The Orlando Magic have spent the offseason circling the same question: who is going to run this team?
That issue has been hanging over the franchise for a long time, and it still feels like the biggest unresolved piece on the roster. Orlando has already made moves to address shooting, cycling through Kentavious Caldwell-Pope before landing Desmond Bane, but the point guard spot remains the real pressure point.
Paolo Banchero even said after the Magic’s 2024 run that he wanted the team to add shooting and a true facilitator. The shooting part has at least been addressed.
The facilitator part is still up for debate.
For now, a lot of that burden lands on Jalen Suggs.
That is where the tension sits with Suggs. His contract, his offensive inconsistency, and his rough playoff showing all put him under the microscope.
He has long been viewed as a core piece, but he is still trying to grow into the point guard role while also functioning as an off-guard and catch-and-shoot threat. The Magic need him to become more than that.
And yet, buried under the frustrations, there was real progress.
Suggs made a noticeable jump as a passer last season, and that matters because passing is one of the clearest markers of a point guard’s value. He logged his first triple-double in a 15-11-11 game during a February win over the Brooklyn Nets, and he finished with a career-best six games of at least 10 assists.
The numbers back up the eye test. Suggs averaged a career-high 5.5 assists per game against 2.7 turnovers per game. He posted an 11.5 percent assist-to-pass ratio, according to Second Spectrum, and he made 47.4 passes per game, which was second on the team.
That was a meaningful rise from previous seasons. In 2025, he averaged 3.7 assists per game, had a 7.9 percent assist-to-pass ratio and made 46.8 passes per game. In 2024, those numbers were 2.7 assists per game, an 8.5 percent assist-to-pass ratio and 32.3 passes made per game.
It still does not put him in the top tier of NBA point guards. The league’s best at the position are operating at a different level, and Suggs still looks more like a secondary playmaker than a full-time engine. But the leap was real.
There were other signs too. BBall Index noted that Suggs ranked 25th in Playmaking Talent and finished first in Passing Versatility. Passing versatility tracks the different kinds of passes a player can make, while passing creation quality measures the expected effective field goal percentage on potential assists based on shot quality.
That fits the way Orlando has been built. The Magic have had plenty of moments where the passes were there but the shots did not fall. Suggs averaged 8.5 potential assists per game, according to Second Spectrum, which ranked second on the team behind Paolo Banchero.
ESPN Analytics also viewed him positively as a passer. In its NBA Player Fingerprint, Suggs landed in the 84th percentile and added 0.85 points per 100 possessions above league average with his passing.
So the growth is there. The problem is that so is the volatility.
Suggs still had five games with five or more turnovers and 12 games with four or more turnovers. That has been part of the issue all along: he can get too amped up, try to force the big play, and skip over the simple one. His game can drift into overzealous territory, and that is where the organization and control expected from a point guard still need work.
The playoffs made that harder to ignore. After a solid Game 1, Suggs struggled through the rest of the series. He averaged 4.1 assists per game against 3.0 turnovers per game, along with 7.6 potential assists per game and a 7.2 percent pass-to-assist ratio.
He had a series-high seven assists in the disastrous Game 6 loss, but he also coughed it up five times. He had only one turnover in Game 1 and Game 5, then at least three in every other game in the series.
That is the part Orlando has to sort through. Suggs clearly took a step as a passer, but the Magic still need him to be steadier, calmer and more efficient.
A point guard is more than a distributor. He has to keep the whole thing from wobbling.
Orlando appears willing to keep betting on that growth. Suggs did not have a healthy offseason last year, since he was not fully cleared to play until opening night, and the hope is that a normal summer can help him build on what he showed. The Magic are counting on another leap.
In Other News...
Magic Summer League Hopefuls Face A Crucial Test Under New Staff
Summer League has become more than a showcase for Lester Quinones and Phillip Wheeler. It is also a first look at how the Magics younger depth pieces fit under a new coaching staff, with both players using the games in Las Vegas to press their case for more NBA time while trying to build chemistry with teammates they have only just started to know.
Quinones and Wheeler arrived with limited big-league experience but a clear sense of what this stretch is supposed to be about: playing the right way, helping the group come together and making the most of every possession. For Orlando, that makes these games less about individual numbers than about whether the roster can start to look connected, and whether a couple of G-League standouts can turn a brief summer run into something more lasting. [Read more 🡒]
Austin Reaves Is Now In Jalen Williams And Chet Holmgren Territory
Austin Reaves new four-year, $185 million extension with the Lakers is the kind of deal that instantly changes how his value gets discussed around the league. For Orlando fans, the more interesting part is the company his future salary now keeps: by 2026-27, Reaves will be operating in the same financial neighborhood as Paolo Banchero, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, a reminder of how quickly the NBAs next wave of young talent is getting paid.
Bancheros place in that group matters most to the Magic, because he remains their true No. 1 option and the face of a roster built around his upside. The contract comparison also underscores the different stages these players are in, with Banchero already on a rookie max extension while the discussion around him still centers on efficiency, turnovers and how high his ceiling can go as he continues to grow into a superstar-level frontcourt force. [Read more 🡒]
Jase Richardson Sends Magic Fans A Clear Message After Opener
The Magics Summer League opener did not go their way against Charlotte, but Jase Richardsons first-night message was less about the final score and more about the standard he wants Orlando to carry into the rest of July. Richardson, who scored 15 points, said the developmental value starts with defensive intensity and a louder, more connected group on the floor, the kind of habits the organization will be watching closely as the roster gets its first extended run together.
Noah Penda also gave Orlando a reason to build on the loss with a strong shooting night, and Richardson made a point of noting the work his teammate put in. There was also a little extra energy on the sideline, with regular-season Magic teammates showing up to support the group after teasing their appearance in the group chat, a reminder that even in Summer League, Orlando is treating these games like part of a bigger picture. [Read more 🡒]