After a few seasons near the bottom of the Eastern Conference, Orlando is hoping that their young players can work a little magic and help return the team to contention.
Last Year’s Record: 25-57
Key Additions:
- Mario Hezonja
- C.J. Watson
- Greg Stiemsma
- Keith Appling
Key Departures:
- Ben Gordon
- Luke Ridnour
- Kyle O’Quinn
Season Outlook:
The Orlando Magic have endured several post-Dwight seasons of little to no reason to believe they were going much of anywhere. Fortunately, the Magic have made good on their time dwelling in the depths of the Eastern Conference and, probably worse, Florida.
Orlando is currently set up to reap the rewards of their toil. While the 2014-15 season was more of a treadmill than a ladder, they did improve by two wins over the prior season. This improvement was small, but worth noting as the roster is very young and the team abandoned ship on Jacques Vaughn after a start to the season that was deemed unacceptable. Vaughn did have a progressively better record each season in Orlando, posting 20 and 23 wins in full season in charge, before being cut lose after 52 games in 2014-15 with a record of 15-37, a winning percentage of .288 which was markedly better than his previous best of .244 in 2013-14.
The front office must believe that this is one of their strongest teams since the 1990s and will try to capture some of that fire with the Scott Skiles touch. The hiring of Skiles marks a turn in coaching styles, presumably the front office feels a firm hand will help shape the young roster into a hard-working unit, maximizing their talent. Skiles should help to bring more defensive effort out in offensive-minded big Nikola Vucevic and play to the strengths of their more defensively gifted back court.
And what a great deal of talent they are working with for the upcoming season. All those years of bad play netted them, in one way or another, Tobias Harris, Vucevic, Aaron Gordon, Elfrid Payton, Victor Oladipo, Keith Appling and Mario Hezonja.
Oladipo leads the charge, one of the best young players in the game who will likely take that next big step in his development this season. Harris also figures to be a part of the Magic’s next good team, having signed a new deal with the Magic this summer.
As for the other talent on the roster, Payton and Vucevic are likely to improve this season and the hope will be that Gordon can find and maintain health. After an injury-shortened rookie campaign, the young man is currently recovering from a jaw injury but should return by the end of October.
Clearly, the Magic bosses believe in this roster as much as I do and more. Both Luke Ridnour and Ben Gordon are gone from last year’s squad, a couple of savvy veteran guards, likely to not be needed as Payton and Oladipo continue to grow and take up more minutes in the rotation. Adding C.J. Watson gives them just enough veteran depth to help them out should some type of injury strike or the youngsters get lost on the court and need some time to step back and re-focus without hurting the team and their goals for continued improvement in the win column.
Hezonja is going to be a lot of fun. He already showed some flashes of top-tier skill in the Summer League and has the swagger to go with it. If he can adjust to life in the NBA after his promise time in Europe, the Magic will have a real playoff contender on their hands for this year and beyond.
Projected Record: 33-49
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