Orlando Magic: 3 keys to their solid start to season

Despite a relatively muted offseason, the Orlando Magic have hit the ground running and surprised many with a nice 2-0 start to the season.

With all of the excitement surrounding All-Star level player movement and an incoming class of rookies, it is fair to say that the Orlando Magic, once again, flew under the radar this offseason. With minimal roster turnover and one draft pick outside of the top 10, why wouldn’t they?

The Magic aren’t spoken about on a national level often, despite making the postseason in the last two years, and it was no surprise that this was again the case as we headed into the beginning of a strange 2020-21 season. Two games in however and the organization are 2-0, and looking good in the process.

Make no mistake, the opponents they have beaten, the Miami Heat and Washington Wizards, are no slouches either. The Heat have gotten the better of the Magic regularly over the last eight years and made the finals in the NBA’s bubble, while the Wizards boast two top 40 players in Russell Westbrook and Bradley Beal.

Yet on both occasions so far it has been the Magic who have come away with the win. This surprising start has been nice to see, and of course, it won’t last forever either. But to be beating teams who are better than the Magic (Heat), and will be fighting the Magic for a low playoff seed (Wizards) is an encouraging start to the year.

But what have been the driving factors in this nice start? When you look at the following three reasons that have given cause for real optimism right now, then the unbeaten start actually isn’t that surprising at all. Best of all, none of the keys look like going away anytime soon either.