ORLANDO — The 2023-24 NBA season saw the Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic and Indiana Pacers finish as neighbors in the Eastern Conference playoff picture, occupying the fourth, fifth and sixth seeds.
Each team entered the offseason with their own ideas on how to solidify or improve their position moving forward.
For Cleveland: Bring in a new head coach and extend the tenure of the Cavs’ top talent.
For Indiana: Hire Pascal Siakam, the star teammate of its All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton.
Orlando wanted more. While retaining and/or extending many of last season’s contributors, the Magic also added a veteran three-and-out and defensive option in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to fit in with Orlando’s rising stars.
Orlando isn’t content with being the fifth best team in the East. They believe that they arrived on the threshold of the next level last season.
On a recent episode of the “Ticket and The Truth” podcast, Boston Celtics Hall of Famer and NBA champion Paul Pierce explained why the Magic’s prospects next season, compared to Indiana and Cleveland, are the most promising.
“I think Orlando will be better than them,” Pierce said. “They’ve got something there because I think they’ve got the best player out of those three teams.”
Pierce was referring to Paolo Banchero, the Magic’s former first-round pick who in two seasons won the 2023 Rookie of the Year Award and an All-Star selection in 2024. His Magic improved 25 games from 2021-22 to last season, and Orlando reached the playoffs for the first time since 2020.
Banchero has been sensational, elevating his game in the pressure cooker of the playoffs. His regular-season averages of 22.6 points and 6.9 rebounds have jumped to 27 points and nearly nine rebounds in the seven-game series.
For some, it was the first glimpse of a star in the making.
In truth, the conversation ranking Banchero ahead of Haliburton or Cleveland scorer Donovan Mitchell may be a little premature.
Haliburton was an All-NBA competitor last season, led his Pacers to the Eastern Conference Finals and won Olympic gold this summer with Team USA. Mitchell has been averaging nearly 30 points per game in this year’s playoffs for the Cavs, including 50- and 39-point performances in Games 6 and 7 of the Magic series.
Each player has a bit more experience than Banchero, who is 21, but the Magic’s franchise star’s trajectory is stellar enough that NBA icons like Pierce and Kevin Garnett are talking about him.
“Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner … and his brother, they’re young, they’re confident,” Pierce continued. “(Jalen) Suggs over there – they’ve got a team over there. They know how to play together, and they’re going to be a problem, man.”
“I have to say this: among the three, Paolo is probably the superstar “He’s a superstar if he can reach that potential,” Garnett said, “but you’ve got to give him some things. I love the Wagners and all that, but you’ve got to give him some things. I love Cole Anthony, I love the way he competes.”
“They just have a lot of really good young players,” Pierce added.
Logically, the NBA champion Boston Celtics are the team to beat in the East. Garnett and Pierce, who are among the best players to ever wear Celtics green, are more than qualified to talk about Boston’s ups and downs.
Pierce said the Magic are tough competition. “They’re the only team in the last two years that’s given the Celtics a problem,” Pierce said. “So I think there’s a team like that … I’d be more surprised by Orlando.”