Are The Orlando Magic A Top 4 Team In The East?

Could the Orlando Magic finish the season as a top-four team in the Eastern Conference, ensuring homecourt advantage in a playoff series?

For the Orlando Magic, simply having a young and healthy team that is competing is the best part about their campaign so far. Even better, the team has come into 2016 with a winning record (19-13) and a real shot at making the playoffs this season.

That makes it kind of funny to think how this current version of the team could have done last year in what was a much weaker Eastern Conference at the time.

Now, while nothing is guaranteed and jostling for positions is tight at the moment (the eighth-place Boston Celtics are 18-14) the Magic have shown some staying power in hanging around the postseason positions all year long. They’re winning the games they’re supposed to now, while also picking up victories over contending teams as well.

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It may seem greedy to approach their season another way though, but could this team actually have a home playoff series in the first round of the postseason this year? Yes it seems crazy to say given that this team hasn’t cracked 30 wins the last three years and again just making the playoffs would be brilliant.

But a look at some of the numbers in comparison to the teams around them makes for nice viewing if the Magic want to finish as a top-four team in the East.

Before looking at those numbers in more detail, a quick eye test will tell you why this may not seem all that impossible. The teams just ahead of  (Chicago Bulls) and just behind the Magic (Miami Heat) are veteran squads with star players on them.

But what Orlando has going in it’s favor is a head coach in Scott Skiles who has the team improved defensively, while becoming a more efficient offensive unit.

More than that though, everybody knows their roles. Nikola Vucevic is the borderline All-Star center with which many elements of their success revolve. Victor Oladipo has been moved to the bench and it has worked. Tobias Harris does whatever is needed of him on a nightly basis while Evan Fournier is one of the most improved players in the NBA.

This has resulted in the Magic becoming an entertaining watch on League Pass most nights.

Compare that to the Bulls, who on the surface have a first-year head coach in Fred Hoiberg who has failed to win over either Jimmy Butler or Derrick Rose. Butler is a superstar in this league and better than any player the Magic have, but Rose simply isn’t the player he once was while Pau Gasol has made rumblings about leaving after the season.

Questions constantly pop up about whether or not Butler and Rose can co-exist too.

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That’s not the ideal storyline of a top four team in the East. For the Heat, they’re a team that could go far into the postseason if events fall correctly for them.

has been turning back the clock on some nights, while

is a potential All-Star himself.

Goran Dragic hasn’t played up to his high standard since signing with the team, but both he and Chris Bosh give this team real quality throughout their starting five.

As of right now though, they’ve stuttered along in the East. Do I think they would beat the Magic in a seven-game series? I do, but I also believe it would be a bit closer than many think. You see that’s the beauty of this Magic team, they’re flying under the radar despite some impressive numbers to back up their claim for a top-four spot.

As a team they’re shooting 36 percent from three-point range. Not only is that better than Chicago (35.8 percent) and Miami (33.2 percent), it’s also the third- best mark in the Eastern Conference. Where it gets better, is the fact that teams are only shooting 33.4 percent from three point range against Orlando.

Now, while that’s not as impressive as Chicago’s three-point defense (32.8 percent) and is essentially the same as Miami’s (33.5 percent) it shows that this team is defending to a playoff standard consistently now.

Keeping with the scoring theme, the Magic are putting up 101 points per game. The Bulls, on the other hand, are scoring 101.1, while the Heat are at 97 points per contest. Again with the Bulls having a deep roster and more star power, for the Magic to be competing with them in this category is encouraging.

The Heat should be doing better but that speaks more of a team still trying to gel.

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Chicago currently tops the league in rebounds per game (49), with the Magic (44.1) and Heat (42.8) lagging behind. In terms of forcing turnovers though, the Magic are a top-10 team (14.9 per game) with the other two teams being bottom-10 units (12.6 for Miami, 11.7 for Chicago).

In a playoff series with defensive intensity kicked up a few gears, you can bet that statistic would have even more importance.

Perhaps the greatest indicator of how far this Magic team has come, and if they could secure homecourt advantage for a playoff series, comes in their point differential. Orlando holds a positive in this category of plus-2.6, with both the Heat (plus-1.5) and Bulls (plus-1.1) behind them.

This points to a Magic team that knows how to win games now, and in a seven-game series with four games potentially at home, those numbers add up.

Do I think the Orlando Magic could grab a top-four spot in the better Eastern Conference this season? I genuinely do, but to approach the question in that way would be to miss the point altogether. Just being back in the playoff chase is all this team could have hoped for, any more than that is a bonus. Yet here we are in January and still firmly in bonus territory.

As the numbers show, this is a team that can now mix it up with the more well-known and respected teams in this league and come out on top. Improvements from within as well as a new head coach have allowed this growth to happen at an accelerated pace this season.

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For the Orlando Magic, not only are things going to get better, we could be seeing a Game 7 in the AmWay Center later this year as well.