NBA Draft 2023: Analyzing top 8 teams for protected No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama

6. Orlando Magic – 9% chance of landing No. 1 pick in NBA Draft

The franchise did sneak into the playoffs back-to-back seasons not too long ago but hasn’t had a year where they were 3+ games over .500 since the Dwight Howard era. That was the last time they had a true franchise player as well. A big part of the reason is that they’ve been mostly missing on the past top-10 draft picks, with none of them becoming more than rotational pieces.

The hope for Orlando is that they nailed last year’s No. 1 pick, Paolo Banchero. The franchise took him over Chet Holmgren and Jabari Smith and while Holmgren’s injury prevents us from knowing if it was right, Banchero averaged 20.0 ppg and 6.9 rpg and won the 2022-23 NBA Rookie of the Year Award.

The slight issue here is that there’s a “small” case that the Magic should take a guard like Henderson over Wembanyama since the three best players on the team are all frontcourt players. Franz Wagner averaged 18.6 ppg, while big man Wendell Carter Jr. produced 15.2 ppg and 8.7 rpg.

That being said, if Orlando wins the lottery two straight years, they can simply trade Carter to a team that needs a big man in exchange for an upgrade in the backcourt. Having Banchero and Wembanyama together could make the franchise back into championship-contender status for the next decade.