The Orlando Magic sit one game below .500 through 11 games, and there are a number of great takeaways from the team’s improvement.
The Orlando Magic have been an improved club to be sure. Sitting just below .500 at 5-6 is not awe inspiring, but the Magic are a team people have begun to notice. Known thus far as a strong defensive team that will play with grit, the respect meter is climbing for this young team.
Orlando could reasonably make the biggest improvement of any team in the NBA, and there are a lot of positive things to key in on through three weeks of NBA basketball.
The Magic have done a number of things well, and this slideshow mostly focuses on positives, while not being overly slanted. There are a couple of negative observations, but it is a fair assessment on a team that is just starting to grow into its collective sneakers.
Orlando is a young team and young teams tend to lose a lot of close basketball games. That has certainly been the case so far, and most of the Magic’s games have been closely contested.
The biggest win was an nine-point victory over the Utah Jazz and the Magic have lost two games in OT. If the Magic continue to get in close games, it is going to require a lot better execution late in games. To some degree it is a lack of closers on the Magic roster, but the team play exemplified so far illustrates the Magic may be a team who succeeds despite lacking a franchise-defining talent.
Next: Cleaning the glass