Orlando, FL – Everyone has been talking about the trade deadline as of late (farewell, Mo Bamba), but with the assumption that Patrick Beverley won’t suit up for us, there’s not much speculation we can do about the “new look” Magic. A win against the reigning MVP Nikola Jokic  and former Magic man Aaron Gordon was all the excitement Magic fans needed yesterday. 

If you’ve been paying attention to the Magic’s season, you are probably well aware of their win situation. Thanks to a rocky 5-20 start, the team is attempting to claw slowly back into a possible play-in spot. However, why does it feel night in and night out that this team is leaps and bounds above the lottery already? 

It could all possibly be chalked up to a simple philosophy — many believe that the Magic play up to the high end competition, and play down to the middle/lower end opponents. On paper, this really shouldn’t be possible in the NBA. If all these players are super talented and work well as a team, why isn’t it on display against the worst of the worst? Why do we only see this team’s best flashes against Finals contenders?

Last night’s win against Denver showed us what we already know about this team: they can truly compete against anybody in front of them. Combined with the 3 straight wins against Boston, casual fans are starting to take notice. The Magic are even being mentioned by the likes of Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe, with Bayless stating, “The Orlando Magic are on the rise.” 

So we sit here and ask, why doesn’t the record reflect our full capabilities? What’s holding us back? It seems the Magic will continue to confuse the masses with how well they’ve been playing contrary to their record, so let’s see what’s factoring into this odd mess. 

I figured a good analogy to put into perspective the Magic’s struggles against worse teams: the season series against Philadelphia. Early on, the Magic faced Philadelphia back-to-back at home — both games ending in blowout losses. The problem? In both instances, Philadelphia was without Embiid, Harden, and Maxey. Fast forward to late January/early February, the Magic go 1 for 2 against Philadelphia, both games including Philadelphia’s big three.

For the stat heads out there, the Magic are probably considered an anomaly. Nothing too out of the ordinary, however, since it seems every NBA season has one of those wonky teams who just doesn’t follow any blueprints. It’s no doubt that being relatively healthy has improved this team’s odds at a playoff run, however this “playing up” issue has been notable since before our injured guys returned. It’s not normal for a team to lose every instance against the Washington Wizards, yet nearly season sweep the championship favorite Boston Celtics.

The Magic are at 18-13 since December 7th, and show no signs of slowing down. 

Undeniably the most impressive part of this stretch has been the team’s ability to distribute the wealth. It’s become noticeable over the past few weeks that rookie Paolo Banchero and sophomore Franz Wagner have hit their respective speed bumps, yet the Magic are still winning with confidence. Guys like Cole Anthony and Moe Wagner are commanding a nearly unstoppable bench unit, something that used to be a massive black hole in the Magic’s offense.

With the Eastern Conference being a massive jumble at the bottom of the playoff picture, it will be nothing short of interesting to see how the Magic handle this final stretch of games post All-Star break. Headlines such as Brooklyn rebuilding, Indiana soft tanking, and no Toronto or Chicago major trade deadline bombs could end up being extremely favorable for Orlando’s play-in hopes.