After The Timeout · NBA 2026-27 guide

Eastern Conference · tip-off October 20

Orlando Magic

Our win estimate next to the market's, the last three seasons, who came and went, and the rotation we expect.

Our estimate

43 wins

Median of 20,000 simulated seasons. Middle 80%: 37 to 48 wins.

The market

45.1 wins

Where the Kalshi yes price for "wins or more" crosses 50%.

Last season

45-37

2025-26 · net rating +0.6 (17th in the NBA)

Our estimate is 2.0 wins below the market.

Treat the gap as a flag, not a verdict. In backtests on 2024-25 and 2025-26 (60 team-seasons) this kind of estimate missed a team's win total by 8.3 wins on average. Last season's wins pulled toward 41 missed by 9.0. Ratings built from games alone said 41 wins for this team.

Two ways to count wins

Our range against the market

The blue bar is the middle 80% of our simulated seasons. The orange line is the market's win total.

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 45.1 market wins in an 82-game season
Our median 43, middle 80%: 37 to 48 Market 45.1

Where we think they finish in the East

Top 6: 35% Play-in, 7th to 10th: 60% Outside the top 10: 4.7%
Market prices by strikeKalshi, captured Oct 19, 4:38 pm UTC
Wins or moreBidAskMidOur odds
2095¢ 100¢ 98¢ 100%
2594¢ 100¢ 97¢ 100%
3091¢ 98¢ 95¢ 100%
3582¢ 93¢ 88¢ 97%
4061¢ 75¢ 68¢ 77%
4549¢ 52¢ 51¢ 34%
5024¢ 40¢ 32¢ 6%
552¢ 13¢ 8¢ 0%
600¢ 7¢ n/a 0%
650¢ 6¢ n/a 0%

A strike with no bid is treated as unpriced. The market win total is a straight line between the two strikes that straddle 50%.

What the scoreboard said

The last three regular seasons

Ratings are points per 100 possessions. Possessions are estimated from box scores, so treat them as close, not exact. Ranks are out of 30.

2025-26 · 45-37 (13th in wins)

Points per game
115.715th
Allowed per game
115.113th
Offensive rating
112.619th
Defensive rating
112.012th
Net rating
+0.617th

2024-25 · 41-41 (15th in wins)

Points per game
105.428th
Allowed per game
105.51st
Offensive rating
107.727th
Defensive rating
107.82nd
Net rating
-0.117th

2023-24 · 47-35 (12th in wins)

Points per game
110.524th
Allowed per game
108.44th
Offensive rating
111.522nd
Defensive rating
109.52nd
Net rating
+2.015th

Our preseason ratings

Offense
+0.0814th
Defense
-0.1415th
Net, games only
+0.2218th
Roster value
+0.98

Offense, defense and net are points per game against an average team, fitted on every completed game before tip-off (defense: lower is better). Roster value is the on-court net per 48 minutes of the players on the roster list, weighted by minutes.

Who came and who left

Offseason moves

Built from the DraftKings roster list and 2025-26 box scores. Players who left had at least 500 regular-season minutes here last season.

In (2)

  • Nikola Vucevicfrom BOS
    28.4 min, 15.1 pts a game
1 moredepth and rookies
  • Izaiyah NelsonRookie / newNo NBA box score on file

Out (2)

  • Tyus Jonesnow with DEN
    15.7 min, 3.0 pts a game
  • Jett Howardnow with DAL
    12.7 min, 5.5 pts a game

The rotation we expect

Top eight by projected minutes

Minutes come from our DFS minutes projection and are not scaled to a 240-minute game. Open a player for three seasons of per-game lines and shooting.

Paolo Banchero F · age 23 · 33.7 projected min 2025-26: 72 g, 22.2 pts, 8.4 reb, 5.2 ast

2025-26 · ORL

72games
34.7min
22.2pts
8.4reb
FG45.9%529/1152
3P30.5%84/275
FT77.5%457/590

5.2 assists a game

2024-25 · ORL

46games
34.4min
25.9pts
7.5reb
FG45.2%412/911
3P32.0%87/272
FT72.7%280/385

4.8 assists a game

2023-24 · ORL

80games
35.0min
22.6pts
6.9reb
FG45.5%640/1407
3P33.9%119/351
FT72.5%405/559

5.4 assists a game

Jalen Suggs G · age 25 · 30.2 projected min 2025-26: 57 g, 13.8 pts, 3.9 reb, 5.5 ast

2025-26 · ORL

57games
27.5min
13.8pts
3.9reb
FG43.5%282/649
3P33.9%122/360
FT85.5%100/117

5.5 assists a game

2024-25 · ORL

35games
28.7min
16.2pts
4.0reb
FG41.0%197/481
3P31.4%76/242
FT88.2%97/110

3.7 assists a game

2023-24 · ORL

75games
27.0min
12.6pts
3.1reb
FG47.1%336/714
3P39.7%153/385
FT75.6%118/156

2.7 assists a game

Desmond Bane G · age 28 · 28.2 projected min 2025-26: 82 g, 20.1 pts, 4.1 reb, 4.1 ast

2025-26 · ORL

82games
33.6min
20.1pts
4.1reb
FG48.4%583/1205
3P39.1%167/427
FT90.8%314/346

4.1 assists a game

2024-25 · MEM

69games
31.9min
19.2pts
6.1reb
FG48.4%493/1018
3P39.2%164/418
FT89.4%177/198

5.3 assists a game

2023-24 · MEM

42games
34.4min
23.7pts
4.4reb
FG46.4%360/776
3P38.1%137/360
FT87.0%140/161

5.5 assists a game

Wendell Carter Jr. C · age 27 · 27.3 projected min 2025-26: 78 g, 11.8 pts, 7.4 reb, 2.0 ast

2025-26 · ORL

78games
29.4min
11.8pts
7.4reb
FG51.2%326/637
3P31.9%72/226
FT79.2%198/250

2.0 assists a game

2024-25 · ORL

68games
25.9min
9.1pts
7.2reb
FG46.0%226/491
3P23.4%37/158
FT73.7%129/175

2.0 assists a game

2023-24 · ORL

55games
25.5min
11.0pts
6.9reb
FG52.5%223/425
3P37.4%64/171
FT69.4%93/134

1.7 assists a game

Tristan da Silva F · age 25 · 25.2 projected min 2025-26: 77 g, 9.9 pts, 3.7 reb, 1.6 ast

2025-26 · ORL

77games
24.7min
9.9pts
3.7reb
FG45.0%279/620
3P37.4%120/321
FT88.4%84/95

1.6 assists a game

2024-25 · ORL

74games
22.0min
7.2pts
3.3reb
FG41.2%199/483
3P33.5%80/239
FT87.3%55/63

1.5 assists a game

2023-24

No regular-season games on file.

Franz Wagner F · age 25 · 23.4 projected min 2025-26: 34 g, 20.6 pts, 5.2 reb, 3.3 ast

2025-26 · ORL

34games
30.0min
20.6pts
5.2reb
FG48.1%244/507
3P34.5%48/139
FT82.3%163/198

3.3 assists a game

2024-25 · ORL

60games
33.7min
24.1pts
5.7reb
FG46.3%537/1161
3P29.5%104/352
FT87.1%271/311

4.7 assists a game

2023-24 · ORL

72games
32.5min
19.7pts
5.3reb
FG48.2%528/1096
3P28.1%94/334
FT85.0%271/319

3.7 assists a game

Anthony Black G · age 22 · 21.9 projected min 2025-26: 64 g, 15.0 pts, 3.8 reb, 3.7 ast

2025-26 · ORL

64games
29.9min
15.0pts
3.8reb
FG44.7%345/772
3P33.3%100/300
FT73.2%169/231

3.7 assists a game

2024-25 · ORL

78games
24.1min
9.4pts
2.9reb
FG42.3%262/620
3P31.8%62/195
FT76.1%150/197

3.1 assists a game

2023-24 · ORL

67games
17.3min
4.7pts
2.1reb
FG46.6%115/247
3P39.4%37/94
FT61.2%49/80

1.4 assists a game

Nikola Vucevic New here C · age 35 · 20.2 projected min 2025-26: 64 g, 15.1 pts, 8.4 reb, 3.3 ast

2025-26 · BOS/CHI

64games
28.4min
15.1pts
8.4reb
FG49.3%394/799
3P36.9%100/271
FT82.8%77/93

3.3 assists a game

2024-25 · CHI

73games
31.2min
18.5pts
10.1reb
FG53.0%550/1038
3P40.2%129/321
FT80.5%120/149

3.5 assists a game

2023-24 · CHI

76games
34.4min
18.0pts
10.5reb
FG48.4%586/1211
3P29.4%92/313
FT82.2%106/129

3.3 assists a game

How to read this

Method and limits

How our estimate is built
  • Our estimate starts from the roster. Each player's on-court net points per 48 minutes (from his most recent full season, pulled toward zero when the sample is small) is averaged by minutes across the roster list, then turned into wins at about 2.9 wins per point of net.
  • That win total is then pushed through the real 2026-27 schedule 20,000 times, using a home win probability for every game, to get the range and the playoff and play-in odds.
  • Ratings built from games alone (6,153 games before October 20) are kept as a comparison. They fade old games over the offseason, which pulls every team toward average.
  • The market number is the wins where Kalshi's "wins or more" price crosses 50%, read off a straight line between strikes five wins apart.
What the estimate does not know
  • Possessions are an estimate from box totals, not tracked possessions.
  • The season simulation uses each game's win probability from the ratings and nothing else: no rating uncertainty, injuries, trades after the cutoff or in-season rating updates, so the 10th-90th percentile band is narrower than a real season's spread.
  • The 2026-27 schedule file lists 1200 games (80 per team on average) rather than 1230. Each team's missing games ([2] per team) are played against an average opponent at a neutral site with no rest terms.
  • Projection method: (d) roster values. In the walk-forward study its hold-out MAE was 8.3 wins (n = 60 team-seasons) against 9.0 for last season's wins regressed toward 41. Typical error is still about 8 wins per team, so treat every number as a wide estimate.
  • Roster values use each player's box-score plus-minus, which is not adjusted for teammates. Players with no box-score history count as average at 10 minutes a game.
  • Ties in the seeding are broken at random; head-to-head and division rules are not applied.
  • Every team has a usable market median.
  • Market median uses the midpoint of the yes bid and ask for each strike and a straight line between the two strikes (5 wins apart) that straddle 0.5; a strike with no bid is treated as unpriced.
  • Rosters are the DraftKings Best Ball player list for draft group 150564, kept only where the player is on his team's current ESPN roster (ESPN team rosters, 2026-10-19): released and departed players are out. Players DraftKings lists as Out are not in the engine's pool, so they have no projected minutes and are not in the top 8; each team's moves block names them.
  • Projected minutes are the engine's per-player estimates from box scores through 2026-04-12; they are not scaled to the team's 240 minutes and do not model new teammates.
  • Box scores start in 2021-22; a player with no box score on file is marked as a rookie or new, which can include veterans returning from abroad. Ages come from the ESPN player directory (2025-26 file) and are missing for players it does not list.
  • This team has 2 games the schedule file does not list yet; they are treated as games against an average opponent.

Data built Oct 19, 2026. Estimates are ours and can be wrong.