The most exciting NBA team you won’t see on national TV this season

The 2023-24 NBA Schedule is officially out, and we now know what teams the NBA has decided to reserve the most shine in the national spotlight. Gracing ESPN, ABC, and TNT the most will be the expected teams like the Lakers, Warriors, the new-look Suns, and the defending champion Denver Nuggets. The East’s juggernauts in Boston, Milwaukee, and the tumultuous 76ers will also find themselves under the microscope often.  The full totals for each team can be seen below (per. Hoop Central).

One up-and-coming team found itself tied for the third-lowest number of national TV games (5 total), despite last year’s #1 pick and an exciting young roster ready to be competitive this season.
The Orlando Magic have understandably been out of the minds of the NBA’s promotion strategy for a long time.

The Magic haven’t reached the 2nd round of the playoffs since 2010, and they haven’t reached the playoffs at all since the 2020 bubble in their home city. It makes sense that in recent memory, the team has been put on the backburner, but their time to shine could be sooner than the NBA thinks.

The Magic dissolved that mediocre team in early 2021, trading now-champion Aaron Gordon to Denver and All-Star Center Nikola Vučević to Chicago in deals that set the team up perfectly for a short rebuild and an opportunity to compete just a few years later. Orlando plummeted to the top of the NBA lottery for 2 years, and along with the picks they received in the aforementioned trades, they have a core that fits together and excites.

The NBA made a mistake by not featuring the Orlando Magic on National TV.

2022 first overall pick Paolo Banchero ran away with the Rookie of the Year award this past season, despite a slow finish, and looked every bit like the versatile modern star scorer he was billed out to be. While not as hyped of a pick as this year’s phenom Victor Wembanyama or 2019’s Zion Williamson, Paolo looked like a comfortable and confident NBA player right out of the gate, averaging an even 20 points per game and starting all 72 games he played in through the team’s ups and downs.

Taken with Chicago’s eighth pick in 2021, Franz Wagner has shown he is the perfect modern NBA wing, with an excellent passing ability for his size that few can match. Another acquisition in the trade with Chicago, Wendell Carter Jr. plays a unique style of basketball as both a power forward and center and serves as a perfect connecting piece defensively for the team.

Former 76ers #1 pick and “bust” Markelle Fultz has revitalized his career playing a unique style of point guard that turned Orlando’s season around last season upon his return from injury. The team was 5-17 without Fultz playing and a much more respectable 29-31 when he did play.
Splitting up their season even further, the young team started a miserable 5-20 and found themselves in dead last place in the East on December 5th.

They showed a different edge from that point onward and managed to string together six straight wins and an overall record of 29-28 from that low point. It showed self-belief and toughness for a young team that had been completely written off to fight back to a winning record to end their season, and a glimpse of what could be on the horizon for them.

With all of these exciting young storylines and players, including last year’s #1 pick, the NBA is foolish to ignore the magic brewing down in Orlando. With just 5 of their 82 games being on national TV this year, fans will have to search to watch this exciting young team that showed in the 2nd half they can be competitive.

Let’s hope they can prove the NBA wrong, and they’ll have no choice but to talk about and promote the team in the coming years as they continue to build toward a contending roster.