The Orlando Magic aren't just a prospective future contender anymore. Behind the versatile, burgeoning offensive exploits of Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner and a top-three defense spearheaded by Jalen Suggs, the Magic have suddenly emerged as a legitimate threat in the Eastern Conference as soon as this season.
Orlando continued its winning ways on Friday, beating the bottom-dwelling Washington Wizards 130-125 at Amway Center. Wagner led the Magic with 31 points on 9-of-17 shooting, living at the free throw line while adding seven rebounds and eight assists. Banchero hardly played sidekick to his fellow future All-Star, though, dropping 28 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists on the Wizards.
The victory marks the Magic's ninth straight, easily the league's longest winning streak. Jamahl Mosley's team is now 14-5, second in the Eastern Conference behind the Boston Celtics and owning the league's third-best record overall. Just as encouraging? Orlando's +6.1 net rating is fifth-highest in the NBA.
Paolo Banchero, surging Magic not resting on laurels
Some young teams don't capitalize on the immense early promise the Magic have shown over the first five weeks of the regular season. Even if Orlando doesn't maintain its torrid current pace across the 82-game grind and into the playoffs, don't count on this group resting on its laurels or flying too close to the sun long-term.
Why? A cornerstone like Banchero setting an organizational tone his teammates are clearly already embracing.
“Really proud,” he said after the game of the Magic's winning streak. “Obviously, work’s not done, but just shows us how hard we’ve been working and the chemistry we’ve been able to build so far. We just want to keep it rollin’.”
Defense won't be going anywhere for Orlando. The Magic rank top-three in opponent's turnover percentage and defensive rebounding rate. They're stocked with quality team and one-on-one defenders up and down the roster and on the perimeter and interior.
Suggs might be the best defensive guard in basketball right now, a pitbull who can check four positions at a game-changing level, wreaks havoc as a help defender, juices transition play and imbues his team with unrelenting energy and intensity on that side of the ball. Banchero and Wagner have both taken major strides defensively this season. Jonathan Isaac, finally healthy, is one of the NBA's best defenders on a per-minute basis.
Orlando's winning streak has come with Wendell Carter Jr. sidelined by injury, too. Solid as Goga Bitadze has been at the rim, he's not nearly as dynamic a defender as the Magic's normal starting center. Markelle Fultz, another high-impact defender, hasn't played since November 9th.
But the Magic won't challenge toward the top of the East or ever cement themselves as top-tier title contenders without improving offensively. Their 119.3 offensive rating during the winning streak ranks ninth over that timeframe and is nearly five points per 100 possessions better than their 12th-ranked season-long rating.
Banchero is the reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Week, an honor Wagner could take home this week after his third straight game of 30 points or more. Suggs has leveled up offensively nearly as much as he has on the other end, shooting 37.3% from deep—helping address the team's biggest weakness—while playing with consistent pace and force as a driver and playmaker his teammates can't help but match.
Needless to say, things are trending up in central Florida. As they fortify themselves as an elite defensive outfit and continue making progress offensively, the Magic will continue leaning on culture while success inevitably comes and goes.
“We just wanna play for each other and that’s what we try to do every night,” Banchero said. “No matter who’s the one leading the team in scoring, who’s making shots, we just wanna play for each other. We did a good job of that tonight and we’’re gonna try to do it again tomorrow.”
Orlando will vie for a 10th straight win on Saturday against the Brooklyn Nets.
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