Orlando Magic guard Jalen Suggs is heading overseas for a different kind of basketball assignment.
Suggs will serve as a coach at the inaugural Basketball Without Borders Next Up camp in Istanbul, Türkiye, joining a lineup of current and former NBA names tasked with helping develop some of the game’s top young international prospects. The NBA and FIBA announced Wednesday that the men’s camp will run Aug. 26-29 at Basketbol Gelişim Merkezi.
The four-day event will gather 80 of the best male high school-age prospects from around the world. Players will go through skill development, athletic testing, 3-on-3 competition, 5-on-5 games and life-skills programming.
Suggs, who was named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team in the 2023-24 season, will work alongside Cleveland Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson, NBA legend Vlade Divac, former NBA player Danilo Gallinari, 2021 NBA champion Brook Lopez and three-time All-Star Khris Middleton.
The camp is a new wrinkle for Basketball Without Borders as the program celebrates its 25th anniversary. Istanbul will host the event for the third time, after previously staging BWB Europe camps in 2002 and 2008.
BWB Next Up is set up as an annual men’s and women’s showcase aimed at identifying and developing the best young prospects outside the United States. The top performers will have a chance to move on to BWB All-Star camps held around NBA and WNBA All-Star events.
For Suggs, the trip adds another layer to his growing presence in basketball development, while giving him a chance to mentor some of the world’s most promising young players.
Elsewhere in the Magic picture, the focus remains on how Paolo Banchero and new head coach Sean Sweeney fit together in the 2026-27 season.
Orlando’s playoff push will depend heavily on that partnership, and on Banchero delivering at a superstar level. Through his first four seasons, the 23-year-old has shown the kind of ceiling that makes the franchise believe, but last season brought some uneven stretches too.
Banchero averaged 22.2 points across 72 games, his lowest scoring mark since his rookie year, and there were moments when he looked slow and indecisive.
That kind of self-accountability from a young star matters, and it could be a key part of his next leap as the face of the team. Sweeney’s message and approach will matter just as much.
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