Orlando Magic's Top 3 Priorities During 2026 NBA Offseason
The Orlando Magic pushed the No. 1 seed Detroit Pistons to the brink in Round 1 of the playoffs, but in the end, it's Paolo Banchero and Co. starting their offseason.
Looking back, Orlando was, perhaps surprisingly, one of the biggest buyers of the entire 2025 NBA offseason.
No one should expect a repeat of that aggressiveness.
It's not that this roster is perfect, or that there aren't any areas in need of addressing. It's just that last summer's splash was so costly—four firsts and a swap for Desmond Bane—that the budget wouldn't allow for a similar pursuit this time around.
So, are the Magic fine with working around the margins? Or could they consider the kind of radical change that would reshape this core? To help paint that picture, let's break down the top three summer priorities for this squad.
3. Decide Jamahl Mosley's Fate
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Few coaching seats feel hotter than Jamahl Mosley's. He is five seasons into his tenure with the team and still awaiting his first playoff series victory.
Coaches seldom get much longer to figure things out, particularly when they're guiding a group with actual expectations and investments made in those beliefs. That Bane blockbuster was supposed to be a fortune-changer, yet the Magic wound up looking as mediocre as ever.
Injuries played a part in that performance, obviously, and this roster remains imbalanced. That said, there were unforgivable issues with lacking urgency, poor preparation and communication with adjustments. And fair or not, those are areas that typically get tethered to the head coach.
The Magic figure to move on this quickly, because if they decide Mosley isn't the right person for the job, they'll want to access the pool of potential replacements as soon as possible.
2. Find More Shooting
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Last summer, the Magic made meaningful investments into their shooting shortage. Beyond paying that heavy price for Bane, they also spent a first-round pick on Jase Richardson and signed Tyus Jones.
Clearly, more work is needed on that front.
Orlando may have entertained visions of entering the middle class of the shooting ranks, but all it really did was move from atrocious to awful. This wasn't the league's worst shooting attack, but it was close: 24th in made threes, 27th in three-point percentage.
This offense will continue to struggle to breathe (let alone function) with spacing constraints like this. The challenge is going to be finding solutions for cheap, as Orlando doesn't have a first-round pick or funds for free agency.
1. Extension Talks with Anthony Black
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With external options limited, Orlando's most important work will be done in-house.
Namely, the Magic must decide whether Anthony Black, the sixth overall pick in 2023, is definitely a long-term member of this core. And if he is, they then have to price how important it'll be to keep him—and it surely won't be cheap.
"If I'm Anthony Black's agent, I'm going into extension negotiations this summer and I'm saying, 'Not a penny less than Jalen Suggs. I've been better than him this season and I play more than him,'" Zach Lowe said on a March episode of The Zach Lowe Show. "And that contract is going to foist some very tough decisions onto the Magic."
Suggs, for those who don't remember, scored a five-year, $150.5 million deal. That's a huge chunk of change, especially considering what Orlando also owes to Bane, Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. The Magic are almost compensating this core like it's a contender, despite the team appearing nowhere near that level.
That's not saying Black should be denied an extension, but it does mean giving him a big-money one might necessitate some cuts to be made elsewhere—if not now, then at least at some point in the near future.
