Orlando Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman speaks during a press conference. Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Magic president explains why team has open roster spot

Originally posted on Orlando Magic on SI
By Jeremy Brener | Last updated Oct 17, 2025 8:00 AM ET

Barring anything unforeseen, the Orlando Magic are keeping a roster spot open when the league forces each team to cut its roster down to 15 players for the regular season.

While most teams carry 15, the Magic will carry 14 spots. Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman explained why this is the case.

"We are in a situation where we are going to carry 14 players," Weltman said at media day.

"We're not able to add a player at this point, around the middle of the season, when that gets aggregated into kind of the second half of the pro rated salary, then we can start to look at minimum players at that level. So really, there's not much of a choice on our part. So we're going to go in with 14, and at some point in the season, we'll be able to look at adding if that's what we feel we need, and if that guy's available."

Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

Magic keeping roster spot open

The Magic are going to roll with Paolo Banchero, Desmond Bane, Goga Bitadze, Anthony Black, Wendell Carter Jr., Tristan da Silva, Jett Howard, Jonathan Isaac, Tyus Jones, Noah Penda, Jase Richardson, Jalen Suggs, Franz Wagner and Moe Wagner as the players on the roster to start the season.

Jamal Cain and Orlando Robinson are under two-way contracts, but the team could hypothetically sign another player to a two-way deal.

The Magic may need some depth going into the latter part of the season, but it's clear that the team is not in need of that at this moment in time. The 14 players on the Magic's roster are all capable of carrying the load, even if Penda or Richardson go down to the G League with the Osceola Magic for a few games in order to get reps.

With the Magic finalizing their 14-man roster, the team is about to get ready for the start of the regular season, which begins on Wednesday when the Miami Heat take their talents to central Florida at the Kia Center. Tipoff for the game is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET.