Orlando Magic broadcaster David Steele: Orlando Magic can turn around pretty quickly

Orlando Magic broadcaster David Steele has seen it all with the Orlando Magic. As he looks to the future he thinks the team can turn things around quickly.

The Orlando Magic suffered one of the most disappointing and disheartening seasons in franchise history in 2017. The 29-53 record represented a huge step back for what was once a promising rebuild.

The Magic, it seemed, cashed in a lot of their chips — including young players like Tobias Harris and Victor Oladipo — to add veteran players to provide some leadership stability and get the team over the top after a promising 35-win season in 2016.

It all came crashing down fairly quickly. By December, the Magic’s defense had collapsed and the team’s well-laid plans to try to go big with versatile defenders and rim protection in a league going small failed.

The Magic fired general manager Rob Hennigan and have hired Jeff Weltman as president of basketball operations to right the ship.

The team has some pieces to pick up and issues to fix with the roster to get it back to a Playoff level and end the franchise-long five-year Playoff drought.

The sixth overall pick in the Draft will play a central role in doing this. But the good money suggests the Magic are going to need some time to reset their roster some before making a run at the Playoffs.

Of course, the Magic are not saying that. CEO Alex Martins said on numerous occasions he believed the Magic were not far off. Indeed, there is some reason to believe that with experienced players like Evan Fournier, Nikola Vucevic and Terrence Ross plus a growing and promising young Aaron Gordon. With some internal improvement and the right injection of veteran players, maybe the Magic can make that turnaround.

It might be more wishful thinking at this point. But stranger things and stranger turnarounds have happened in the NBA.

No person is probably as close to the team without actually playing for it or working directly in basketball operations than Magic television play-by-play announcer David Steele. Steele has worked with the Magic since their inception.

Ever the optimist, Steele is also in the camp that believes the Magic can turn things around quickly. He joined the Orlando Sports Report to reminisce about Magic history and offered his outlook on the team’s future:

"“That could turn around pretty quickly. You see that if you add just the right piece, get the right chemistry. Of course, here we go again with the optimism, when the season started this past year, I thought [Serge] Ibaka and [Bismack] Biyombo had a chance to be counter intuitive to the NBA. That could be something that worked.“The chemistry was so bad from the beginning. It was pretty obvious it was just a bad mix early on. You get the right guy. You bring in the right mix and like that Heart and Hustle team, lightning can strike and you can be pretty good. I think we have to get more talent. And then that mix and chemistry I’m talking about has to be a lot better. After the trade was better, but that early season was about as poor a team that got along on the court, they did fine off the court, it just didn’t work on the court.”"

Steele said he was encouraged by the pairing of Jeff Weltman and John Hammond in the front office. He said it has the chance to be special.

It does not take much observation to see the Magic had some on-court chemistry issues. The pieces did not fit together and it prevented the team from reaching its full potential. Eventually, it became clear, the team let go of the rope. And the season was lost.

Orlando will have a lot of work to do to right the ship. Increasing the talent level is certainly a high priority. Using the four draft picks to add depth and young talent will be critical to the team’s next phase. Orlando is going to have to get quality players.

But certainly, the Magic could make a leap fairly quickly. Teams have gotten the right mix and made turnarounds fairly quickly before.

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Only time will tell if the Magic take that next step and find that right chemistry.