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Magic president drops ‘win-now’ truth bomb on future

Originally posted on NBA on ClutchPoints | By Malik Brown | Last updated May 2, 2025 12:45 PM ET

The Orlando Magic have been to the playoffs for two straight seasons as they continue to show the growth of a rising young team, but they’ve also been eliminated in the first round both times. This season, it was the defending champion Boston Celtics who defeated them in five games, as they did their best to fight and stay physical with a veteran team.

The Magic will now have an offseason to get better, but president Jeff Weltman thinks it’s time for them to take that next step and start winning.

“I think we’ve talked a lot over the years about following our North Star and running two races at the same time, and the trickiness of navigating all of that,” Weltman said. “I think what we’ve learned about our team this year is that it’s time to enter that next stage of our development, which is when you go into those things, you can’t wait to get to this day. You want to acquire enough talent, develop the talent, see the talent grow up, and come together, and this year I felt like we were more battle-tested than we had been.

“I think we’re in a place now where the focus will shift to more of looking at the world through more of a win-now sort of lens.”

"It's time to enter the next stage of our development… We're in a place now where the focus will shift to looking at the world through a win-now sort of lens."

The Orlando Magic's President of Basketball Operations Jeff Weltman

(via @OrlandoMagic)pic.twitter.com/dfOAbbwHJW

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) May 2, 2025

The Magic definitely have the building blocks to be a win-now team with Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner as their cornerstones, but the past two playoff appearances have shown that they need more if they want to take a leap.

Magic ready to enter win-now mode

Banchero heard about the Magic’s goal to win now, and he seemed excited to know that was the goal for the team moving forward.

“Yeah, it definitely excites me to hear that, you know, we are trying to win now,” Banchero said. “I think that’s always been the goal, but to hear him say it I think is good, and I’m looking forward to whatever happens. At the end of the day, we all want to win, so whatever is being done to contribute to winning more games and winning in the postseason, I’m all for it.”

The Magic have had one of the best defenses in the league over the past two seasons, but their offense hasn’t been up to par. If it was one thing that Magic should be looking for in the offseason is a playmaking guard that can take the pressure off of Banchero and Wagner.

This article first appeared on NBA on ClutchPoints and was syndicated with permission.

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