The Orlando Magic entered the season with tons of ambition. They believed they were destined for great things.
Through four games, who could argue with them? The team was rolling with a defense that could switch on and suffocate teams for long periods. Paolo Banchero was elevating his game and looking to fulfill all the promises of his career. The Magic were winning and rolling.
Everything crashed down with Banchero's injury that will likely leave him out until late December or early January. Even 10 games into the season, all of the team's well-laid plans are not quite working out.
The Magic's goals are still in front of them. The Eastern Conference is a considerable mess too with only two teams above .500 and the 4-6 Magic one game back of the 4-4 New York Knicks. They have not rushed ahead like they could have. But they are not out of the race or too far behind either.
Orlando still has one of the best defenses in the league—ranked third in the league in defensive rating entering Saturday's games. The offense has shown promises but is a work in progress. And the Magic losing their offensive engine in Banchero hurts too.
Orlando is also still incredibly young and it still shows. Even with the calm and composure of the experience from last year's playoff run, the team still has moments of youthfulness in the worst ways.
The Magic are a weird team developmentally—they have and can accomplish some ambitious goals but they still need time to develop and grow. That is still the aim for the season.
The Eastern Conference is giving plenty of grace to go through some growing pains and learn. Everyone still expects the Magic to make a push at some point soon.
Through 10 games, there is the realization that there is a long way to go and that this team is not done growing. But there is also the realization that this team can still accomplish much this season as they continue to develop.
Here are 10 things we have learned about the Magic through 10 games.
10. Paolo Banchero is a superstar
Even in just five appearances, the first and biggest thing that was learned is that Paolo Banchero is a true superstar in this league. Even before his 50-point outing against the Indiana Pacers cemented that this year would be a special one for Banchero, he was feasting on opponents in many ways.
Now, Banchero will be out until at least mid-December, putting his All-NBA-looking season on hold. He averaged 29.0 points per game, 8.8 rebounds per game and 5.6 assists per game. The consensus around the league was that Banchero made a clear and undeniable leap.
The question entering the season was not whether Banchero could score the points. It was whether he could do so with efficiency—49.5 percent shooting and a 59.0 percent true shooting percentage and a 5.4 offensive box plus-minus for good measure—and if he could carry more of the playmaking burden.
Banchero's absence has highlighted a lot of the team's weaknesses and shown how vital he is to the team's planning and future. Everything revolves around him.
In five games at least, the answer was a resounding yes he can.
9. Jalen Suggs is growing into his point guard role
Undoubtedly the biggest question the Orlando Magic faced entering the season was whether they had enough playmaking and creation. It seemed clear Paolo Banchero needed some help to create some easy shots for him and the team looked like it needed a point guard.
The Magic opted not to sign a point guard, trusting in both the development of the two playmaking forwards in Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner and also the trust they have in Jalen Suggs' growth as a lead guard.
Through 10 games, Suggs is still growing into the role and getting comfortable with the ball in his hands. He is averaging 4.4 assists per game, the same total as his rookie year when the Magic used him more as a playmaker. He also is averaging a career-high 16.3 points per game.
With his assists up, his turnovers are up to 2.7 per game, near where he was his rookie year. But they seem to come in bunches. He runs hot and cold as the lead guard.
The analysis is that something is there and that Suggs is still coming to his own. Even if he is not the perfect player for that spot yet. Suggs still has plenty of room to grow.
8. 3-point shooting is better, but it isn't
Through 10 games, the Orlando Magic's 3-point shooting is still a big sore spot.
Entering Staturday's games, the team is last in the league, shooting 29.8 percent from three. Orlando has failed to clear 30 percent from three in the last four games. It has not been pretty, to say the least.
But coach Jamahl Mosley continues to preach that the team is doing the right things. He continues to believe the shots will fall and that he likes the looks the team is getting.
The team is no longer near the bottom in attempts, taking 37.9 attempts per game (11th-most in the league). But they are just not hitting them.
Improving the team's volume is a big deal after the team did not take very many threes last year. They needed that to expand their offense. But the quality of the Magic's 3-point shots is pointing upward.
The Magic are fifth in the league with 22.1 3-point attempts per game with the closest defender six or more feet away. They are making an abysmal 32.6 percent of those shots. Yeesh.
Orlando also leads the league with 12.5 corner 3-point attempts per game (they make just 29.6 percent, also yeesh).
But these are the kinds of shots every offense is trying to create. Should the Magic pass up open threes and corner threes? Those are the best threes to get. The team needs to see them make it.
7. Progress is not linear
The 3-point shooting on its own is a sign that progress is not exactly linear. The team is taking more threes and even players like Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs have improved their 3-point percentages for the most part. They just are not going in team-wide.
That is an everyone problem. But it is a reminder that progress is not linear. Everyone is going to go through ups and downs. And so far this season, things have not worked according to plan.
The Magic should count on Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs as players who have taken a step up. Anthony Black has looked a lot stronger and more reliable in his second year too.
But every other player has had their ups and downs early in the season.
Wendell Carter is rebounding at a higher rate but is still struggling with his scoring and shot. Moe Wagner's 2-point field goal percentage has come down—67.3 percent last year down to 63.6 percent, thanks largely to Friday's win—and that has exposed not only his shooting inconsistencies but his defensive inconsistencies.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is mysteriously shooting just 22.2 percent from three. It makes no sense.
You can go through much of the roster and see players who have not quite matched last year's levels. The team is still coming together. And 10 games is not enough to make any conclusions about anyone.
Nobody should give up on anyone just because they are struggling. Still, the team is suffering for this at the moment. Orlando has to hope those pieces come together soon. They have to hope players get back on track.
6. The Magic still look like a young team
The Orlando Magic are clearly threading a very fine needle.
They know they are capable of competing near the top of the Eastern Conference. Those ambitions were clear when they proclaimed they were going to fight for homecourt advantage. Why wouldn't anyone believe they can do that after last year.
But they also know they are a team filled with young players still coming into their own. And the Magic want to give them space to grow and explore. That is why the team left its roster relatively untouched and bet on players increasing their roles and improving.
That still seems like a safe bet. But it also means experiencing and stomaching growing pains.
Just look at Anthony Black's first 10 games.
Black has overall been impressive with 7.7 points per game and 4.1 assists per game. But he followed up four great games to open the season, including the go-ahead shot in the win over the Indiana Pacers, with 4, 7, 2 and 3 points throughout the road trip. A more aggressive game in the last two games against the Indiana Pacers and New Orleans Pelicans has restored confidence.
But that is the ups and downs that come with a young team. They have to figure things out and find consistency. And the Magic are still a young team like this.
5. Playoff experience has brought poise
Typically, a five-game losing streak might bring a level of panic. It might feel like the sky is falling. The fans are kind of feeling that way, especially with how frustrating the offense looked throughout the team's road trip.
There has been no panic at all from the Magic. Goga Bitadze said after Monday's loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder that the team knows it is a playoff team and that nobody in the locker room is concerned about the team's downturn.
The way the team has played and the way the team has approached this losing streak would suggest that making the Playoffs last season has indeed given the team a level of poise and confidence they may not have had last year.
While the Magic should probably regret dropping some of these games considering they said they learned how vital every game is in the course of the season, they also know they have a lot of time to make this ground back up. And they know what the journey is now.
4. The bench is still coming into its own
Last year, the Orlando Magic boasted one of the deepest teams in the league. They were fourth in the league in bench scoring with 41.5 points per game. Their bench lineup with Franz Wagner routinely erased big deficits and turned the momentum of games in the Magic's favor.
That has not been the case this year. They have not had the same effect.
The Magic are 14th in the league scoring 36.4 points per game off the bench.
The answer is both in what they lost—letting Joe Ingles and Markelle Fultz leave in free agency—and what they are not getting. Moe Wagner is averaging a career-high in points. So it is not necessarily him. But leading reserve scorer Cole Anthony is out of the rotation after struggling early in the season.
No one has quite stepped up to replace his scoring consistently.
Anthony Black has shown plenty of promise but still looks like a young player finding his place on the team. Jett Howard has been in and out of the rotation already but has struggled with his shot outside of the end of games.
Jonathan Isaac has provided a big presence on defense, but he still has to find his shot on offense (Friday's game against the Pelicans saw him score 10 points in the first half for a season-high).
The Magic's bench is still a work in progress, like much of the team still is.
3. Magic cannot escape injuries
Wendell Carter entered the season with one goal: He wanted to play 82 games, even if he knew a lot of that was out of his control.
More than anything, he wanted to put behind him the belief that he was susceptible to injuries. He wanted to be dependable with his availability.
Unfortunately for Carter, he was dealing with left knee tendinitis by the time the Magic arrived in Cleveland for the sixth game of the season. And then the following game he came down awkwardly and dealt with plantar fasciitis that has him out indefinitely (he will not play Sunday, missing his third straight game).
And that does not even begin to mention Paolo Banchero's torn right oblique that has him out until at least the middle of December.
Injuries are going to be a reality for every team. It is impossible to survive an 82-game season. But the Magic hoped they would be in for better injury luck after injuries took away two starters last year four games into the season.
It took five games for the Magic to lose Carter and to lose Banchero.
The Magic are still adjusting to losing Banchero. And it will be a challenge to move forward. But it is one every team has to work through.
But ultimately, the major injury will test the Magic and force a lot of players to grow quickly and improve to kep the boat steady. There is nothing the Magic can do to about injuries except push through and keep fighting.
2. Playmaking and creation were the right concerns
The Orlando Magic exited their playoff series with the Cleveland Cavaliers seemingly needing playmaking to boost their roster. It felt like in Game 7 especially that Paolo Banchero had to do too much and he was the only player who could create off the dribble.
Everyone called for the Magic to find a point guard in the offseason. Even Banchero said he thought the team should look for a "table setter" to help manage the team and set him up to lighten his burden.
The Magic did not necessarily ignore that call. But they opted to trust internal development to handle that role. And trusted Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner to take on that responsibility for each other.
Considering how young this team is, that made some sense. Orlando was willing to let players naturally grow and progress.
That decision may work for the long term. But it is still a questionable decision in the short term. The Magic at times look disorganized on offense and because there is so much on Banchero's shoulders, this period where he is injured has left the Magic a bit scattered.
1. There is still a lot of season left
The most important thing to remember is that while the Orlando Magic have learned a lot about themselves in the last 10 games (really just two and a half weeks), nothing is settled and nothing is permanent quite yet.
While there are a lot of things we should be sure of at this point that the team can grow from, everything can change week to week.
After all, last week, the Magic were riding high and feeling like they could compete at the top of the Eastern Conference. A week later and a few injuries later and now the Magic are asking themselves big questions about how they survive the next month.
There is a lot of season left for the team to recover and solve some of these issues. Trade season, after all, does not open until Dec. 15. And in the next month, the Magic will learn even more before they get to that.
There is still a long way to go this season -- including the NBA Cup games tipping off this week. And there is going to be a lot more to learn as the Magic try to return to the Playoffs and still accomplish their preseason goals.