Paolo Banchero sees a different Orlando Magic team coming into this season, even if the roster looks mostly familiar.
The franchise didn’t tear anything down after last year’s frustrating finish. Instead, it made only a few moves: it brought back Nikola Vucevic on a one-year minimum, selected Izaiyah Nelson with the No. 52 overall pick in June and replaced head coach Jamahl Mosley with Spurs assistant Sean Sweeney. For a 45-win team that has reached the play-in round in back-to-back seasons, that kind of continuity matters to Banchero.
“I think guys will be set into their roles,” Banchero said during Media Day. “I think we'll be a lot more intense on both sides of the ball, and a lot more together. It's the same team, but I think things will be different.
“I think everyone realizes that we're going to all need each other to go out there and win and have success and accomplish our all team goals. It's not just going to be one guy or two guys that's doing it. It's going to take everybody."
That message carries extra weight after a season that never really found a steady rhythm. Orlando spent much of last year bouncing between good and mediocre, with the urgency expected from a team carrying high hopes not always showing up. Banchero’s own numbers reflected that uneven stretch: he averaged 22.2 points while shooting 45.9/30.5/77.5, and that came with Franz Wagner missing an extended stretch.
The team’s slide showed up in other places, too. Orlando went almost two months without consecutive wins from Dec. 1 to Jan. 28, and its defense dropped outside the top 12 after consecutive top-five finishes.
Banchero believes this group is approaching the new season with more edge.
“I think guys are coming in more prepared this year and ready for the long season ahead,” he said. “And the grind that comes with 82 games.
I think the intensity and everythhing is a little higher. ... I think last year was up-and-down.”
The challenge won’t be any smaller. The Eastern Conference has gotten tougher around Orlando, with the Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers, Atlanta Hawks and Toronto Raptors among the teams that improved. With 10 or 11 teams fighting for eight playoff spots, the Magic are right in the middle of the scramble.
Orlando is set to open training camp this week at AdventHealth Training Center.
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Franz Wagner Could Decide How Far This New Magic Team Goes
Franz Wagner enters this season in a different kind of reset for the Magic, one that goes beyond the new coaching staff led by Sean Sweeney. He spent the offseason working back from a high ankle sprain and calf strain that hampered him last year, and Orlando will be eager to see how quickly he settles into a fresh system after an interrupted stretch.
There is also a personal adjustment layered into the basketball one, with Wagner preparing for the first time to play an NBA season without his brother on the same team after the older Wagner signed with the Brooklyn Nets. For Orlando, the bigger picture is clear: if this new version of the team is going to take a meaningful step, Wagners health and comfort in the new setup will be a major part of it. [Read more 🡒]
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A quiet offseason has left the Magic looking much the same on paper, and that is partly the point. Orlando kept most of its roster intact, made only a few moves, and moved into a new coaching era with Sean Sweeney taking over as head coach, a setup that has them landing in the middle of a lot of national preseason power rankings rather than at the center of any summer splash.
Jeff Weltman has sounded comfortable with that low-drama approach, saying the organization liked the focus that came with it, and players have already spoken positively about Sweeneys style. The real test, of course, starts when training camp opens Tuesday, with the preseason set to begin Oct. 7, because the Magic still have to prove that a quieter reset can turn into something more meaningful once the games count. [Read more 🡒]
Paolo Banchero Faces The Question That Could Define Orlandos Season
The Magic head into the new season with Jamahl Mosley in place as the new head coach and Paolo Banchero sitting at the center of everything they hope to build. As Orlando keeps shaping its identity, Banchero is expected to be the franchises leading player, the one who can set the tone night after night and give the team a clear direction in a crowded Eastern Conference race.
Banchero has already shown the kind of talent that makes the ceiling easy to imagine, but the next step is about turning that promise into something steadier. Analysts have pointed to his need for more consistency and stronger leadership, and those are the traits that could determine whether Orlandos season feels like another step forward or just another year of waiting for the breakout to fully arrive. [Read more 🡒]