Orlando Magic: Maybe this won’t be so bad after all

Despite a muted offseason, the Orlando Magic have enough about them to be more of a factor this coming NBA season than people realize.

If there’s one thing you need to win big in the NBA, it is superstars plural. Having one almost alway guarantees you a playoff berth each season, which is why the Orlando Magic have been to the previous two playoffs. In Nikola Vucevic they have a guy who has been recognized for his efforts once, and has put up the kind of numbers in the last three years to justify inclusion.

Unfortunately, and as Magic fans will know all too well, having Vucevic alone as their best player puts a ceiling on how good the franchise can be. Making the outlook even more bleak is the fact that multiple franchises around the Magic, such as the Atlanta Hawks and Washington Wizards, went out during this offseason and appeared to get significantly better.

This happened while loyal Orlando Magic fans looked on once more, as the front office decided against making significant roster changes of any kind. Outside of Dwayne Bacon, hardly a household name, no notable free agents came to Orlando. As has been the case for the last number of years, the much more uncool path of continuity will be followed this year, but that is not a bad thing.

One preseason game doesn’t mean a lot, even if the regular season is a matter of days away. But in the Orlando Magic’s win over the much improved Hawks, there was enough continuity and optimism on display to actually be quite excited about what this season could bring. Especially when you consider that the Magic are not a lock to make the playoffs again, because of moves that other organizations made.

Having Vucevic play to an All-Star level again is a good place to start, and he is a pretty safe bet to do just that. At 30 he is in his prime, has always seemed happy and settled in Orlando, and knows that the offense of head coach Steve Clifford is basically built around him. Again, this is not enough for a deep postseason run, and after the last couple of years we know this.

There might be more to the Orlando Magic than Nikola Vucevic after all

But perhaps Vucevic is about to have more help than we thought. Whatever your opinions on Evan Fournier, and if you’re a fan of the Magic you likely have a few, he is in a contract year. Players have a funny habit of stepping their game up when there are tens of millions of dollars on the line, and Fournier is no exception.

His long-term future may be away from the franchise, but there is no doubt he can create and score. If he does that to a higher level than ever before this season, he will get paid. Aaron Gordon, in what is somehow his seventh year, has to take a leap at some point. Right? Even a small one. So why not this year? He’s changed his look so perhaps it is now only a matter of time.

Those two guys aren’t even the real reason to get excited though. Fans always overhype their own young guys or buy too much into every move a front office makes (well, almost all of them). But if Bacon can be even a decent scorer and offensive outlet at certain points in games, something that has been missing for so long and which Terrence Ross admirably does for a couple of weeks a year, then he will have success with the Magic.

It gets much more positive than that however, as Markelle Fultz looks to be even more confident than he was last season, and is attempting 3-pointers with more enthusiasm now too. They still might not be pretty when he hoists them up, but when he’s stepping into these kinds of shots, do you really care?

Fellow point guard Cole Anthony somehow fell to the Magic at the 15th spot in this year’s draft, and it looks like he will back up Fultz to begin with. Whether they eventually form a tandem or not, he has the potential to be one of the steals of the draft, and after the win over the Hawks said all the right things to the Magic’s website.

"“Every aspect. Just choosing my spots better. Getting my teammates involved more. On the defensive end, just weaving around screens. There are a lot of screens in this league, so that’s something you have to get pretty good at. I don’t think there was anything that was perfect. There’s always room to improve.”"

Anthony is going to be able to score in this league, but if he keeps talking about defending and getting others involved like that, he is quickly going to become a fan favorite. Obviously there are still issues to be resolved, including the depressing fact that Jonathan Isaac won’t feature this season and appears to be prone to injury. The Magic also need to decide what to do with Mohamed Bamba.

But there is no doubt that a core who are really familiar with each other, a head coach in his third season at the helm, a player in Bacon who came to Orlando to be reunited with that head coach and some promising young players can give everybody something to cheer about.

There will be silly losses, and unexpected wins. Good games, and bad runs. But the Orlando Magic have enough about them to be more of a factor in this coming season than everybody thinks. It is most certainly not all doom and gloom around and organization that continues to work itself back to true relevancy.