This is going to be a bit of a stretch.
Is there anyone in the whole wide world who thinks the Magic can actually surprise everyone and make the Playoffs. I mean, did you see Tuesday night’s game?!
OK, no one is making that kind of a conclusion after one preseason game. No matter who it is against, where it was or who actually played in the game.
It does start us off on the preseason prognostications though. I will have my Blog Preview post coming up Thursday taking a closer look at the Magic. But this post is about some whimsy.
As I was driving home from work Tuesday before the game, I listened to Magic Tonight on 580 AM with longtime Magic radio studio host Scott Anez. He was fielding calls asking fans to call in with their predictions for the season. There was plenty of optimism on the radio calls with one fan calling those that see another tanking season upcoming “fair-weathered fans” and a few daring to flirt with .500.
Anez provided some measure of optimistic reason with 30 wins for the Magic. That seems to be an achievable goal that would make a good season for many when talking about the Magic.
The fact of the matter is, nobody has the Magic flirting with the Playoffs. It would take a major growth from several players and lots of things clicking in place to do it.
The Pistons are big, but do they really have enough together to make the Playoffs? Photo by Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
I mean, SBR Picks has the Pistons sneaking into the Playoffs. While that teams has more veteran talent, plus Stan Van Gundy, most would call that team a complete mess too.
This is just an odd season, it seems for the Magic as a whole.
Kelly Dwyer of Ball Don’t Lie did a good job articulating the exact situation the Magic are in: They did not blow things up quick enough in the Dwight Howard era and were forced into a long rebuild at the absolute worst time:
"This was the hand and very bad timing forced on new’ish Magic general manager Rob Hennigan in the wake of the end of the fitful Otis Smith regime. He can stress patience and a slow culture-creating all he wants, but the raw truth is that the Magic are likely ready to hit the lottery once again after 2014-15, turning in three terrible seasons and no guarantee that a future All-Star will emerge from its cadre of draft selections and acquisitions.The Magic hired a young coach, they haven’t splurged on any high end free agents, and they’ve embraced the long rebuild that they were forced into. Even amongst all the losses, though, the team has to show some signs in 2014-15. It has to."
This is where we are at though. The Magic still have work to do and this year is just part of that work.
A lot of the questions at Media Day centered around what would make a successful season for the Magic. The Playoffs were brought up specifically a few times. No one was about to say the team was a for-sure lock for the Playoffs. They used the vague “improvement” as the team’s goal. Rob Hennigan specifically said wins are only part of the measures they will use in evaluating the season.
Fans probably are not going to be thrilled to hear that. There was a sense that the team needed to turn some corner though.
So, perhaps, the playoffs should not be so far fetched. The bottom line has become the team has not had the best opportunity to bring in the top-end talent and have made the best of the situation they have been in.
There remains the chance they can surprise.
Channing Frye was part of the league darling Suns last year. He said during Media Day there was a lot of comparison already between those two teams in the youth and energy present on the roster. Frye said he would not have come to Orlando if he did not believe they had the chance to build something great. He wants to be a part of something like that.
The Playoffs may not be what everyone is expecting. But they may not be that far off.
This is why we play the games, of course.