Orlando Magic: Season Preview

Orlando Magic has been stuck at the bottom of the eastern conference for far too long. They were 13th in the east last season with a 29-53 record. That pretty much goes for the earlier seasons also. But will the winning numbers change for the Orlando Magic this season.

Magic will go into the 2017-18 NBA season with a revamped front office. They picked a solid 4-man in Jonathan Isaac with their 6th pick in the draft this year. This will only add to their talent pool which looks very promising and young at the same time.

They also picked up Jonathan Simmons in free agency, increasing their bench production. Simmons will also be a key defensive guy in rotation.

Magic also kept their core intact. Evan Fournier, Aaron Gordon, Elfrid Payton and Nikola Vucevic are all in Orlando for this season. They also have Terrence Ross and Bismack Biyombo.

On paper, they look like a legit 8th seed team. Specially if you add Aaron Afflalo to all of the players mentioned so far. But they miss a key ingredient. “Fire.”

Aaron Gordon was supposed to be the next big thing in Orlando. That hasn’t happened so far. Gordon averaged 12 points and 5 rebounds last season. These numbers are clearly not good enough for Gordon. This also does not mean that he can’t up his numbers. Last season, he dropped 32 and 16 in a loss against Boston. He was dauntless on the boards. Confident with his jumper. He doesn’t really need anything else with the hops he’s got.

Another key player will be Elfrid Payton. He’s the floor general. If he does not play like one, no way Magic is making playoffs. He averaged 6.5 assists last season and needs to heat up more often.

The future of this organisation rests on Payton and Gordon, at least for the foreseeable future. Players like Fournier and Vucevic have hit their ceilings long ago. But Payton and Gordon are only in their early 20s. In their mind, they shouldn’t even have ceilings.

Clearly, Orlando is no LA and they’ll have to do some for-real magic on-court in order to sell themselves to the fans and go all the way; to the playoffs.

Check out the Los Angeles Lakers: Season Preview here.