The 2024-25 season is getting closer with each passing day. After last season’s playoff appearance, Magic fans are rightfully excited to see what comes next. This Magic roster is still incredibly young, and next season is still about development and figuring things out. Seven playoff games and the addition of a 3-and-D champion does not a contender make.
And yet, at the same time, the Magic want to win. Getting back to the playoffs and playing in big games is the best way to develop the young core and see what their players are really capable of. So Coach Mosley has to walk a fine line between giving young players the opportunity to develop and work through mistakes, while also getting the best out of his team.
This will have important implications for the Magic’s rotation, so let’s look at three players who can’t afford to make a mistake if they want to be effective rotation players for the Magic in 2024-25.
Cole Anthony has played all four seasons of his career with the Orlando Magic and is popular with his teammates and fans, but that hasn’t stopped his playing time from steadily declining over the past two seasons.
In the 2021-22 season, Anthony was a full-time starter and averaged over 30 minutes per game. A season later, he came off the bench. His minutes decreased by about five, and the same trend continued in the 2023-24 season.
Anthony is always a good scorer off the bench, but he struggles with efficiency and hasn’t developed a three-point shot. The three-point shot in particular is a problem for the Magic. Paolo Banchero needs to be surrounded by capable shooters.
If Anthony doesn’t bring enough scoring and secondary playmaking to make up for his shooting deficiencies, Mosley could very well opt to bring in someone else in his place. The Magic have plenty of depth at their disposal. Cole Anthony, Gary Harris, Anthony Black, Jett Howard, Tristan da Silva, Caleb Houstan and Cory Joseph would all love to get minutes off the bench at guard and wing.
Some of them offer more scoring than Anthony and could take playing time away from him if he doesn’t excel in other aspects of the game. Although he was the Magic’s sixth man last season, that role isn’t a given. Anthony played the sixth-most minutes per game in the regular season, but fell to ninth in the playoffs.
