It is another offseason after a disappointing season. Following Summer League the goal fro the Orlando Magic is clear. And everyone knows it is time.
Everyone in the organization can sense it now.
Maybe not exactly now. There are still about three months before regular season games come and things get serious for the Orlando Magic. But the pressure of the 2016 season is getting ready to build.
Everyone knows winning has to start now. The rebuild, the process, the direction of the team is banking on the Magic finally taking that next step forward. Getting serious about competing even in the watered-down Eastern Conference and actually giving reasons for fans to show up.
The time is now.
“It’s important for everyone on the team to start taking ownership,” Rob Hennigan said. “And that includes our young players. They have to start taking ownership for the performance on teh court. They have to start taking ownership for the leadership piece in the locker room. All of that is very important.”
This does sound somewhat familiar. The Magic were saying almost the exact thing last summer and before last season. They all sensed the failure to turn the corner entering this offseason.
There is a little more urgency in this one though.
The Magic have already changed coaches, signalling some type of philosophy change. They have begun investing money on rookie extensions — marrying players in their core financially for the long term.
At some point growth has to stop and results need to be delivered.
This will be the going storyline through the 2016 season. Are the Magic turning a corner? Is this a group ready to begin winning — even on some small scale?
They will be judged on how they perform and their results, not just improvement.
It started in small earnest last year. The talk about the Playoffs began. The team made some improvements and believed it was time to start winning.
The course of the season led to a failure. The Magic did not take that step forward. They struggled to find their footing for whatever reason. They did not take that step forward as a unit, whether it was because they were not ready as players or poor coaching or whatever. It just did not happen.
The sense around the franchise is the rebuilding has to end at some point. And that point needs to come sooner rather than later. Sooner for many fans getting restless after three years of poor play and little tangible progress.
These are the expectations and that is just how the players seem to want it. They want that tangible progress too.
It is in their hands to do it.
“We’re ready. We’re defeinitely ready,” Aaron Gordon said. “Myself, Eflrid Payton and Devyn Marble are not rookies anymore. We got our feet wet. We know what wer’e looking for. Victor Oladipo, Tobias Harris and Nikola Vuceivc, I love the team that we have. We have a great team.”
It is one thing to say it and another thing to do it.
Inevitably every year, there is at least one young team that takes the step up and surprises everyone. The Milwaukee Bucks made a huge leap in 2015. Someone is likely going to surprise the league and make that step up. The Magic are becoming that trendy pick.
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That is all well and good.
Talk gets you so far. Actually it gets you where the Magic were in 2015. Not very far.
It takes action. And that action has to wait for training camp to get going.
Since there is nothing else to sate our thirst until then. So talk will have to do.
Once again, everyone knows the goals the organization has to accomplish.
“Everybody is talking about this is the year to make the Playoffs,” Elfrid Payton said. “I think that’s everyone’s mindset. I’m excited.”