If there was anything as exciting for an Orlando Magic fan as seeing the Magic come within a game of the second round of the NBA playoffs, it had to be the incredulous sensation when Orlando finally signed a big-name free agent in the offseason.
Seriously, name one free agent that Orlando has signed in the past decade that has lived up to the hype… or come with any hype at all. Journeyman Bismack Biyombo in 2016? Rashard Lewis in 2007? Hedo Turkoglu in 2004? Lewis and Turkoglu teamed up to lift the Magic to a Finals run in 2009, but the fact that the Magic haven’t made major acquisitions during the arguably the most fun portion of the NBA calendar in over a decade speaks to the franchise’s irrelevance and lack of appeal for big-name players each summer.
That makes the Magic’s signing of guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to a three-year, $66 million contract feel like a seismic shift in Orlando’s approach. KCP is a two-time NBA champion who is an asset at Orlando’s areas of weakness, shooting and experience, so his signing could both stabilize the Magic’s lineup and accelerate its contention timeline. Combine the Caldwell-Pope signing with the extensions of two of Orlando’s most important figures, forward Franz Wagner and head coach Jamahl Mosley, and a couple of promising draft selections, and the Magic have good reason to believe they can continue its ascent to the top of the Eastern Conference.
Philadelphia won the offseason by landing free agency’s biggest prize, nine-time All Star forward Paul George (who also met with Orlando in free agency — a big win in itself), and extended one of the NBA’s electric young players in guard Tyrese Maxey. They also boast the 2023 Most Valuable Player named Joel Embiid, not to mention a title-winning head coach in Nick Nurse. A 76er team on the brink of falling out of the Finals conversation should now be the biggest threat to the Boston Celtics next spring and is the clear winner of this offseason.
Then again, free agency doesn’t always crown an NBA champion.
Behind the 76ers, there’s a tier of teams with longer windows of contention that improved through more modest — but still impactful — additions. Oklahoma City, the number one seed in the West this season, makes this tier with its trade for guard Alex Caruso and addition of big man Isaiah Hartenstein, and New York made its title contention more real by trading for former Net Mikal Bridges.
The Magic should be right up there with those teams, and arguably have made more investments into its own team via timely extensions. Wagner isn’t even the only Wagner to return, after Orlando re-upped with his brother Mo. Defensive stud Jonathan Isaac, veteran guard Gary Harris and reserve Goga Bidatze are back in the fold. The Magic also didn’t lose much of its rotation and will give head coach Jamahl Mosley plenty of options in figuring out effective lineups.
Let’s return to the Caldwell-Pope signing. The 31-year-old has shot better than 40% from the three-point line in three of the past four seasons and averaged more than 10 points and a steal per game each of the past three years. In Finals runs in 2020 (Los Angeles) and 2023 (Denver), KCP contributed clutch defense and knockdown shooting to teams that only needed him to complement their top stars and fit into a role, rather than overextend himself and try to do too much.
That track record bodes well for an Orlando team that is looking to build off a feisty seven-game series against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Magic already have its top two stars in 2023 Rookie of the Year Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, along with promising pieces in Jalen Suggs, Isaac and center Wendell Carter, Jr. Come playoff time, only Banchero excelled when it mattered most. Orlando shot 30.9 percent from three-point land and failed to eclipse 100 points in three of its games against Cleveland, including a devastating 106-94 loss in Game 7 in which Suggs and Wagner combined to make just two of their 16 treys.
The Magic are one of the league’s youngest teams, so maturation and more experience could lead to further growth. But the addition of Caldwell-Pope makes so much sense for a Magic team that shouldn’t wait to burst into the Finals contention picture.
Caldwell-Pope doesn’t fit the mold of a flashy free-agent signing, and in the Magic’s best-case scenario for the upcoming season, he would be the Magic’s fourth- or fifth-best player (it’s probably a bad sign if he leads the Magic in points on a consistent basis). Even as a role player, though, Caldwell-Pope is a piece that boosts the Magic in both tangible ways and in areas that are harder to measure, including alleviating the offensive burden on Banchero and mentoring Orlando’s young players. The Magic did not appear to be deer in the headlights in the middle chunk of its first-round series, but imagine what the addition of a player with 62 games of playoff experience could bring.
As one of the NBA’s most improved teams in 2023-24, Orlando came into this offseason with plenty of momentum as an exciting team in need of a few moves to keep its trajectory from stagnating. By addressing positions in need, investing in its core guys instead of mortgaging its future for a win-now mentality and establishing its franchise as a team to watch in free agency, the Magic has put together one of its finest offseasons in decades and seems to have turned the corner as a team with staying power in the Eastern Conference playoff bracket.
For Orlando’s next trick? Let’s wait until it’s time for meaningful basketball.
Riker's Block 