Who deserves to be the number one scoring option for the Orlando Magic?

The Orlando Magic are entering this NBA season with a sense of cautious optimism. This is the third attempt at a rebuild in 10 years, but you get the sense that this crop of players has the potential to eclipse what has come before them. Granted, the bar is pretty low at two playoff appearances that yielded only two wins under former head coach Steve Clifford.

But Jamahl Mosley, entering his second season at the helm of this roster, has a lot more youth and flexibility to work with. In some ways, the timing of the Magic’s beginning another attempt at ascension couldn’t be worse, with a certain Frenchman looking like the best NBA draft prospect of all time.

You can’t put an entire organization on hold when the young talent is in place, especially when you’re a small-market team like the Magic.

There are lottery picks in the form of Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Jalen Suggs, Markelle Fultz, and Cole Anthony here. Two of those (Banchero and Fultz) were first-overall selections in their classes. Additionally, Wendell Carter Jr. has been a brilliant addition since coming over from the Chicago Bulls in the deal that sent Nikola Vucevic the other way.

Behind all of them, Jonathan Isaac, Mohamed Bamba, Gary Harris, Chuma Okeke, and R.J. Hampton provide, if nothing else, plenty of intrigues and roster flexibility. If one of them can make a jump this year, it will allow the Magic to begin thinking seriously about the play-in tournament.

Finally, there is Terrence Ross, the beloved veteran of the group who has stuck around to become a leader in Orlando. But only one out of all of these players will emerge as the undisputed number one scoring option for the roster. Given where the Magic have been offensively over the last decade (it has been… not good…), this is a great problem to have. Let’s examine the top three candidates for the position.

Cole Anthony can be the Orlando Magic’s no.1 scoring option.

Anthony is a strange place to start, especially if you have a soft spot for Ross and would love to see him take his microwavable off-the-bench offensive game and go full-time with it. But it makes no sense for a veteran to be the number one option on a growing team, whereas the case for Anthony is stronger than you think.

Entering his third year, his persona has come to represent the franchise on the court as a whole. Anthony has a level of confidence that borders on controlled brashness, and his hard-working and hungry mentality has had a positive impact on his teammates. You can’t build an offensive framework around these intangibles, and yet they are harder to find in professional players than they should be.

How about the raw numbers then? Anthony averaged a very respectable 16.3 points per game last season, playing 31.7 minutes and starting in all of the 65 games that he appeared in. To do this on a bad Magic roster is definitely something, and year three is typically when players who are going to go on to bigger and better things make a noticeable leap.

To this point, Anthony has looked like nothing more than a sixth man in waiting for a playoff roster, yet there have been moments where he has looked like the real deal. The path to being a high-scoring guard is also there, because Jalen Suggs had a rough rookie season and Markelle Fultz just isn’t that type of player.

So, through opportunity and roster construction, there is a chance for Anthony to be the number one offensive option here. In truth, if this happens, it is because something went wrong, but the Magic could do worse than have Anthony step into this role. The guard depth is better than it has been at any point in the last decade, but nobody else on this roster plays the way Anthony does.

Paolo Banchero can be the Orlando Magic’s no.1 scoring option.

If any person is going to take exception to be the number two choice here, it is Banchero himself. After all, he was selected first overall this year to be the offensive hub for the franchise, and he has the kind of game that Paul Pierce recently told Kevin Garnett on “KG Certified” that has him “looking like a veteran”. That is high praise considering he hasn’t yet played a game.

So then why is he not number one on this list? Well, for all of the potential that is clearly there, we haven’t actually seen Banchero do anything yet. It is entirely possible, maybe even likely, that after 10 games he will have made us look silly and will easily be thought of as the unequivocal number one option on this roster.

But until we have actually seen it, we have to remember that Banchero is a rookie and that he isn’t joining a team with title aspirations. Which is what needs to be remembered here. Exciting though it may be to be a Magic fan, with the semblance of a coherent roster and modest preseason chatter from media types liking what they’re doing, they are still a long way from contention.

This is not said to dampen the mood. The Magic are going to win some games they shouldn’t this year, and will likely flirt with the play-in. It is just that Banchero alone won’t be the reason for this. He is going to have a slump the way all rookies do, and he is going to find the grind of an 82-game season difficult.

On a more optimistic note, though, Banchero should be the number one option before long. His size and ability to get to the rim have already created great excitement, as has his pull-up jumper and the smoothness of his game for a bigger player. Carmelo Anthony and Pierce comparisons may be lazy because of the size similarities, but they are also mentioned for a reason. Banchero is going to be really, really good and average at least 15 points in the process.

Franz Wagner can be the Orlando Magic’s no.1 scoring option.

It says a lot if you can keep a guy drafted primarily to be the new offensive hub out of the top spot, but Wagner deserves the opportunity to have this position for the time being. He had an outstanding rookie season, averaging 15.2 points on 35.4 percent three-point shooting.

The Magic are fortunate to have two players under the age of 21 in Wagner and Banchero who appear capable of leading an offense over the course of a season. If the rookie play of Wagner was one thing, and he has confidence and willingness to go at any opponent which is to be admired, then his EuroBasket performances were something else.

In a Germany jersey, Wagner showed that his impressive game has already gone to new heights. We have already spoken about that third-year leap that All-Star talents typically make. Wagner is on course to have a notable jump in year two, and unlike Banchero, he was able to do all that he did on a less deep Magic roster last season.

If Wagner can increase the 3-point shooting numbers even modestly, as well as get closer to 20 points per contest, then it will represent real growth and cement his case as the go-to offensive option for the franchise. Banchero certainly has the size advantage, yet Wagner seems to have no problem penetrating the paint himself.

There is also a slithery kind of way in which he does it, which Banchero cannot, that defenders struggle to deal with. He is quick and athletic in how he explodes at the basket, and you rarely squirm when he pulls up to shoot either.

Wagner only averaged 2.9 assists last season, however, and Banchero will likely surpass that number in his rookie year. This is the underrated part of being the top offensive option. Knowing when to give the ball up so that a better scoring opportunity presents itself is crucial.

Wagner will do better in this category as well, and to start the season, he should be the top option offensively. He earned it.