Despite championship aspirations, front office stagnation and lingering perimeter shooting woes threaten to stall Orlando's momentum as roster restrictions limit the team’s ability to surround their core with elite spacing.
The Orlando Magic believe they are ready to compete for an NBA championship, but can they realistically contend in what projects to be one of the deepest Eastern Conferences in recent memory?
Orlando came within one win of reaching the second round last postseason after building a 3-1 series lead over the top-seeded Detroit Pistons. However, the Magic were unable to close out the series after Franz Wagner suffered an injury, ultimately falling short for the third consecutive year in the opening round.
Now it’s up the Magic’s core to exceed expectations.
Full Court Magic host and Roundtable contributor Don Strouble recently discussed what the Magic hit and missed on this offseason with RJ Saunders of 1010XL Magic. Here’s what he had to say:
On Orlando's perimeter shooting struggles and cap-restricted roster construction:
"This has been the Achilles' heel of this team since I've been covering them, and even before I was covering them, when I first moved to Orlando, this was the problem that the Magic faced. I think that Desmond Bane alleviates it to a degree, but he can't be the sole guy with that responsibility on his shoulders. It's just so hard with the Magic because they suffer from two things: one, it's an expensive roster and they are handicapped by those First Apron restrictions; and two, Jeff Weltman is so convinced that this roster is the one that I feel like it's hindering the type of moves that he wants to make as an executive. It feels like he is paralyzed by his belief sometimes.
For folks who have kept up with my stories on Roundtable Sports or my podcast, maybe it sounds like I'm attacking this guy because I've spoken about this ad nauseam, but that's not what I'm trying to do—it's just objective. When you talk to Jeff Weltman, the first thing he does is point to the injuries. Luckily for the Magic, it didn't paralyze them so much into keeping Jamahl Mosley when that clearly wasn't the right move. But this team still needs shooters, and none of the guys have proven that they can do that yet. You talk about Tristan da Silva—we saw what he did in Germany; he kind of laid an egg out there, as it wasn't a good showing by him this summer. You talk about Jevon Carter—he was good when he was in Chicago, but he had a precipitous drop-off in his three-point percentage when he came to Orlando.
So really, they have to work with who they have in-house, with the addition of Nikola Vučević. You really just hope that you get what you can from this roster, and if it's going bad in the first half of the season, hopefully Jeff Weltman makes the tough decision to make a trade and bring someone in."
