The Orlando Magic didn’t waste any time showing what this offense might look like under first-year head coach Sean Sweeney.
On the opening play of their preseason game Wednesday in Memphis, Tennessee, Orlando went straight to a Spain pick-and-roll set that put the whole starting group in motion. Franz Wagner handled the ball, Paolo Banchero screened, Desmond Bane kept moving off the ball, and Wendell Carter Jr. ended up with the kind of clean corner 3 the Magic want to generate. They liked it enough to run it right back on the next possession.
This time, Carter saw a harder closeout after knocking down the previous three. He used a pump fake, then fought his way into the paint and finished through traffic for a tough bucket.
That sequence said plenty about where Orlando is trying to go. The idea is simple: put the ball in the hands of Wagner and Banchero, let their downhill force pull the defense apart, and use that leverage to create room for Bane to do damage as a shooter. It’s a different kind of setup for a roster that, in the source’s words, is built in a “funky, backwards way” compared with older offensive models.
The Magic are leaning into two big wing point forwards instead of a traditional point guard. That’s the bet. Wagner and Banchero are the shot creators, and Bane gives the group the kind of spacing gravity that changes how defenses have to play them.
Last season, injuries kept that vision from really taking hold. Now, with everyone healthy and Sweeney emphasizing movement, positioning and precision, Orlando is trying to make that structure a real part of its offense.
Spain pick-and-roll - also called stack pick-and-roll - gives the Magic a clean way to do it. In Sweeney’s version, Wagner can initiate, Banchero can screen and play in the paint, and Bane can work off the action as a shooter. Carter and Jase Richardson spaced the floor to open the game, and the lineup can also feature other shooting options such as Jalen Suggs, Anthony Black, Tristan da Silva and Nikola Vucevic.
Sweeney laid out the spacing goal plainly: “we would rather be too high, too wide, too far apart, too spaced,” with the aim of making defenses “guard the length and the width of the court.”
That’s the point of the set. It forces help defenders to make constant choices, and when the defense commits to one threat, somebody else is open. Whether it’s Wagner surveying, Banchero catching with his feet in the paint, Bane sliding into a hot spot from deep, or Carter lurking in the dunker spot or corner, the play is designed to put each guy where he can do what he does best.
For Orlando, the appeal is that the action doesn’t ask anyone to do too much. It creates good looks, good decisions and a repeatable structure the team can trust. And if the Magic keep building around that kind of spacing and movement, the opening possession in Memphis may have been a pretty clear preview of the identity they want.
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For a team trying to sort out the edges of its roster, those minutes are the ones that build trust. Coach Sean Sweeney saw Morales helping in the small, necessary ways throughout the game, and that is often the lane for a player on his path: energy, activity and support rather than big scoring totals. If Orlando is looking for reliable depth, performances like this are the sort that keep a player in the conversation. [Read more 🡒]