Orlando Magic: Season Over Before It Has Begun
By Luke Duffy
The Orlando Magic find themselves in a surprisingly decent position going into this season. Their fans don’t expect them to win too many games as long as they show signs of growing as a team and they should do that. Even the most downbeat fan will feel cautious optimism about what the likes of Victor Oladipo, Tobias Harris, Nikola Vucevic and Maurice Harkless can do. Throw in the fact next year’s draft is shaping up to be the best in a decade and losing big almost makes sense. People who pay good money to come and watch games want to be entertained though, and so they will expect the team to play competitively. Getting on some sort of small roll early on however could give this team some vital confidence and help them to grow at an accelerated rate. It is just a pity this will not be the case though.
Some tangibles are able to be controlled by a team. Drafting the right players, rotations–all of these things managers have control over. Injuries for example is one such occurrence that cannot be controlled. Another is the schedule and unfortunately for the Magic they have been dealt a bit of a bum deal here. Over the first month of the new campaign, Orlando will play 16 games. Eleven of these will be against teams who made the playoffs last year. While that includes playing the Boston Celtics twice, two games that are a much easier proposition this time out, games against much improved New Orleans Pelicans and Minnesota Timberwolves outfits are also bundled in there for good measure. Starting off on the road to the Indiana Pacers, before travelling to play the Timberwolves to start out the season, it is very possible the Magic could be 0-2 ahead of their first home game. That fixture is against the aforementioned Pelicans, who look a decent team after a very strong preseason. After that the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Clippers roll into town, with the Celtics following behind. If the Magic were somehow 3-3 after this stretch, it would be a miracle.
The month continues with such matchups to relish like the Miami Heat back-to-back, while there are two trips to Atlanta as well to take on the Hawks, never an easy place to go. The month of November concludes with the San Antonio Spurs calling into Amway Center to say hello. However, clashes against the Phoenix Suns, Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks offer hope that it won’t be an historically bad month for the team.
While it is all well and good as fans, and even management, to sit here and acknowledge and accept the fact a team is going to be bad, living through it is very different. Losing, like winning, is infectious and the schedule has not been kind to a team that would have loved some softer games to find their feet before the big boys rolled around on the fixture list. Seeing an extremely young squad go out and get mauled by experienced teams may become painful to watch after a while, not to mention denting their confidence too. Being a professional basketball player they are used to being the best in their class, or college team, and now they will find themselves losing regularly and questioning their talent, something which is best avoided. When the easier games do begin to come, the team will struggle even to prevail in those games, given what will be a tough opening month that really wears them down. Travelling to differnet arenas and losing a lot can’t be much fun.
Of course this is all very negative, a ball hasn’t been tipped yet, and the Magic could surprise us all. While it is unlikely they’ll go 16-0 through October and November, they may grind out some unexpected results. That would change things for this squad, winning close games against good teams are how young ball clubs begin to establish themselves in the league. A more likely scenario however, sees the Magic start poorly and struggle for the remainder of the season, going on spurts of playing well and winning games every so often. That’s what they would have expected though, after all they knew they were going to be this bad going into this season, right?
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