2016 Orlando Magic: A forgettable year of questionable progress

The Orlando Magic undoubtedly made progress in the 2016 season. In the annals of Magic history though, it will largely be forgettable.

Time has passed since the end of the 2016 season.

The Orlando Magic have moved on, fixing their eyes firmly on the 2017 season with a big reformation to the roster this year. The Magic are pushing their chips in to make a Playoff run after a four-year absence.

The 2016 season though was a hard one to judge.

On one hand, the team made significant raw progress. Orlando jumped from 25 to 35 wins and were playing meaningful games later into the season than the team had been throughout this rebuilding phase. On the other hand, the team started 19-13 and then feel flat with a disastrous 2-12 January. The Magic were never seriously in the Playoff race after the All-Star Break.

The stagnation at that point led the Magic to make some major changes — both to try to keep their slim playoff hopes alive and push the team toward free agency this summer to make bigger moves. Orlando’s 2016 season will go down as one that was full of promise, but ultimately fell short.

It is hard to get a handle on just where to place the Magic’s 2016 season in the annals of Magic history.

There have been several rebuilding teams in Magic history, trying to knock that door down into the Playoffs. This 2016 Magic team is not likely among the best of those.

Orlando won 36 games in 2005 and 2006 — the first two years after trading Tracy McGrady and Dwight Howard’s first two years. These teams were the products of quick rebuilds. The Magic tried to bring in an All Star in Steve Francis to replace McGrady and have him hold the ship while Howard developed and grew.

The 2005 season was one of growth. Francis had his issues with Cuttino Mobley’s departure and Howard was growing. The 2006 season was supposed to be the team taking a step forward to the Playoffs. Instead, Orlando struggled mightily. Francis was traded and the team was handed more firmly to Howard and Jameer Nelson (with Grant Hill still there to give a guiding hand).

The 2016 team too was one hoping to take a step up — although under different circumstances. The team had carefully built up its assets, but failed to get the big lottery prize. The Magic were hoping their collection was enough to take a step forward. It proved it was not.

Really the 2006 season was the inverse of the 2016 season. The 2006 team ended the year 16-6 to make a push for the Playoffs that came up just short. It was a finish that provided enough optimism for the team’s 2007 push for the Playoffs (at 40-42, but still in).

That is the closest comparison to the 2016 season in Magic history. A team that was full of promise, but had to find itself and never quite did. It could be argued somewhat like the 2006 team, the 2016 team found itself some toward the end of the season in piling up some meaningless wins for the Playoff chase.

Both these teams were cases of young teams eager to take the next step as the franchise began to transition (both with new coaches, at that).

The 2016 team certainly slots as worse than the 2006 team. That team’s future was very clearly set in 2006 and the progression seemed inevitable. Even after the Magic’s 10-win improvement in 2016, it was still very unclear where Orlando was headed. That seemingly necessitated the moves the team made this summer.

So where does 2016 rank in Magic history?

The team’s season is likely somewhere around the 20th best season in Magic history, comparable to the previous years in this rebuild and the 1991 31-win season (the Magic’s second year in existence).

Among the Magic’s 30-win seasons, it is hard to say exactly where the Magic team should rank. A four factors comparison of those teams reveals this:

The 2016 season will again be one that is hard to place. In some clear ways, the team was a good one. It was capable of playing at a very high level. The consistency though remained a big issue for the 2016 Magic all season long. It is ultimately why the team struggled to achieve its goals.

Really though, the team was on par with those other 30-win teams. It was ahead of the still expansion 1991 team and likely on par with the 2005 team after the McGrady deal. Among the 30-win teams (not including lockout years), the 2016 Magic are certainly right there among this group of teams.

And certainly against the past three years, the Magic were a major improvement in 2016:

Despite all the frustration, the plain fact is the Magic had their best season since Dwight Howard was traded. Orlando seemed to be moving in the right direction. Then again, it has never taken Orlando this long to get moving. And there is still a long way to go.

In the larger scope of Magic history though, this is a team that will be hurt by perception. This was a team that was supposed to take a giant leap forward. A team that was supposed to deliver the Magic back to the Playoffs.

Despite all the clear improvements that team clearly did not deliver that.

If the assumption is that teams like the expansion 1990 team, the woeful 2004 team and the post-Dwight 2013 team are the three worst in team history. And then 2014 and 2015 also are below 2016. Certainly the third-year 1992 team that took a step back from that promising second season also could easily be placed below the 2016 team in Magic history.

It would appear this Magic team is in the teens or early 20s in Magic history. The plain fact is the Magic in 2016 did not have to do much to be better than the previous three seasons.

Next: Aaron Gordon should see increased playing time

So while Orlando had a good year in 2016, it was not the year the team wanted. It was disappointing in some sense despite the improvement. And in the annals of Magic history, it is not likely to be one that is remembered only as a year that saw a turning point in the franchise’s history.