The Orlando Magic went from 25 to 35 wins, but the year was still a disappointment. The Magic hoped to make the Playoffs and fell short after a hot start.
Entering the 2016 season, the Orlando Magic had high expectations. They set high expectations for themselves.
After three years at the bottom of the league, the team felt like it had the assets to begin moving forward and expecting results. The failure of the 2015 season, the false start to accomplish those goals, was case aside. The team brought in new coaching in Scott Skiles to help set a tone and create an atmosphere where the team could continue to grow but would also be held accountable to the only thing that matters in the end — winning.
Certainly the Magic wanted to eclipse the 30-win total and the stated goals was to do more than just make Playoffs but be a winning team (it turned out being a winning team would be a prerequisite to making the Playoffs this year). Orlando was expecting a big step up.
Skiles’ teams throughout his history had done this kind of leap before. They became a scrambling defensive juggernaut. Ignore the offensive end for the moment.
And it seemed like he had the tools for that in young sparkplugs like Victor Oladipo, Aaron Gordon and Elfrid Payton, who had made their names in their early careers on the defensive end. Evan Fournier and Nikola Vucevic were intriguing offensive players and Tobias Harris could be that go-to scorer and fill in the gaps.
The Magic won 10 games in December and raced out to a 19-13 start. Siles was the Eastern Conference Coach of the Month. There were holes to fill for sure, but the team was on the right track. Buckling down some more on defense and continuing to grow and gain confidence would put the Magic squarely in the Playoff conversation, just as they wanted to be.
How things fell apart in January is still something of a mystery. A mixture of a key injury to Elfrid Payton that slowed him down, the offense drying up, the mixture now working anymore and the doubt that can come with a young team that has never won before, all came together to derail the Magic’s season. They went 2-12 in January and were one of the worst teams in the league for 31 days.
Orlando was climbing uphill and could not seem to right the ship.
Tobias Harris was dealt for some veterans in Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova to try to keep the ship steady, but essentially for cap room. The team never regained its footing.
In the past week, we here at Orlando Magic Daily have recapped the season looking at What Went Right and What Went Wrong throughout the season. It was a frustrating one for sure, but the Magic still had good things to point to and plenty more to grow from and learn from.
Next: Scott Skiles