Orlando, FL – Following Sunday night’s win against the Brooklyn Nets, the Magic have to be feeling amazing about themselves as the season rounds out. To come back from a four-game West coast road trip and host three strong opponents at home and beat all of them… It will boost anyone’s confidence, and that is something this Magic team is definitely not short of.
Looking back, the best part about this up-and-down season has been the many headlines we’ve been able to follow.
Let’s take a look at a few of them.
Paolo Banchero, the Magic’s 1st overall pick, is single-handedly putting Orlando on the map with his play. Although there are some out there attempting to smear his unanimous Rookie of the Year campaign, citing the above-average play from Oklahoma City rookie Jalen Williams over the last month. Cole Anthony is playing like a surefire Sixth Man of the Year candidate. Jalen Suggs is trending towards a possible All-Defense team selection as soon as next year, and Franz Wagner is doing Franz Wagner things.
All this was not to mention the stars of the Clippers’ win, Markelle Fultz and Wendell Carter Jr. Wendell is proving to be cemented in the team’s long-term goals, while Markelle Fultz is having a career year while playing in just his 2nd season with 20 or more games played. Prior to Thursday’s tipoff, I was able to ask Tom Thibodeau who he believes, aside from Paolo and Franz, are the biggest individual threats to take over a game.
“Fultz has been amazing this past month… But I think Carter Jr. is one of the most underrated players in the league.”
None of these are things we would expect out of a rebuilding team so early into the process, yet it feels like we as a community fail to appreciate it often. There may be some certain rough games here and there, but there’s no doubt this team is in the best position for success since the Dwight Howard days. There has not been a single game where, going into it, it felt like the Magic had absolutely zero chance of winning. Those days are simply over.
“95% of our games have been winnable. Every game I’ve felt has been competitive,” said Cole Anthony on the difference between this season’s mentality compared to the previous few.
The Magic are currently on track to receive the fifth-best odds for the first overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft lottery, while also comfortably sitting in the 30-plus win column. This is probably as good of a rebuilding season as one can possibly expect. It would certainly be nice to get this team some postseason experience, but whether they make the play-in or not, the Magic have experienced some of the best internal development out of any team in the league.
A lot of credit will go to the players, but something that often goes overlooked in successful rebuilds is coaching and staff growth. It’s undeniable that Coach Mosley and his staff have been instrumental in banding together the team and creating a functional, poised basketball system. The Magic are looking infinitely more engaged during crunch time situations, situations in which they’ve found themselves in over a quarter’s worth more clutch minutes at this point of the season than the entirety of last season.
As the Magic prepare to turn the page to the offseason, there is a lot of hope and excitement in Orlando as the team gets ready to take a step forward next season. With two lottery picks in the 2023 NBA Draft, salary flexibility, cap space, and plenty of assets at their disposal, we could see the Magic finally become a playoff contender sooner than many expect.
