this off seasonason. Um, if they can get in on the Kevin Durant trade and get Royce O’Neal out of it, Royce O’Neal is the kind of player that I’m thinking about in that Gary Harris role. Uh, Royce O’Neal is an excellent defender, a little bit bigger, um, great three-point shooter, really underrated three-point shooter. And again, playing in a kind of Phoenix system that has a little bit more space, really good offense in Phoenix. But I but Royce O’Neal’s kind of proven himself as a solid role player, a good veteran everywhere he’s been. I would love a Royce O’Neal on this team. I would absolutely love a Royce O’Neal on this team. And then I think the Magic need to upgrade Cole Anthony. Now, as much as Cole Anthony is super important to this team culturally, he’s been here. He was the last draft pick under Steve Clifford. Kind of the last connection to an era that was by gone. He is still the odd man. Now it I love Cole Anthony to death. I think what he does like spiritually and emotionally for this team is really important. He won the Magic some big games this year against Miami, against Brooklyn, against Atlanta in the playin tournament. He was incredible. But at the end of the day in the playoffs, teams targeted him despite his best efforts. And he tried. I I I don’t want to to denigrate effort. his e his effort and his growth on defense since his rookie year has been incredible, but it hasn’t been enough. And at the end of the day, the Magic are gearing toward playing in the playoffs. They did not, you know, he not not that necessarily he did not show up in the playoffs. He did not he was the guy that that they targeted. It was hard to play him for very long. And so get me a spark plug guy off the bench. Again, another little creator. Maybe it is Anthony Black. Maybe it is someone that’s on the roster already. Get me a spark plug off the bench that can do the things that Cole Anthony does to some extent but in the playoffs. And look, this is going to be the trouble. I think we saw losing both Marl Folultz and Joe Joe Engles to connectors. Another thing to Magic, just connectors, guys who who make others better by their passing and calm and poise. finding those connectors is going to be big. Now, like Rose O’Neal does a little bit of that, but there are there are other players out there and again, there’s a lot of things we don’t know that are in the in the books or are cooking right now. You know, it’s easy to say like, oh, Anthony Simons has a clear interest for the Magic. We can put together a trade package to make that work. All good. Uh Austin Reeves, like we can clearly see there is a trade package. There’s a framework to make a deal happen in that scenario. But these are the three things I think the Magic are chasing this summer. I think the Magic are chasing guard help. Now, I know some of you are going to say, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wendell Carter was really bad. We need to upgrade the center.” I’m not disagreeing. Y’all, you all know I am a Wendell Carter defender. I’m not disagreeing that they’ll one day have to upgrade window card and upgrade the center position. I think the guard help is much more significant and I don’t think they’re going to be able to address all of those needs at once and certainly not while while you know certainly not while also potentially sacrificing a key part of your identity. Wendell Carter works in this defense. Say what you want about it. He was essential to the way the Magic defended in the playoffs. His defense throughout the course of season was really good. He had his healthiest season of his career. I know that may not be saying much, but it’s true. I have faith that Wendell Carter is going to bounce back next season. Again, maybe that faith is misplaced. I won’t deny that. But I think the Magic need to focus on improving their guard play and improving that offensive depth and save center for another day and save center for another offseason when it does actually become the issue. So, it wasn’t that big of an issue in the playoffs. The Magic the Magic were fine at center. I was very happy with how Wendell played in in the playoffs. Again, if the opportunity arises to upgrade, you take it. But that is what I think the Magic will be focused on this offseason. It was another day that ends in Y and another collapse in the NBA playoffs. Boston, get your get get it together, man. Get it together. Why the Celtics are kind of making the Magic look bad. We’ll get to that coming up here in just a moment. But first, today’s episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to our friends over at Open Phone. If you’re running a business, you know that every missed 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 answered, did you wait? Probably not. Moved on to the next result on your on your Google search or your phone book or wherever you’re looking now. That’s why you need open phone. 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Another just unbelievable finish as Boston had a 20point lead in the second half once again and lost their lead and lost the game 9190 to the New York Knicks, giving the Knicks a an improbable 20 series lead against Boston with now homec court advantage heading back to Madison Square Garden with a chance to sweep the series and wiggle room to lose a game at home. Um, it’s been astounding to watch because the thing the Magic feared most about the Celtics in their playoff series was three-point shooting. The Magic knew that if they played Boston straight up and gave up threes, and look, Orlando strategy is to take away three-point shooting. It’s a big part of their strategy, but they they went overboard and they sold out on giving on not giving up threes. Um, they knew that if Boston made a bunch of threes, they had no chance to keep up. New York is a different team. New York has offensive firepower. They were top 10 in the league in offensive rating. They were 13th, 14th in defensive rating. Um, they have an average defense and and a top tier offense. New York feels like they can keep up with Boston. And so, yes, the way that they’re defending, and obviously their personnel is a little different, the way they’re defending Boston’s a little bit different. But the Celtics are not making New York pay for their mistakes. Not in the way that they made Orlando pay. The bottom that that is the bottom line in all this. The Celtics took 63s, made 15 against the against the M against the Knicks in game one. They took 40 threes and made 10. Shooting 25% on the button. Yeah, making shots matters. Welcome to our world. Welcome to our world. the way we’ve played all year in Orlando. You know, Celtics, some of the Celtics writers, John Kra actually used this in his lead for the Boston Sports Journal after game after game three, I believe. Uh he was just like, “That was an ugly ugly game.” And like all of us in the Orlando media like turned to him and were like, “That’s how it’s been all year, man. This is this is this is every game for us.” Uh and and like he literally said like it’s like we’re Grizzled War veterans like like like getting PTSD. The Magic tried very hard to muck those games up. And look, it was a 9190 game. It’s not like the Celtics are playing bad defense. It’s not like the Celtics Celtics led by 20. It’s not like they’re doing a lot of bad things. But Boston’s inability, and I made this point yesterday, Boston’s inability in this series to do something different. The three-point shots not falling. The kind of threes that they’re getting aren’t working. Get in the paint. Get to the basket. get to the foul line. That kind of offensive diversity that Boston showed against Orlando, they have been unable to show against New York. And that, frankly, as a Magic fan is is frustrating to see because Orlando did this to Boston. Orlando forced Boston to to become one-dimensional. And maybe it’s because they took away their favored weapon and so they they they had to do something else. And New York’s just like rolling the dice and saying, “Go ahead and make the shots. We, you know, not that we don’t think you can, but we’re gonna make those shots tough. We’re gonna we’re going to bet that you won’t make them at the rate.” Now, there’s a game coming where Boston shoots 40% from three and wins like 120 to to 85. You could go listen to locked on Celtics and probably even locked on Knicks and they’ll say, “Look, look, Boston is missing shots.” That is the big thing in this series is Boston is just missing shots. If they start making these shots, it’s a brand new ball game. But man, man, to see the Knicks be able to come back from 20 against the Celtics. When the Magic got down eight, we got scared. When the Magic got down 12, we were like, “This one’s probably over.” And ultimately, that’s that’s why we’re talking about offense this summer. because the Magic only have one way to play and that’s with their bruising defense. They know their defense is going to be there. And look, Orlando made comebacks this year. It’s not like they that comebacks. They made a 17-point comeback against Celtics in December, but that was without Tatum on the floor, of course. But ultimately, ultimately Orlando has to figure out a way to have the offense that says we’re down 20 or we’re down 15 or we’re down 12. Our defense will give us a chance. Our offense has to take the lead. Our offense has to be the ones that guides us back. Throughout that fivegame series, the Magic defense gave Orlando a chance to win. They gave him a chance to win in game one. They gave him a chance to win in game five. They gave him a chance to win in game four. The Magic’s defense largely did its job. I know the defensive rating isn’t as good as it as it seems. And let’s throw out if you throw out game five, I’m sure it looks a little bit a little bit better. The Magic, the Magic had that chance to win. They just didn’t have the offense. New York is hunting for the stops. And so every time Boston has left the door open, New York’s offense has answered the call. That’s something the Magic can’t rely on. And that’s why the Magic are working on what they’re working on this summer. I want to thank you all again for listening to today’s episode of Locked On Magic. You can of course find me on Twitter, phipr_om, and on blue sky, philipr. You can subscribe to the podcast and Apple podcast, search your tune, and hand him Google Play, Spotify, Odyssey, and also miss podcast to your podcast enabled listening device. For the latest on the Orlando Magic, be sure to check out Orlando Magic.com. You can find us on Twitter, OM Magic Daily. For even more Orlando Magic content, including my what went right, what went wrong series on the season, check out my Patreon page, Orlando Magic Hub, at patreon.com/orlando magicub. As always, thank you for your support. Now that you’re done listening to me, go check out the locked NBA game night every game, every night until an NBA champion is crowned. Get local analysis on a national scale, especially during the playoffs. Your best recap of every night’s a every night’s action is on NBA game night. Find it on the locked on NBA on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. That’s going to do it for me today though. I want to thank you again for listening to today’s episode of Locked on Magic. The plan for tomorrow is to talk more about lessons learned from the playoffs and outsiders perspective, plus get you ready for uh what’s coming up this summer as well. More of that, we’re doing that all week. We’ll get to that tomorrow on Lockout Magic. But until then for Orlando Magic Daily Locked on Magic. This has been Philip Rosen. We’ll see you all again next time for another episode of Locked On Magic.

The Orlando Magic have a lot of work to do this offseason. They are already signalling their desire to make significant changes to the team’s offense. But what are their real needs? What do they really need to target and focus on this offseason?

Those needs should have been clear even after last year’s Playoffs. The Magic are ready to address them clearly. But it is not just shooting that they need. They need creation and playmaking.

The Magic are likely to put their focus on their guard play and backcourt. What makes for a perfect offseason then for the Magic?

0:00 Intro: Orlando Magic’s offseason needs
5:50 Magic need creation and playmaking, not just shooting
16:35 Magic’s perfect offseason: Starting caliber guard needed
22:13 Upgrading Cole Anthony’s role for playoff success
27:51 Celtics’ playoff struggles against Knicks

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