The Critical Weakness the Orlando Magic Must Address

Across recent seasons, the Orlando Magic have proven to be talented enough to ensure they remain a playoff team.

They have a defensive identity — despite their rating falling last season — and they have All-Star-caliber players to help take over games, but one area has been an Achilles heel: 3-point shooting.

For years now, the Magic have been a poor perimeter shooting team, and nothing has been done to really improve it. In the 2023-24 season, which was the first time Orlando made the playoffs under former head coach Jamahl Mosley, it finished 24th in the NBA in 3-point percentage (35.2%).

In the following season, the Magic regressed and fell dead last among the 30 NBA teams in 3-point percentage (31.8%). Last season, they picked themselves up off rock bottom in the category, but only slightly, finishing 27th in 3-point percentage (34.3%). 

In the last three seasons, Orlando’s roster has changed, with Desmond Bane being the most notable newcomer. However, the core of the team has largely remained the same.

At this point, the Magic feel as though they are as advertised. Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs are all young players who can still develop, but they have not demonstrated that their production on the perimeter is going to take a significant leap.

Bane helps alleviate the situation, but he cannot do it all on his own. So, the question becomes: how can the Magic become a better 3-point shooting team, and is it possible to improve this season? 

Recently, I discussed this topic with my colleague RJ Saunders of 1010 XL Magic. Here is what I had to say:

"I mean, 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. And 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're 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. 

And I know that for folks who have kept up with my stories on Roundtable Sports, kept up with my podcast, maybe it sounds like I'm attacking this guy because I've spoken about this ad nauseum, 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, right? And 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, RJ. Like, it wasn't a good showing by him this summer. And so, you know, 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, you know, with the addition of Nik Vucevic.

And you really just hope that you get what you can from this roster. And if it's going bad, hopefully Jeff Weltman makes the tough decision to make a trade and bring someone in, wherever that may be."