Ranking the NBA’s small market teams

#9: Orlando Magic

We went from teams that have never even sniffed the NBA Finals to a team that has been twice. The Orlando Magic boast Penny Hardaway, Dwight Howard, Shaq, and Tracy McGrady, so how are they this low? In their 14 years, they have been within 100 points of a .500 winning percentage only 14 times. Most decent teams hover around the .500 mark most years, but the Magic are rarely anywhere close.

That’s because they are either really good or really bad. When they’re bad, they shamelessly stink. There’s nothing wrong with that, but when they’re good, they tend to implode. Yeah, they’ve been to the Finals twice, but they’ve only made the Conference Finals two other times. In the playoffs, they rarely go all out, which means they’re a guaranteed first-round exit.

Part of that has to do with Doc Rivers and Stan Van Gundy. Rivers has coached Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Blake Griffin, Paul George, DeAndre Jordan, Chris Paul, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, Ben Simmons, and Joel Embiid. He has only one ring to show for it. He is the king of playoff disappointments and has blown more 3-1 leads than anyone.

Stan Van Gundy is in a similar, but less extreme, situation. He coached Shaq and Dwayne Wade in Miami before narrowly missing out on the 2006 ring, then coached Howard in Orlando before finding himself on some middling Detroit and New Orleans teams. Van Gundy is an average NBA coach, and average doesn’t win titles. Neither does some magic, apparently.