3 players in ESPN Top 25 under 25. What is the Path forward? Dynasty ringing?

[MasterGMer]

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/42646405/nba-25-25-top-young-stars-ranked-future-potential

ESPN just published its latest Top 25 under 25 years old. And Paolo is 3rd behind Victor Wembanyama and Anthony Edwards. Plus Franz Wagner is NO.4!

Also Jalen Suggs is NO.18 and btw Zion Williamson is only NO.16.

So literally we have 3 players among the best players under 25 years old. Plus those three players are our Top 3 players on the team and our young core.

Future is bright, right? Orlando?

So that pops up a question for you all, what is the path forward?

I know the most obvious answer is going to be experience plus experience. But what else? More playoff experience? What else is what this Magic team needs to get to the Finals and win one or multiple ones?

Look at our team construction. Magic has all our draft assets plus DEN FRP in 25. We are loaded with young talent like AB, Jett and TDS.

What do you think should be the path forward in couple years? What moves Orlando Magic should make before 25' Trade Deadline and 2025 NBA Draft and beyond? Trade up in a loaded 2025 NBA Draft?

What should be our philosophy? What should be our vision?

In my opinion we are a move and two away from contention. That is why I, personally, like to buy low and sell high.

For example, take a look at Zion situation in Pelicans. New Orleans could waive him with no pay this upcoming summer if he didn't make the minimum games requirement detailed in the contract. You may ask why should Magic be interested in a player who missed more than 50% of his games his entire career? The reason is simple, cost is low and upside is HUGE.

Another player that I think is interesting is James Harden. He has a player option this upcoming summer. So he can become a Free Agent. Do we make a run at him? Everyone saw his game last night? He played like a vintage Houston James Harden with 1 rebound shy of a triple double. IMO I think his career is done in LA. He wants to win a championship. Coming to Orlando, a such young and promising team, why not? Again, this goes to my model. Buy low and upside is HUGE

And sure, the league is going to watch how this Milwaukee team goes this season, primarily in the playoff. Brook Lopez is 36 years old. Damian Lillard is 34. And Kris Middleton is 33. Is the Bucks' Championship window closing if they can not go far in the playoff again? What is Giannis going to do then? Will he demand a trade? You know you know I am a big Giannis fan. Even though I think a trade is unrealistic for us because there are going to be a ton of offers to the Bucks, like Houston Rockets, who are loaded with young talent plus draft picks.

But in order to change the course of our future to a immediate Championship contender, that could be an act to take. Jeff Weltman and John Hammond are the ones who scouted Giannis back in Greece and drafted him in Milwaukee. I bet they must like Giannis. But I am just saying, it could be a possibility. However, I am not expecting too much out of it. One thing is will Magic go around its vision, philosophy and timeline to bet the future on one player. Second is would Milwaukee take our offer since, I guarantee you, the whole league will make an offer. lol

Are we ready now? Idk. IMO we are only one or two moves away from contention and I'd like to reiterate that. There are a lot of things to like our current team and coaching staff. Bet on it. Orlando is making a run!

[tooler]

So that pops up a question for you all, what is the path forward?

Stay the course because ESPN is trash.

[eyriq]

I have a lot of the same objectives as last season.

Improve availability: JI, WCJ, and Harris are injury prone, I'd prefer to move off all three.

Out with the old: Move off players from the re-tool era. I think that is just Cole and JI at this point.

Upgrade at center and swingman.

[thelead]

I have a lot of the same objectives as last season.

Improve availability: JI, WCJ, and Harris are injury prone, I'd prefer to move off all three.

Out with the old: Move off players from the re-tool era. I think that is just Cole and JI at this point.

Upgrade at center and swingman.

Who are you replacing JI’s defense with???

Doesn’t really matter though. The magic, and more specifically the DeVos’, are not trading JI.

[golfreak]

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/42646405/nba-25-25-top-young-stars-ranked-future-potential

ESPN just published its latest Top 25 under 25 years old. And Paolo is 3rd behind Victor Wembanyama and Anthony Edwards. Plus Franz Wagner is NO.4!

Also Jalen Suggs is NO.18 and btw Zion Williamson is only NO.16.

So literally we have 3 players among the best players under 25 years old. Plus those three players are our Top 3 players on the team and our young core.

Future is bright, right? Orlando?

So that pops up a question for you all, what is the path forward?

I know the most obvious answer is going to be experience plus experience. But what else? More playoff experience? What else is what this Magic team needs to get to the Finals and win one or multiple ones?

Look at our team construction. Magic has all our draft assets plus DEN FRP in 25. We are loaded with young talent like AB, Jett and TDS.

What do you think should be the path forward in couple years? What moves Orlando Magic should make before 25' Trade Deadline and 2025 NBA Draft and beyond? Trade up in a loaded 2025 NBA Draft?

What should be our philosophy? What should be our vision?

In my opinion we are a move and two away from contention. That is why I, personally, like to buy low and sell high.

For example, take a look at Zion situation in Pelicans. New Orleans could waive him with no pay this upcoming summer if he didn't make the minimum games requirement detailed in the contract. You may ask why should Magic be interested in a player who missed more than 50% of his games his entire career? The reason is simple, cost is low and upside is HUGE.

Another player that I think is interesting is James Harden. He has a player option this upcoming summer. So he can become a Free Agent. Do we make a run at him? Everyone saw his game last night? He played like a vintage Houston James Harden with 1 rebound shy of a triple double. IMO I think his career is done in LA. He wants to win a championship. Coming to Orlando, a such young and promising team, why not? Again, this goes to my model. Buy low and upside is HUGE

And sure, the league is going to watch how this Milwaukee team goes this season, primarily in the playoff. Brook Lopez is 36 years old. Damian Lillard is 34. And Kris Middleton is 33. Is the Bucks' Championship window closing if they can not go far in the playoff again? What is Giannis going to do then? Will he demand a trade? You know you know I am a big Giannis fan. Even though I think a trade is unrealistic for us because there are going to be a ton of offers to the Bucks, like Houston Rockets, who are loaded with young talent plus draft picks.

But in order to change the course of our future to a immediate Championship contender, that could be an act to take. Jeff Weltman and John Hammond are the ones who scouted Giannis back in Greece and drafted him in Milwaukee. I bet they must like Giannis. But I am just saying, it could be a possibility. However, I am not expecting too much out of it. One thing is will Magic go around its vision, philosophy and timeline to bet the future on one player. Second is would Milwaukee take our offer since, I guarantee you, the whole league will make an offer. lol

Are we ready now? Idk. IMO we are only one or two moves away from contention and I'd like to reiterate that. There are a lot of things to like our current team and coaching staff. Bet on it. Orlando is making a run!

NO NO and NO.
Path forward is experience, lots of experience.
The team already have 3 huge contracts. No need to bring in more.
Surround the team with good role players and experiences can carry the team to a championship.

[SOUL]

I have a lot of the same objectives as last season.

Improve availability: JI, WCJ, and Harris are injury prone, I'd prefer to move off all three.

Out with the old: Move off players from the re-tool era. I think that is just Cole and JI at this point.

Upgrade at center and swingman.

Who are you replacing JI’s defense with???

Doesn’t really matter though. The magic, and more specifically the DeVos’, are not trading JI.

Good.

[MasterGMer]

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/42646405/nba-25-25-top-young-stars-ranked-future-potential

ESPN just published its latest Top 25 under 25 years old. And Paolo is 3rd behind Victor Wembanyama and Anthony Edwards. Plus Franz Wagner is NO.4!

Also Jalen Suggs is NO.18 and btw Zion Williamson is only NO.16.

So literally we have 3 players among the best players under 25 years old. Plus those three players are our Top 3 players on the team and our young core.

Future is bright, right? Orlando?

So that pops up a question for you all, what is the path forward?

I know the most obvious answer is going to be experience plus experience. But what else? More playoff experience? What else is what this Magic team needs to get to the Finals and win one or multiple ones?

Look at our team construction. Magic has all our draft assets plus DEN FRP in 25. We are loaded with young talent like AB, Jett and TDS.

What do you think should be the path forward in couple years? What moves Orlando Magic should make before 25' Trade Deadline and 2025 NBA Draft and beyond? Trade up in a loaded 2025 NBA Draft?

What should be our philosophy? What should be our vision?

In my opinion we are a move and two away from contention. That is why I, personally, like to buy low and sell high.

For example, take a look at Zion situation in Pelicans. New Orleans could waive him with no pay this upcoming summer if he didn't make the minimum games requirement detailed in the contract. You may ask why should Magic be interested in a player who missed more than 50% of his games his entire career? The reason is simple, cost is low and upside is HUGE.

Another player that I think is interesting is James Harden. He has a player option this upcoming summer. So he can become a Free Agent. Do we make a run at him? Everyone saw his game last night? He played like a vintage Houston James Harden with 1 rebound shy of a triple double. IMO I think his career is done in LA. He wants to win a championship. Coming to Orlando, a such young and promising team, why not? Again, this goes to my model. Buy low and upside is HUGE

And sure, the league is going to watch how this Milwaukee team goes this season, primarily in the playoff. Brook Lopez is 36 years old. Damian Lillard is 34. And Kris Middleton is 33. Is the Bucks' Championship window closing if they can not go far in the playoff again? What is Giannis going to do then? Will he demand a trade? You know you know I am a big Giannis fan. Even though I think a trade is unrealistic for us because there are going to be a ton of offers to the Bucks, like Houston Rockets, who are loaded with young talent plus draft picks.

But in order to change the course of our future to a immediate Championship contender, that could be an act to take. Jeff Weltman and John Hammond are the ones who scouted Giannis back in Greece and drafted him in Milwaukee. I bet they must like Giannis. But I am just saying, it could be a possibility. However, I am not expecting too much out of it. One thing is will Magic go around its vision, philosophy and timeline to bet the future on one player. Second is would Milwaukee take our offer since, I guarantee you, the whole league will make an offer. lol

Are we ready now? Idk. IMO we are only one or two moves away from contention and I'd like to reiterate that. There are a lot of things to like our current team and coaching staff. Bet on it. Orlando is making a run!

NO NO and NO.
Path forward is experience, lots of experience.
The team already have 3 huge contracts. No need to bring in more.
Surround the team with good role players and experiences can carry the team to a championship.

I am not trying to be an opportunist. But if you have a chance to make it better, you take it. My mention of Zion and James Harden could come as Free Agent or sign and trade. I know it is a long shot. But it is not impossible.

[VFX]

Why do you always do this?

You always list off a bunch of big names thinking they are real options in Orlando. Do you know how the league works?

These guys will fall completely off and be washed before signing here. And they will have to. Why? Because Orlando will already have 2 max contract players and Jalen Suggs as that third banana.

Orlando needs to stay the course and retain their 3 main guys. The rest of the roster is up for grabs. They need to find the best possible role players to pair next to them. That means the one guard and one Center due to those other 3 guys never leaving the starting lineup.

The most you could possibly hope for is another lotto pick landing, or Orlando managing to get a fringe or former allstar type to sign at a discount. A max level guy? No.

And no, Zion makes no sense in Orlando’s system for the cost. A 6’6 , oft injured, max contract PF that doesn’t shoot is possibly the worst archetype to pair with Orlando’s core.

[RookieStar]

I have a lot of the same objectives as last season.

Improve availability: JI, WCJ, and Harris are injury prone, I'd prefer to move off all three.

Out with the old: Move off players from the re-tool era. I think that is just Cole and JI at this point.

Upgrade at center and swingman.

Who are you replacing JI’s defense with???

Doesn’t really matter though. The magic, and more specifically the DeVos’, are not trading JI.

Good.

Damn straight!!!

[ogmagicfan]

Not a fan of the suggested moves, their age doesnt align with our timelines

We need a game manager at PG, Suggs isnt looking like our future PG at this point. AB could potentially be the future PG. I cant count him out with the growth he's made from season to season.

Center is another position we'll need to figure out because if WCJ keeps up with injury problems we need to have a more secure Center. If it wasnt for health, I'd have him pegged at Center for the future

[JoshuaPotter]

To be fair, I think we need to see how far the current core gets us at this point. Last year was g7 of round 1 with an absolutely near abysmal role playing performance. We have since technically upgraded /side graded some there.

This year? Let's see, we are already off to a horrible start injury wise regardless of our record and the East seemingly forgot how to play basketball.

You really need to see what Paolo / Franz / Suggs can do in order to measure what you need from here. There are some obvious things, and less obvious things. It is why "technically" the KCP for better Harris was supposed to be an upgrade, but we need about 19 more games straight of lights out shooting before he reaches career averages.

We also have 3 essentially rookies and still maintain a winning record thus far. This is, impressive and probably speaks more to Mose ability to be a players coach then anything else. Even if for whatever reason, he has completely busted on Cole Anthony.

[drsd]

We also have 3 essentially rookies and still maintain a winning record thus far.

For me this is the biggest concern with the roster: 13 Magicians are 27 years old or younger. The roster is basically in two age clusters: the 20-23 year olds, and the 25-27 year olds.

There really needs to be some structure created. Bringing in Caldwell-Pope for Fultz is an example of creating that structure.

[Message Boar]

The future is pretty bright, but there's a couple of teams with similarly bright futures. From the top of my head: OKC especially stands out, but also Cleveland, San Antonio, Houston, Memphis and arguably Indiana. And Boston isn't going away any time soon. Even now we're still more in a "building" phase rather than a "contending" phase. You never know what the future might hold and who will be contending in five years is to some degree, unpredictable.

Let's win one championship before we put the word "dynasty" our mouths, that would be a great success to begin with, worthy of rejoicing. I've read a lot that dynasties will be harder to maintain with the new CBA, anyway.

[RichCollab]

The future is pretty bright, but there's a couple of teams with similarly bright futures. From the top of my head: OKC especially stands out, but also Cleveland, San Antonio, Houston, Memphis and arguably Indiana. And Boston isn't going away any time soon. Even now we're still more in a "building" phase rather than a "contending" phase. You never know what the future might hold and who will be contending in five years is to some degree, unpredictable.

Let's win one championship before we put the word "dynasty" our mouths, that would be a great success to begin with, worthy of rejoicing. I've read a lot that dynasties will be harder to maintain with the new CBA, anyway.

Why do you include Indiana? I feel like they already peaked.

[Message Boar]

The future is pretty bright, but there's a couple of teams with similarly bright futures. From the top of my head: OKC especially stands out, but also Cleveland, San Antonio, Houston, Memphis and arguably Indiana. And Boston isn't going away any time soon. Even now we're still more in a "building" phase rather than a "contending" phase. You never know what the future might hold and who will be contending in five years is to some degree, unpredictable.

Let's win one championship before we put the word "dynasty" our mouths, that would be a great success to begin with, worthy of rejoicing. I've read a lot that dynasties will be harder to maintain with the new CBA, anyway.

Why do you include Indiana? I feel like they already peaked.

Honestly, because I wanted to put a second Eastern conference team in there.

Idk, I'm personally partial to Charlotte, but what have they really shown that's tangible? Indiana could maaaaaybe be good if Hali finds some of his old form and guys like Mathurin, Nembhard and Nesmith take steps in their development. But yes, I like our own future way more than theirs. They've gotten off to a slow start this year, too (which I don't mind, I don't like the run-and-gun, shoot a million 3's and don't defend style)

[RookieStar]

Yeah... Hali this season is like TRoss... coin-toss to what you are gonna get any given game. Not consistent at all.

[Orlando Dawg]

At this point the only path forward is to trade Banchero+Wagner for Wembanyama

[The Effect]

Just looking at the list, i dont understand how the 4 at the bottom didnt make the list

Also, i love that Franz is now getting recognized. A few months ago he was overrated and overpaid, last year people were saying kuminga was better, for years we've been hearing how barnes is far superior and the best player from that class, and now franz is proving all of that wrong