The Orlando Magic are entering the 2026-27 season with mostly the same group as last year. Will it pay off?
On Monday, the Orlando Magic will be hosting media day before training camp commences on Tuesday.
For the Magic, this will be a chance to build the foundation for a strong season under new head coach Sean Sweeney, and the roster will largely look the same as it did last season. The positive aspect of this is that this young group gets another season to build continuity toward a common goal.
The bad news, however, is that we may have already seen the best version of what this roster can be. Orlando’s front office did what it could with the financial restrictions that come as a symptom of being over the first apron, but it is hard to say if, even without those limitations, President of Basketball Operations Jeff Weltman would have done more.
On the latest episode of the Full Court Magic Podcast, I discussed this with my colleague Andrew Cherico. Here is what I had to say:
"I think that this team was not only operating within its limitations financially, but just based on how a Jeff Weltman-led front office generally operates. I mean, the move for Desmond Bane was the biggest he had made in his tenure with the Magic, and he's been in this front office for 10 seasons at the helm, and so I didn't expect anything big to come about, especially if it meant trading one of their core players, because he made as much clear at the end of the season that that wasn't going to happen.
Sean Sweeney was the big move. This was the big change inside the building. I believe that [Nikola] Vucevic will bring some good production to this group. He is a true stretch big who still has some productive years in front of him, even though he will be 36 at the beginning of the season. He averaged 15.1 points and, I believe, 8.4 rebounds last season. That's better than what Wendell Carter Jr. was doing.
Now, granted, those types of numbers came when Vooch was a starter and playing in a starting role in Chicago. Things took a dip during his brief stint with the Celtics, but he shows that he can still do that, and that's the kind of production this team needs, especially with the loss of Moe Wagner, because you cannot solely rely on Goga Bitadze to be that number-two guy.
We'll see with Jevon Carter and Jonathan Isaac. I've been very critical on J.I. My hope is that this is a bounce-back year for him, at least in some form, and that he can actually become a serviceable player again on the floor. Carter really needs to rediscover his 3-point shot that he had in Chicago because otherwise he's an undersized guard that doesn't facilitate all that well. He needs to be hitting his jumpers and his shots from the perimeter to be a contributor. You make a good point about Jeff Weltman. It feels like he's going all-in on the roster."
