30 Teams in 30 Days: What are the ceilings for Banqueiro and Wagner?

Tatum is injured, and the Celtics' top two players will be out for a year.

Who will fill in the blanks among the top three in the Eastern Conference? Orlando Twins?

What the Green Army's two heroes have faced, will the Magic's two forwards also have to go through it?

Coach Mosley played a huge role in making the Magic reach the playoffs last season. Originally, the wave of injuries and lineup deficiencies were enough to overwhelm the Magic - Banqueiro and Suggs played a combined 81 games, Wagner Jr. missed 22 games, Pope's three-pointers were no threat, the team had no point guard, and the number of three-pointers and field goal percentage were at the bottom of the league - Even so, relying on the defense of Pope, Bitadze, Carter Jr. and Isaac, the Magic still made it into the playoffs.

This is the Magic's lower limit: as long as they are healthy, their defense is enough to push them into the playoffs.

Coach Mosley’s style: strict discipline, defense first; not letting players play blindly, setting a clear style for the team, and assigning clear roles to each player. So even if they are tortured by injuries, the Magic can still make the playoffs by relying on defense.

After being healthy next season, the Magic can look like this:

Suggs, Tyus Jones

Bain, Anthony Blake

Wagner Jr., Da Silva

Benqueiro, Isaac, Pengda

Carter Jr., Bitadze, Wagner

Carter Jr. was once an expert at guarding Jokic. Bain believes Carter can guarantee the team's lower limit. Bitadze is also easy to use, but Carter's attendance is unstable, while Bitadze's mood is unstable.

After Isaac gained weight, his movement seemed to slow down - but as long as he is healthy, he is still the league's top defender.

Da Silva is the glue of the team.

Big Wagner can provide a sense of forward presence.

Jones can organize - he ranked second in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio last season. create? Not necessarily; sorting out? Sophisticated.

As long as Blake has confidence, he can provide motivation to the team and make the substitutes like that. If Isaac continues to miss baskets and gets injured again, the team can count on Pengda.

Richardson's talent is there, he just needs to integrate.

When Suggs is healthy, he is the soul of the Orlando Magic. He is not a genius organizer and is not a good shooter, but he is willing to make up for his ball-holding ability by moving without the ball, and is always looking for an opportunity to make the fans "wow". Defensively, he is the league's top disruptor. His game is difficult to describe in terms of statistics - averaging 16 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists per game is not outstanding - but it is full of energy conversion: he uses defense to absorb the opponent's energy at any time, and uses impact to inspire his own energy. Going to a championship-level team, he can immediately provide the role of 2022 Smart or 2024 Derrick White. He is the caffeine of the Orlando Magic.

But his ball handling and outside deterrence are not mature.

So the arrival of Bain completes everything: a reliable secondary attack, a smart attacker, a rock in the turbulence, a ubiquitous long-range threat, and a good guy. Bane can grab rebounds, play pick-and-rolls, screen without the ball, and defend alone. He is stable, reliable, serious, and a three-point threat anytime and anywhere. He is a reliable decision-maker and can steadily make suggestions to prevent the team from running around.

In this way, Bain + Suggs serve as the backcourt, and Wagner + Banqueiro are responsible for creating offense. They built a high-switch defense team with a double 196 backcourt and a double 208 frontcourt. They want to take a chance when Tatum is injured, the Bucks lack competitiveness, and the Cavaliers and Knicks are not invincible in the playoffs:

"It can be the Pacers this year - why can't it be us next year? If everything is possible in the Eastern Conference next year, why not us? Stud!"

Thinking positively: "We have Wagner and Benqueiro! We don't need traditional point guards!" - Moreover, if Suggs is injured again, Jones can make up for it; if Bane is absent, the newly selected Richardson can also provide support.

Just like the Timberwolves handed the ball to Edwards and the Pelicans handed the ball to Fat Tigers, the Magic probably let the two forwards solve everything.

But there is a small problem.

The two heroes of the Green Army once faced a question: Who is the trump card?

——Tatum has better three-point shooting and shooting, and more comprehensive offensive and defensive skills; Jaylen has a more powerful body and stronger one-on-one energy. As a result, Tatum became the team's chief ace, and Jaylen won the 2024 Finals MVP.

——This seems to be the current trend:

The organizer and instigator controls the team's first ball (Luka and Tatum in 2024, Haliburton and Cunningham in 2025), and singles out the devil to become the team's secondary offense (Irving and Jaylen in 2024, Siakam in 2025).

But Orlando does the opposite?

Wagner was the Magic's first player in the regular season last season. The offense is crowded and injured, but he is the engine of the Magic.

He may be the player of his height who is best at using pick-and-rolls. Breaking through the pick and roll, spotting mismatches, releasing the ball, and starting the offense, he was like a German version of Turkoglu. He is cunning and light, finding every opportunity like Cunningham, using small changes of direction to find off-ball and on-ball screens like Booker, and "you just can't reach this shot" like Siakam. He knows how to give his opponents a headache and connect with all his teammates. It is difficult for you to fully contain a German who is 208 centimeters tall, is not easy to destroy when he gets the ball, and likes to fight you so that he can challenge you for free throws.

But, for the second consecutive playoff year, his shooting disappeared. In the 2024 game when he was eliminated by the Cavaliers, he made 1 of 15 shots. In the five games he was eliminated by the Celtics in 2025, he made 7 of 37 three-pointers.

In the European Championship in the summer, he won another championship, but the team's ace with the ball was Schroeder. The good news is that his long-range shooting form seems to be back.

When they need to attack, the Magic have Banqueiro:

In the last season's playoffs, Banqueiro reached his seventh consecutive playoff game with more than 25 points - under the age of 23. Three people have done this: Sky Hook, Kobe Bryant, and Banqueiro.

He has the body of Griffin during the Pistons period and the technical configuration of Melo. He sacrifices a little dead-end jump shot, retains balance and confrontation, requires more dribbling skills, and then tries to imitate LeBron's play style in the second period of the Cavaliers: he also has good ball control and vision, and can also serve as a core scorer in the playoffs.

However:

Banqueiro's organizational ability is not as good as Wagner. His playing style, habits and physical strength make him lack the ability to continuously penetrate to the basket.

When you can't rely on the Bulls to break through, you rely too much on CIC - this was also Melo's problem back then.

This is the current little question for the Magic:

The defensive group prevents them from worrying about a playoff spot.

Bain, Suggs, and Banqueiro are all good secondary ball handlers, but they are not natural organizers.

Wagner may have the team's highest organizational talent, but he does not have Banqueiro's attacking ability.

As mentioned at the beginning: Coach Mosley's tone for the Magic is to be clear and strict, not to follow the whim.

Last season, due to Banqueiro's injury and the team's chaos, the Magic played wherever they wanted; but this season: Bane brought space, Suggs (and Jones) gave the team a defender, the team was organized, and the defense was always online.

Wagner (the organization) and Banqueiro (the attack), who will be the boss of the Magic? This needs to be made clear:

This is directly related to whether the Magic will be eliminated in the first round again, or whether they will go straight to the top three in the Eastern Conference, or even go to the Eastern Conference finals.