Magic Fan Vote Reveals MVP, Future Stars and the Team's Most Chaotic Personalities
We asked, you answered, and now, we can officially reveal the results for the Orlando Magic's batch of year-end awards!
Shout-out to everyone who participated. You played a pivotal role in helping us dole out invaluable hardware. From the Magic's MVP and most underrated player to their best trash-talker and zombie apocalypse savior, you covered all the most important bases.
So, who won each category? Let's get to the big reveals.
Stats accurate as of Sunday, April 12. Contract data via Spotrac.
Who Is the Most Valuable Player?
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Winner: Desmond Bane
Paolo Banchero is as polarizing as they come in circles outside Orlando. It turns out he's polarizing inside Magic circles as well.
Getting 44 percent of the vote was enough for second place. He finished behind Desmond Bane, who racked up 48 percent of first-place selections. This is somewhat surprising, albeit not totally off-base, development.
Desmond Bane's gravity has not cured Orlando's offensive warts, but he remains part of the solution. Later-season comfort bodes well for the future.
Who Is Most Underrated?
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Winner: Anthony Black and Tristan da Silva
Who doesn't love a good tie? Tristan da Silva and Anthony Black each sponged up 40 percent of the vote. We'll allow it.
Black's defensive intensity is a matter of fact. His growth as a ball-handler, finisher at the rim and corner-three marksman is less so. Sticker shock is going to hit hard, for some, if and when he signs an extension this summer.
Combo wings who defend their position and drain threes are usually celebrated. That makes Tristan da Silva an anomaly. Goga Bitadze might be Orlando's best rim protector depending on your (healthy) Jonathan Isaac stance.
Who Is the Best Athlete?
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Winner: Anthony Black
Anthony Black garnered a Magic-leading 48 percent of the vote. Rightfully so. He's living up to his Draft Combine vertical leaping. He leads all of Orlando's non-bigs in dunks, and his laundry list of slams includes posterizing four Memphis Grizzlies players at the same damn time.
Jalen Suggs netting the second-most votes (37 percent) amid injuries is endearing. And totally accurate. His end-to-end scampering is its own brand of athleticism. But rest assured, he still gives himself the occasional nosebleed.
Paolo Banchero (12 percent) isn't what you'd consider traditionally explosive but might lead the league in violent jams on which he doesn't seem to leave his feet. More importantly, someone his size doesn't move the way he does on the ball, blending balletics with brute force, if they're not an above-average athlete.
Who Is Most Likely To Be a 1st-Time All-Star In the Next 5 Years?
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Winner: Franz Wagner
It is equal parts wild, predictable and tragic that Franz Wagner headlines this list with 81 percent of the vote. Just last season, he profiled not only as an All-Star shoo-in, but back-of-the-ballot MVP candidate.
Injuries then derailed his 2024-25 coming-out party. They have also wrecked this season. At only 24, time and track record are on Wagner's side. If he's not the answer to this question, the Magic have a giant issue on their hands.
Not that they don't have other candidates. Desmond Bane's relocation to the Eastern Conference should look better with a full season under his belt, while Anthony Black and Jalen Suggs have the two-way value of players who could build "less efficient Derrick White" cases in the years to come.
Who Has the Best Contract?
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Winner: Anthony Black
We almost had another tie between Anthony Black (46 percent of the vote) and Trista da Silva (42 percent). My assumption was the extra year on TDS' contract would have earned him the nod, but hey, what do I know?
Black isn't going to be cheap forever. He is extension eligible this summer and should, at the very least, command Jalen Suggs money (five years, $150 million). That's the 2027-28 Magic's problem, though. Black is raking in just 6.1 percent of the salary cap next season.
Silva, meanwhile, is on the books for $10.1 million combined through 2027-28. Even by rookie-scale standards, sub-4 percent of the salary cap for a rotation wing is bonkers value.
Who Has the Worst Contract?
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Winner: Jalen Suggs
Once considered the Magic's inevitable path to a steady Big Three, Jalen Suggs (41 percent), Paolo Banchero (33 percent) and Franz Wagner (13 percent) each grabbed a pole position in the worst-contract category. What a buzzkill.
Selecting Paolo Banchero or Franz Wagner does not equate to generational hating. It is instead an admittance that the Magic have committed max contracts to a pair of players who've yet to make the transition from could-be stars to entrenched A-listers.
Injuries are somewhat to blame. But Orlando has invested in both Banchero and Wagner, as well as the roster around them, like they're the short- and long-term pillars around whom the front office can build a contender. Excuses don't offset the lack of clarity on whether that was—or even can be—the right call.
Perception of Jalen Suggs' deal follows a similar, albeit not identical, blueprint. The four years and $115.5 million he's owed will never reach 20 percent of the cap and pays out on a declining scale. But the commitment becomes a financial roadblock if Orlando isn't contending or he's unable to stay healthy.
Who Is the Best Trash-Talker?
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Winner: Mo Wagner
Nearly a decade into his career, Mo Wagner remains liable to piss people off by screaming in their face after a made basket or big play. He's admitted to trash-talking Kevin Durant as well.
On top of that, both he and Franz Wagner no doubt talk smack in German while hoping the targets of their tongue-lashings have no idea what they're saying. That's worth 61 percent of the vote to me.
Goga Bitadze (16 percent) is out here (allegedly) verbally eviscerating opponents and their families in Serbian. Poor taste? Perhaps. Quintessential example of smack-talking? Absolutely.
Jalen Suggs (16 percent) belongs on the board because of how he pronounces "silky" alone. Smack-talking is also a prerequisite for someone who plays with his inexorable pestiness.
Who Is Most Likely To Have a Burner Account?
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Winner: Paolo Banchero
As the Magic's highest-profile player, Paolo Banchero (46 percent) may need a burner to escape the onslaught of true-shooting-percentage citations in his comments section. As Orlando's emotional bellwether, Jalen Suggs (23 percent) probably has burners he uses to post Banchero's true shooting percentage in Paolo's mentions with the hope of motivating him.
Jett Howard (17 percent) could very well have legions of secret social media accounts that might be dormant now, but for the better part of four years existed to call for Jamahl Mosley's job. Jase Richardson (10 percent) talks in emojis, inferring a degree of terminal online-ness befitting someone who operates a burner or five.
Who Are You Taking With You Into the Zombie Apocalypse?
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Winner: Goga Bitadaze
Goga Bitadze (52 percent) beating out Jalen Suggs (29 percent) is the biggest upset of this entire exercise.
Delirious doses of speed and spunk punctuate the on-court stylings of Suggs and Anthony Black (7 percent). That same determination will prove useful in any attempt to survive the end of the world, and I was certain one of them would win.
Conventional enormity can also undermine attempts to hide during a zombie apocalypse. A 6'11", 250-pound stature seemingly works against Bitadze. Yet, in his defense, he is no stranger to confrontation and strong enough to keep the undead at bay.
Who Is Most Likely To Be Playing Overseas In 2 Seasons?
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Colin Castleton has yet to make good on "floor-spacing big" projections. Three seasons into his career, the clock is ticking. Earning a team-high 42 percent of votes is in line with that.
Alex Morales (32 percent) is a 28-year-old rookie who left college back in 2022. The odds of him sticking anywhere aren't great.
Orlando's reliance on Jevon Carter (11 percent) and Jamal Cain (14 percent) in recent weeks does little to secure their NBA futures. Now over the age of 30, Carter in particular might struggle to pin down a roster spot.
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