The Orlando Magic spent the day after their season ended trying to make sense of a team that had fallen short, yet still left behind a familiar kind of proof.
Jeff Weltman fired Jamahl Mosley, and that decision shifted the spotlight onto the president of basketball operations at a moment when the franchise was already dealing with the sting of a painful finish. Weltman acknowledged the frustration.
He acknowledged the goals were not met. But he also pointed to something he believes matters just as much: the Magic, even through the injuries and the collapse, showed they can hang with the best in the East.
That belief starts with how the playoffs have gone for Orlando. The Magic pushed the Cleveland Cavaliers to seven games in 2024, then turned around and played a tough five-game series with the Boston Celtics in 2025.
Last year, they went seven again with the Detroit Pistons. In each postseason, they looked like a team nobody wanted to draw in a first round that might turn into a slog.
“When you build a team for the playoffs, you try to construct a roster that has the attributes that we have,” Weltman said the day after the season ended. “It's not easy to get the positional versatility, the guys that can elevate their games when it matters most.
I think a lot of the way that we're built is designed to be successful in the playoffs. I think we unfortunately didn't see enough of that.
I don't see any reason why we couldn't have competed with anybody else in the East if we can compete with the No. 1 team like that.”
That’s the crux of the Magic’s case. The roster has size, versatility and a defensive edge that travels.
Orlando finished first in the playoffs in 2024 and fourth in 2026 on the defensive end, and that physical identity has been the backbone of the team’s postseason identity. Even when the offense has sputtered, the Magic have been able to drag series into the kind of games that test legs, patience and resolve.
Then there’s Paolo Banchero, who has become the clearest reason Orlando can keep believing. Whatever criticism has followed him during his career, his playoff work has been impossible to dismiss. Defenses load up on stars in the postseason, and Banchero has kept finding ways through it.
The numbers tell the story. Last year in the regular season, he averaged 22.2 points per game on 45.9 percent shooting and 30.5 percent from three.
In the playoffs, that climbed to 26.3 points per game on 42.0 percent shooting and 33.3 percent from three. In his previous two playoff series, he put up 27.0 and 29.4 points per game, both jumps from his regular-season production.
He’s delivered on the biggest stages, too. In 2024, he scored 38 points in the Game 7 loss to Cleveland after posting 27 in the Game 6 win and 39 in Game 5.
Last year, with Franz Wagner out, Banchero erupted for 45 points in Game 5 against Detroit and helped turn that series into a heavyweight fight with Cade Cunningham. He followed that with 17 points on 4-for-20 shooting in Game 6, then came back with 38 in the Game 7 loss.
The on/off numbers from last year’s playoffs only sharpen the point: the Magic were -3.4 points per 100 possessions with Banchero on the floor and -22.9 with him off, according to DataBallr.
Still, all of that has not been enough to get Orlando where it wants to go. The team’s inexperience cost it in 2024, when it led by 17 in the first half of Game 7 against Cleveland before fading late.
In 2025, injuries changed the shape of the Boston series and left Banchero and Wagner carrying too much of the offense against a championship-level Celtics team. Orlando finally got a road win and the homecourt advantage it wanted, but Wagner’s injury stripped away its size and balance, and the Magic wasted the chance with a rough second half in Game 6.
Offense remains the biggest problem, and it’s still the part of the roster that feels least solved.
Even so, Weltman is betting on the structure. He said the team believes it is built for the postseason, and that the process has to be about building habits, improving month by month and peaking at the right time.
“I think that this team we believe is constructed to do well in the postseason,” Weltman said the day after Game 7. “We have to like Paolo said, it starts in the preseason and continues on and you build good habits. I don't set numbers or rounds, I just want to get better every montha nd be playing the best basektball tat the dn of the season and that's when good things happen.”
For now, the Magic are left with the same tension that has followed them through each playoff run: they look built for this stage, but they still have to get there and finally finish the job once they do.
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Paolo Banchero Now Faces The Season That Changes Everything
The Magic have spent the offseason making the kind of moves that usually come with a clear message: the window is open, and Paolo Banchero is the player everything now revolves around. Adding Desmond Bane and bringing in Sean Sweeney as head coach gives Orlando more firepower and a new voice on the sideline, but it also sharpens the spotlight on Banchero, who remains the franchises central piece as the team tries to turn promise into something more lasting.
For Banchero, this is the season where the next step has to be real, not just discussed. The expectation is no longer only that he keeps growing, but that his shooting improves and that he helps carry Orlando beyond the first round of the playoffs. If the Magic still come up short, the changes around him will look less like support and more like a warning about how unforgiving the league can be when a talented young core stops just shy of breaking through. [Read more 🡒]
Magic Enter Pivotal Year With Outside Expectations Suddenly Slipping
The preseason picture around Orlando has shifted faster than the front office probably would have liked. ESPNs forecast has the Magic slotted ninth in the Eastern Conference at 44-38, a projection that puts them back in the play-in mix rather than among the conferences sturdier playoff teams. With Sean Sweeney taking over as head coach and the roster largely intact aside from limited offseason movement, including the addition of Nikola Vuevi, this now feels like a year that will test both the new voice on the bench and the groups staying power.
The bigger issue is the backdrop around them. The East looks deeper and more competitive, which leaves less room for a team trying to make incremental progress while still finding offensive rhythm. For Orlando, the path forward appears to hinge on two familiar but unforgiving variables: staying healthy and finding enough consistency on that end of the floor to turn potential into something more reliable. [Read more 🡒]
Paolo Banchero Holds The Key To Orlandos Next Step
The Magics offseason change on the sideline has pushed even more attention onto Paolo Banchero, because Orlandos next step still runs through its best player. After parting with Jamahl Mosley and hiring Sean Sweeney, the franchise is making a clear bet that the roster can keep climbing if Banchero stays on the floor and keeps growing into the centerpiece role the team has built around him.
His importance was already obvious last season, when his availability and level of play helped keep Orlando competitive. Now the expectation is even higher, and Banchero has reportedly spent the offseason working to improve his durability as the Magic try to turn promise into real postseason progress. In a conference where the margins are thin, his health may be just as important as any tactical change Sweeney brings to the job. [Read more 🡒]