Orlando Magic: Too Good To Tank?
By Luke Duffy
The Orlando Magic began their new season on Tuesday at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse, home of the Indiana Pacers. In what was supposed to be a routine loss in what may prove to be a season full of them, a few new pieces of information came to light over the course of the 48-minute game. The most prominent nugget of wisdom taken from the encounter was just how well the young Magic team played against a Pacers outfit with ambitions of winning it all this year. Although Orlando did fall off in the fourth quarter and lost the game 97-87, the fearless and at times very good play of the team would have made both management and fans happy indeed. It is potentially the worst thing that could have happened.
Andrew Nicholson had a noteworthy game against the Indiana Pacers (NBA.com photo)
Looking at the game further, and indeed the Magic’s overall goals for this season, this manner of defeat may in the long run prove costly. Firstly, the positives. The team showed a nice chemistry, Victor Oladipo saw some time at the point guard position as expected and power forward Andrew Nicholson had a noteworthy game in what could yet turn into a breakout season. All great stories to report back to Magic camp on after one game, this team would appear headed in the right direction and that is without the injured Tobias Harris and Glen Davis playing either. The manner in which they lost though, good but just not good enough, as opposed to being downright bad, is a cause for concern. If Orlando were gearing up for a playoff run, then the fighting spirit against a contender would be a genuine positive. Had they been blown away, and they will be on the receiving end of some hammerings this season, they could chalk it up to losing now to gain a potential franchise player in the NBA draft next summer. This teams looks like it will be in a position to do neither though, and two words spring to mind when talking about where this group of players may be headed as a unit, Atlanta Hawks.
The purpose of this piece is not to rag on the Hawks or their team, it is simply to make unwanted comparisons. Before being blown up as a team before the start of last season, Atlanta had a core group of players that included Joe Johnson, Josh Smith and Al Horford. Three extremely talented players which resulted in the Hawks being locks to make the playoffs each year they were together. This happened, but unfortunately not much else ever did. The franchise became stuck in limbo, good enough to make the postseason, but not great enough to ever make an Eastern Conference Finals series. As a result of their excursions into the postseason, the draft was essentially a non-entity to the team as well. Now only Horford remains with the Hawks and a rebuild of sorts is underway there. This needed to happen, Atlanta was in its own Groundhog Day beforehand.
On Tuesday, the Magic showed a lot of the same characteristics of the incarnation of the Hawks, and it would have been unsettling to any Magic fans that noticed it. They didn’t play much like that Atlanta team in terms of style or defense, but the similarities were there. This Magic team looks good, perhaps better than management really believed it could be at this stage of the path back to relevance. In Oladipo, they have a potential Rookie of the Year winner. On top of that, both the aforementioned Harris and Nicholson could be on the cusp of breakout campaigns, while Nikola Vucevic may also have his best year to date. Throw in some over the hill, but still capable veterans, and this Magic team may not make the playoffs, but they will not be overly bad either. Progress like this, plus the addition of a couple of low key free agent signings down the road, could propel this team into the playoffs once more. The only problem there is that once the postseason arrives, you can bet they will make a swift exit.
This could potentially be a worrying development for the Orlando Magic, and really there is no way to stop it. You can’t ask professionals athletes to play badly on purpose, certainly not after one regular season game. They are not programmed to play that way, for if they were they would have never made it to the league in the first place. Encouraging them to play to their full potential will yield some success in the form of wins, but nothing concrete enough to ever seriously make any noise when the business end of the season rolls around. It is an unenviable position to be in, but the management team in Orlando need to make sure the Magic move in one direction, be it up or down. As of right now, the prospect of middle-of-the-pack obscurity awaits and it is terrifying.
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