{"id":228885,"date":"2026-04-12T19:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T19:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/228885\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T19:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T19:14:10","slug":"jamal-cain-carves-out-nba-role-for-orlando-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/228885\/","title":{"rendered":"Jamal Cain carves out NBA role for Orlando Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2014 Regardless of where the Magic<\/a> end up for the postseason, Jamal Cain<\/a> has worked his way into Orlando<\/a>\u2018s rotation and proven he\u2019s capable of fitting into a variety of lineups.<\/p>\n

The fourth-year pro, who signed a standard contract with the Magic on March 20 after he started the season on a two-way deal, had already appeared in a career-high 39 NBA games entering Sunday\u2019s regular-season finale at Boston<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He has averaged 5.5 points and 1.9 rebounds in 12.1 minutes per night across his first 39 appearances. Cain\u2019s recent production, however, shows the kind of impact he\u2019s made for Orlando.<\/p>\n

Playing in all 16 games from March 14 at Miami through Friday at Chicago, the 27-year-old forward out of Oakland University averaged 9.4 points on 38.8% shooting 3-point range alongside 3.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists during 19.8 minutes per night across that stretch.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the work that me and my trainer put in is actually coming to fruition,\u201d Cain said after notching 20 points and eight rebounds against the Bulls. \u201cAlso, my teammates believe in me and give me confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those teammates include Jalen Suggs, Paolo Banchero, Wendell Carter Jr. and Tristan da Silva. The quintet of Cain and those four represent the five-man lineup that he\u2019s played the most minutes with (30 across nine games) among the 116 different five-man lineup combinations that he\u2019s been a part of this season, according to NBA.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While that five-man group has a plus-17 net rating on the floor together, there\u2019s another lineup that\u2019s performed even better together with Cain in it.<\/p>\n

The five-man lineup of Cain, Banchero, Carter Jr., da Silva and Desmond Bane has played 26 minutes together across three games and has a net rating of plus-28.3, per league-tracking data<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More recently, Cain and da Silva have either entered first off the bench together or shortly one after another.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy teammates, they just bring so much attention (to themselves) that I\u2019m just wide-open every time,\u201d Cain said. \u201c(I\u2019m) just playing hard, just spreading the floor, trying to make my teammates\u2019 life easier and trying to make the extra hustle plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OrlandoOrlando Magic forward Jamal Cain grabs a rebound against the Bulls on Friday. Cain has become a key option off the bench for the Magic since mid-March. (AP Photo\/Nam Y. Huh)<\/p>\n

Those hustle plays earned him the standard contract he signed last month. The two-year deal includes a second-year team option for the 2026-27 season, meaning the Magic can bring Cain back next year without him becoming an unrestricted free agent. If the team declines the club option, he could leave in free agency.<\/p>\n

Cain has shown he\u2019s improved a part of his game that Orlando has needed help in the most, and that\u2019s 3-point shooting.<\/p>\n

After shooting a career-low 32.5% from distance during 37 NBA games last season on a two-way contract with the Pelicans, Cain has bounced back to 38.9% from beyond the arc with the Magic this season. He previously shot 35% from 3-point range during his first two seasons in the league on a two-way with the Heat.<\/p>\n

One of his favorite spots on the floor this season has been the left corner. It\u2019s where he\u2019s shot 45% from 3-point range, according to NBA.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was one of the areas I wanted to focus on the most,\u201d Cain said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s part of the reason why his Magic teammates have supported him on and off the court as he\u2019s progressed throughout his fourth year in the league and first in Orlando.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re telling me to be aggressive and confident in my spots, and just try to make the easy play,\u201d Cain said.<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 Regardless of where the Magic end up for the postseason, Jamal Cain has worked his way…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,2295,139,141,1239,140,109,76046,110],"class_list":["post-228885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-latest-headlines","tag-nba","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-magic","tag-orlando-news","tag-social","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}