Banchero and Wagner EXPLODE onto NBA Scene | Magic’s Championship Window Opens Early?

Banchero and Wagner EXPLODE onto NBA Scene | Magic’s Championship Window Opens Early?

we’ve been saying it all off season for the last three weeks How close are the Orlando Magic to the conference finals Because of two players not so far away 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 22nd 2025 My name is Philip Rossman I’m the senior writer over at Orlandomagicdaily.com a credentialed member of the Orlando Magic BDS since 2011 2012 somewhere in there You you can of course follow me on Twitter philipr_omd and on blue sky phipr On today’s episode of locked on magic we name our MVPs of the season You know who they are You know what we’re going to talk about and Fran Vagner The door that they have unlocked and when they should be ready to win It’s a lot sooner than you think 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 your first listen of the day We truly appreciate you Appreciate all of our everydayers people who listen to the podcast five days a week You guys are awesome You can check us all You can check us out and any of the NBA teams on the Locked On podcast network Your team every day Today’s episode of Locked On Magic is brought to you by FanDuel Right now new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins This is a theme that I am hitting home as many times as possible I talked to a lot of people I talked to a lot of fans Please hit me upr on Facebook Hit me up on the comments I read and listen to all of you and generally like look we’re a pessimistic bunch It’s a pessimistic world right now No one wants to hear positivity No one wants to hear oh the Magic were 41 and 41 that’s a bad season No one wants to No one wants to hear me tell you don’t worry it’s not so bad Look the Magic were 41 and 41 this year because of their injuries They were easily could have matched last year’s win total if they didn’t get hurt They could have easily surpassed last year’s win total They could have easily accomplished all their goals if they didn’t get hurt Now again I I I I fully acknowledge that that the Magic are still not where they want to be You just have to watch the conference finals and see how dynamic the offenses of all four of these teams are The way they’re able to win in multiple ways the way the Indiana Bas are able to pull games out of their you know out of their you know where that’s something the Magic don’t have There’s obviously another level the Magic have to reach And one of the things that we learned in our playoff series with the Celtics whether it should have happened in the second round or in the first round like it did is the Magic still have work to do We’re not on that The Magic are not on that level yet But I’m here to tell you it’s still not that far Because for all the struggles and frustration that came out of this season for all the things that didn’t work that left us with this bitter taste in our mouth that that makes it feel like that dream is so far away The Magic learned one vital piece of information this all this this season The Magic picked up a critical piece of the puzzle probably the most critical piece of the puzzle because if you look back at the Rob Henan era the Magic had all the role players The Magic had all these great not great but had all these players who clearly were NBA players There were some that were not but clearly had quality NBA players that can contribute to winning teams Aaron Gordon was an essential player for the Denver Nuggets the last four seasons Critical to them winning a championship critical to them this season Nicole Vuch is still kicking it and helps the Bulls stay afloat in a lot of ways with his consistency Tobias Harris as we talked about on yesterday’s show vital piece to the Detroit Pistons What the Magic didn’t have in that early re rebuild period what they could never find through the draft and again criticize all that all you want what they could ever find was the galvanizing piece The one that tied it all together together The one that put everyone in their proper roles The one the the sun around which everyone could orbit And so what did the Magic learn this year Why is there optimism after a 41 and 41 season Why does it feel like the Magic are still on the right path The answer to that question is Paulo Ben Carro and Fran Voger At the end of the day all that other stuff all the frustrations about the offense and this player can’t do that or this player you know whatever none of that matters because Paulo Bantero and Fran Vagner established themselves this year as two allstars And the fact that Jeff Welman who’s usually so conservative and so careful about what he says came out in the plainest of terms in the plainest of English and said “We are making moves with a win now lens We are no longer no longer looking at development projects or you know or anything like that we need to make win now moves He doesn’t say that if he does not believe Paulo and Fron are the guys to lead this generation of the Magic He does not say that if he does not believe that Paulo and Fron are true all-star players Players who can elevate this team to a different stratosphere And so that is the ultimate takeaway of the season and it’s why no duh Paulo Vero and France Vagner are our team MVPs for the season because everything that they do everything this Magic team does revolves around them And when the chips were down when everything had to happen they stepped up From a statistical standpoint this was a career season for both Paulo Vain Carroll averaged 25.9 points per game 7 and a half rebounds per game 4.8 assists per game Vagner averaged 24.2 points per game 5.7 rebounds per game and 4.7 assists per game They are the first pair of Magic players to average 20 points per game in the same season In the playoffs they both upped their numbers Made Caro to 29.4 4 points 8.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game Vagner to 25.8 points 4.8 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game Now both players obviously still have work to do All the criticisms about Paulo’s efficiency they’re fair In the playoffs he left a lot of points on the free throw line If you’re going to get to the line that much you got to make them Got to be 75 80% from the line He’s low 70s at this point Um but his three-point shooting has come a long way over the last three years Fran Vager of course his three-point shooting is as big of a mystery as anything else and those are things that are going to unlock them The Magic are only going to go as far as those players take And so yes it’s not a time to rest on your laurels and say “You’re all stars You’re good You’re perfect Don’t do anything Don’t change.” It’s still Paulo has to improve his efficiency his decision- making France has to improve his three-point shooting his his decision- making It’s constant improvement They’re 22 and 23 years old guys They’re going to get better But the Magic could also see what their strengths were and that they are especially in the playoffs the way that they both played that they are players that can carry this movement forward It’s not even just that Look they both suffered major injuries for the first time in their careers They both had to deal with the uncertainty of recovery and doing it in the middle of a season Beckerro struggled throughout January We all saw it We all felt it We were all frustrated by it But he struggled and had to find his way out And a lot of us were like “Look you could tell he’s a step slow You could tell he’s trying to get himself back It’s not there yet That’s fine That’s okay.” Eventually he did find it After the All-Star break um after the All-Star break Ben Carro averaged 29 points per game 7.8 rebounds per game and four and a half assists per game shooting 47.3% from the floor So take that for efficiency When Ban Carol was out Vagner stepped up In the month between Ben Carro’s injury and Vagner’s injury Vagner proved he could be the leading man averaging 26.1 points per game six rebounds per game and 6.3 assists per game Magic went 13 and seven in those 20 games They proved vital They proved they could carry the burden They proved they are stars And the only reason Paulo or Fran were not allstars this year because the Magic were good enough at the break was because of their injuries The only reason France Vagner and Paulo Vain Caro are not all NBA players and costing the Magic a lot more money is because of their injuries So when are they ready That’s the bigger question The conference finals are proving that time is coming a lot sooner We’ll get to that Talk about the conference finalists coming up here in just a moment But first today’s episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to our 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playoff odds which I’m sure are changing daily Get set for game twos in the conference finals and more If you’re new to FanDuel it’s the perfect time to sign up Head to fanduel.com and place your first $5 bet If it wins you’ll get $200 in bonus bets Make every moment more with FanDuel an official sports betting partner of the NBA This is the ultimate question then We know Paulo and Fron are future stars and future perennial all-stars in this league We know that they are of that level And again if that’s the only thing we learn in this season great The question is when do the Magic have to feel the urgency to take advantage of that Obviously that urgency has begun Um because Paulo and France are both max level players The Magic are starting to feel the financial crunch We talked about that a few days ago There is definitely an urgency to compete and to win immediately Now it’s still going to be a process I I want to make this clear Um the Magic still have to win a playoff series And once you win a playoff series anything can happen I I suppose But it still feels like the Magic are a year or two away from true contention in the East But for those of us that remember the Dwight Howard days contention comes quickly When you get good you get good quick Just like when you get bad you get bad quick And what is unsettling about the season the Magic has had as much as we can blame injuries for it is now the Magic have to back up who they are Are they the 41 and 41 team that’s destined for play for the play in ringer or are they the team that everyone believed could be a top four seed could be a a contender And and a lot of people still believe that It’s like no one’s abandoning ship after that year But next year’s huge because the Magic have to prove things to themselves And the bottom line is this If you look at the conference finalists if you look at the teams that are playing today their windows are open quicker than ever Like I mentioned Paulo Vancerero is three years into his career at 22 years old Fran Vagner is four years into his career at 23 years old They have both put up crazy playoff numbers against a quality defense in the Boston Celtics They are both players who should be talked about in these in this group of best young players in the league Why they’re not I don’t know When you look around the rest of the league you see the Magic are not far off from that window Shay Gildis Alexander your MVP of the NBA is in his seventh season at 26 years old Anthony Edwards Minnesota Timberwolves second straight conference finals is in his fifth year at 23 years old Tyrese Hallebertton is in his fifth year at 24 years old Jaylen Brunson the only outlier in this group but still not that much of an outlier seventh season at 28 Essentially the window to make the conference finals but the way that the league is set up now with players younger and younger is really in the next year or two And look Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown aren’t going anywhere Donovan Mitchell isn’t going anywhere Nicole Joic isn’t going anywhere Giannis Antakmpo is going somewhere but his team is still a threat But the bottom line is this When you look around the league when you look at the teams that are still playing today there is no reason for the Magic to believe they can’t be a conference finalist or they shouldn’t be a conference finalist within the next two seasons Everyone else is doing it Those teams are going to get older They’ll get more expensive They’ll start to break apart That’s the reality of the league these days Um with the way the CBA is constructed other teams will rise other teams will fall The Magic have to worry about running their own race I’m I’m a big preacher of that Don’t don’t get caught up on what other teams are doing The Magic have to get better That the Magic have to get better play their own game and if they do that they’ll give themselves a chance But that’s it That’s the rub That’s the thing The Magic have the stars and those stars are competing at higher levels earlier and earlier in their careers I’m not here to put pressure on Paulo and Fron other than the normal pressure that you got to put on star players I’m here to put pressure on the Magic front office because the window to compete is now Those teams that are in the conference finals they didn’t wait They didn’t wait for their turf They went out and took it The Thunder got Shay Gilders Alexander got all those draft picks that they had Like they’re they’re using all of their assets to their maximum to make their star better The Pacers traded for Tyrese Hallebertton believing in a different vision for their team and then carefully built a roster that maximizes his strengths They made big trades to get their team over the hump to fill those weaknesses and fit their style The New York Knicks signed Jaylen Brunson in free agency and ever since then they have been carefully crafting an identity and a group to match him to match his skills The Minnesota Timberwolves made the wild trade for Rudy Gobear Highly criticized They’re in the conference finals for the second straight year But all of those teams don’t go anywhere if Shay Gillis Alexander doesn’t become an MVP candidate If Anthony Edwards doesn’t become the best young player in the league appar essentially if Tyrese Hallebertton doesn’t transform an identity within the Indiana Pacers if Jaylen Brunson doesn’t become what he becomes The Magic have a lot of work to do We’re going to talk about that work in a minute But it’s going to start with Paulo and Fron’s getting better and not feeling restricted by their roster first off but not feeling restricted by their age Age is just a number and you’re going to go through growing pains The Thunder went through growing pains in their series against the against the Nuggets You’re going to go through some growing pains but it shouldn’t matter The window for the Magic to compete for championships next year feels a little soon 2027 though that door has to be open because there are going to be more young players coming in You know when is going to get his turn Cooper Flag is going to get his turn The Magic have to grab their opportunity And like we said because of the Jason Tatum injury the East feels wide open It feels wide open And so if I’m Paulo and Fron I am working all summer to get better to get to this level where I am an undeniable star in this league because they’ve proven they can play in the playoffs I’m not worried about what Paulo and Fron are going to do every postseason Like look Fran had an up and down postseason in 2024 bounced back really strong in 2025 He’s got to back that up You know you always got to back yourself up But um I have no reason to be concerned about France Certainly no reason to concerned about Powell Paulo was made to play in the playoffs And we’ll get to it probably next week I’ll explain why I think Jamal Mosley’s kind of bored to coach in the playoffs too Um I I I I’m going to defend Mo like crazy Like frankly some of the criticism you Mos are just like well what do you want him to do Um the Magic have the stars in place And again you go as far as your stars take you If those two get better this championship window is going to open very very quickly And again as your conference finalists are proving that window is going to open sooner than everybody thinks It should absolutely be during their extensions the next four years the Magic should be competing for championships because if they’re not that’s when you get into the trouble that I think a lot of Magic fans are fearing And that puts the urgency on Jeff Welman Why this is a summer to be aggressive and improve the role players we’ll get to that coming up here in just a moment I mentioned earlier how each of the four conference finalists made moves to improve their roster to build their culture and to elevate them to this level The Oklahoma City Thunder for all the good things that they have done and the model that everyone wants them to be They lost in the conference final and the conference semi-finals last year to the Mavericks and they looked at their roster and they traded a player on a rookie contract and Josh Giddy for Alex Caruso They were aggressive in free agency going after player that a lot of people thought the Magic might go after and Isaiah Hartenstein They found a way to get that deal done and bolster one of their big weaknesses their rebounding You look at them now Alex Caruso was essential in game seven against against the Nuggets And obviously they just have all this depth because their drafting is so smart You got to draft well especially in the new cap environment You can’t miss on draft picks Like it’s it that honestly like what killed Denver as much as anything and I know Pton Watson had a big game six they invested in Zeke Naji when they shouldn’t have Um their draft their draft picks haven’t been good enough But again one of the reasons but they’ve been good They’ve been good in some ways because you know they let Kavius Cwell Pope walk because they had a lot of faith in Christian Brown draft You know we’ll I’m going to talk draft stuff tomorrow We’re going to talk draft history and and and how the Magic have to get the draft right and how they haven’t been as effective at it as they need to be We’re going to get to that tomorrow We’ll talk Anthony Black Tristan Dilva Jet Howard tomorrow You look at the Minnesota Timberwolves big trade for Rudy Gobear They swap Carl Anthony Towns for Julius Randall and Dante Danchenzo I think that’s the underrated part of this They swap they were unafraid to be ruthless and swapped beloved players to get guys that would help them in the playoffs improve their depth but not compromise their culture The Pacers they obviously traded for Tyrese Hallebertton They traded for Pascal Seakum last year to help give them some championship experience and some defense And look Indiana’s defense is far from perfect but it’s been good since January Since January it’s been it’s been near elite And obviously it’s been good enough for their for what their offense is able to give them The Knicks after losing in the conference semi-finals last year went all in on Macau Burges five first round picks and then made the Carl Anthony Town swap to bolster an offense that was already pretty strong The point is this support matters You’ve got to have the right role players in place And as much as anything what enhances a team what elevates a team from first round to second round to conference finals to finals is how you build the support for your stars Because if your star doesn’t play well you’re not advancing Just plain and simple You’re only getting further into the playoffs if you have players that can make others pay for the attention they give to the stars And look it’s not rocket science The Magic supporting players just weren’t good enough in the playoffs this year And would Jaylen Suggs have helped Absolutely Would Mo Vagner have helped Absolutely But when you look back at that series with the Celtics Paulo and Fran each scored 25 points per game Wendell Carter was the only other guy to score in double figures You know Gavius Gwell Poop shot sub 30% from three Worse than that Orlando as a team shot sub 30% from three And it’s just impossible to win at the highest levels playing like that We’ve started our lockdown mockdraft I put out all the feelers I’m getting a sense of what the market’s looking like If if the lockdown GMs act the way that that they’re acting the Magic have a chance to be very aggressive And like I said I I am expecting three moves this offseason Three significant moves this off seasonason A trade to a trade to add a starting level point guard to the roster a trade to upgrade Gary Harris’s spot and a trade to upgrade Cole Anthony spot And if you do that if you just do that you should improve your offense because you’ll just have better shooting and playmaking And that could elevate the team and then you can start addressing other needs as as needed Now you might have to work around some stuff You might have to give up Jonathan Isaac and then find another big another big wing to fill that spot Maybe that’s in the draft through Rashir Fleming through Yakel Lendborg if he stays in the draft There’s a lot of things There’s a lot of moving parts here but this is a summer where the Magic must be aggressive The Magic must be willing to potentially take a risk to add a transformative player to the roster whoever that may be because Orlando has this opportunity That’s that is abundantly clear The Magic have the top end talent and the opportunity to be elite to be among the best teams in the league And they can squander that opportunity if Paulo and France don’t have the help they need If they don’t have the offensive help they need the defense is going to be there Maybe it won’t be second best in the league It doesn’t have to be If the offense carries its weight the defense doesn’t have to carry so much either And so this summer is not about Paulo and France Paulo and Fron are great Get better but they’re great This summer is about improving those role players to enhance and push Paulo and France forward to make their lives easier so they can be great for longer and they can pick their spots when they have to carry the load Some nights are going to need that but it shouldn’t be every night And obviously yes getting Jaylen Suggs back getting Mover back is going to help a lot with that too But clearly the Magic needs some more support They need some more depth They need some more They need some more offensive depth as much as anything And that’s going to be the step forward this season The Magic have their MVPs Now let’s go find a six man of the year Let’s go find a defensive player of the year Let’s go find the guys that are going to make them even better 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 Manic You can of course find me on Twitter philipr_momd and on blue sky phipr You can subscribe to the podcast Apple podcast search tune and Google odyssey and all podcast to your podcast enable device You can find us on YouTube as well Just search for locked on magic Thank you all for getting us past 4,000 subscribers So appreciative of that If you missed yesterday’s episode go check it out I talked with Khalil Kahil of Locked on Pistons about next steps for the two best young teams in the Eastern Conference Check that out again on our archives or you can go to lockdown pistons Give me the hit But um you can check you can check out check that out uh wherever you download podcasts For the latest on the Orlando Magic be sure to check out Orlando Magicaily.com You can find us on Twitter OMagic Daily And for even more Orlando Magic content be sure to check out my Patreon page the Orlando Magic Hub at patreon.com/orlandomagicub I’m doing my player evaluations over there You can find that there at patreon.com/orlandoagichub As always thank you for your support We want to thank you for making Lockdown Magic your first listen today For your second listen check out the Lockdown NBA big board show NBA draft expert Rafael Barlo reacts to every workout interview and rumor leading up to the NBA draft Find Locked on NBA Big Board on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts 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 On tomorrow’s episode we’re going to chat about the Magic’s recent draft history Anthony Black Tristan Dilva Jet Howard We will talk about where the Magic have gone right where the Magic have gone wrong and why those picks are suddenly very important We’ll get to all that on our draft Friday episode of Locked On Magic Until then for Orlando Magic Daily and Lockdown Magic this has been Philip Rosik We’ll see you again next time for another episode of Lockdown Magic

The Orlando Magic faced a season of disappointment and frustration. But they exit knowing one clear thing: Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner are the team MVPs and clear stars they can build their future around.

Now comes the hard part: Figuring out when the championship window opens. That could come sooner than expected with players of Banchero and Wagner’s capabilities. It means the Magic have to be aggressive with their moves this offseason to build the supporting cast that can elevate them to contention.

0:00 Intro: Orlando Magic’s potential for conference finals
5:12 Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner as team MVPs
13:52 Magic’s window for contention opening soon
18:59 Pressure on Magic front office to compete now
23:40 Importance of supporting cast for star players
27:48 Magic’s offseason priorities and next steps

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