Ever since Orlando surprised the basketball world and took former Duke star Paolo Banchero with the #1 pick in 2022, things have been looking up for the Magic. And in the Orlando Magic Daily, Maxwell Ogden says that Banchero and his teammates, though down 2-1 against the Boston Celtics, have nonetheless made a significant statement about their future: that a team led by Banchero and Franz Wagner, both of whom are playing at or near the highest possible level, is not that far from being elite.
Orlando beat Boston 95-93 on Friday as Banchero scored 29 points, pulled down six boards and also had two steals. For his part, Wagner had 32 points and eight rebounds. The two combined to shoot 21-52 overall and 5-17 from deep.
What’s remarkable is that Orlando won despite only former Blue Devil Wendell Carter scoring more than six points and the rest of the team combining for just 32 points and 22 if you count Carter’s 10.
And while Orlando may need to make some moves to build around their Dynamic Duo, the Magic have a great advantage over most of the league: their roster is quite young.
Cory Joseph is 33 and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is 32 while Gary Harris is 30.
The rest of the roster is quite young.
Banchero is 22 and Wagner is a year older at 23. As for the rest, Anthony Black and Jett Howard are 21. Caleb Houston is 22. Tristan da Silva and Jalen Suggs are 23, Cole Anthony 24, while Goba Bitadze and Ethan Thompson are 25. Carter and Mac McClung are 26, Jonathan Isaac 27 while Trevelin Queen and Mo Wagner, Franz’s older brother, is 28.
Orlando has time to let these young players mature or, in some cases, to move them. And of course they can still build through the draft.
The Magic will have four picks in June, two in each round: #16, #25, #46 and #57.
That and their youthful roster gives them some serious options. They’d have to really pull off a huge deal to get to Duke’s Cooper Flagg, who is widely expected to go #1 in the draft, but the current projections are that Flagg will go #1, Dylan Harper #2, VJ Edgecombe #3 and Ace Bailey #4. You can probably shuffle the 2-4 picks but whatever.
Let’s say that Charlotte gets the #3 pick. Could Orlando swing a trade if they offered some package of their four picks and some of their young core?
Quite possibly. You can imagine what Edgecombe or Harper would do.
The youth of this team gives them a long window to build around their budding young superstars, Banchero and Wagner. Now we’ll see just how crafty GM Anthony Parker is.