2017 Orlando Magic take their place among franchise’s worst
The 2017 Orlando Magic failed to meet expectations. And it left the franchise in a low place. Historically, it ranks among the worst in team history.
The scene at the Orlando Magic’s open practice last October seems almost laughable now. It still captured the moment of optimism for the Magic at the beginning of last season and what the team believed it could accomplish.
Coach Frank Vogel walked to center court as the team was going to scrimmage in front of fans and asked if the fans were ready for the Playoffs. It was all but a promise the team would return to the postseason and avoid the longest playoff drought in franchise history.
The prospect of doing so was always iffy. Few predictions had the Magic making the Playoffs. But generally, everyone thought the team would improve from their 35-win season. They had more talent — plenty of questions, but definitely more talent. The progression still seemed to trend up even with the risk the Magic took.
What ended up happening was the pieces to the puzzle did not work. At all.
Orlando abandoned its strong defensive principles in the first quarter of the season and the already non-existent offense collapsed completely. The Magic never could catch up or establish a strong base. And the team was set adrift.
Every gamble failed: Serge Ibaka and Bismack Biyombo did not become a rim-protecting unstoppable defensive force. Aaron Gordon looked completely out of place at small forward for a team trying to win. Mario Hezonja regressed to the point he could not even be relied on to shoot. Elfrid Payton struggled defensively (although he returned to his rookie year level). Everyone’s efficiency dropped. And on and on and on.
The Magic failed to meet even the baseline of expectations in the 2017 season. The Magic’s 29-win season may have been a six-game decrease, but it felt like much more.
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Orlando backed itself into a corner, spending some big salaries to put together this roster — Bismack Biyombo and D.J. Augustin each have three years left on their deals and woefully underperformed — and trading away valuable assets to get there — starting with trading Tobias Harris and ending with Victor Oladipo.
The Magic do not have a way to get moving forward in a dramatic way. Orlando is expecting to be better in 2018, but how much better is a big question. No one is about to put the Magic in the Playoffs anytime soon.
That leaves the 2017 season in a peculiar place in Magic history. Expectations were not so high that it is the most disappointing season in franchise history — I would argue that still belongs to the 2011 season when the Magic’s championship window firmly closed. But this season is pretty close. And close in a catastrophic way.
The 2017 season resembles the 2004 season more than any other season in Magic history. The 2004 season was Tracy McGrady‘s last with the Magic. It is the one where he put up incredible numbers following the Orlando Magic’s near upset of the Detroit Pistons in the first round the previous year. But the team floundered to a 21-61 season.
That was a 21-game drop in wins year-over-year, the largest in franchise history. The Magic’s six-game drop last year pales in comparison. And even with McGrady, that team was very bad.
But, this year’s Magic squad also had its issues. Orlando’s record outperformed its statistics. The Magic might have actually been worse than their 29 wins. According to Basketball-Reference, the team had a Pythagorean wins total of 24 wins. That -5 difference between actual and Pythagorean wins is the largest in franchise history.
No one is complaining about the team winning more games. Well, almost no one considering this draft class.
But it places this specific Magic team among the worst in franchise history. There is no way around it. It compares to that 2004 disaster of a team and the expansion years in 1990 and 1991.
Certainly, from a talent perspective, the Magic in 2017 had as much talent as any team during this current rebuild. It is hard to say they are worse than some of those teams — especially the disappointing 2014 season or the first year of the rebuild in 2012.
But the momentum of this season was different. In 2012, the Magic were just starting their rebuild. They knew rough days were ahead. The 2017 season was a disaster despite the expectation the team would improve and make that Playoff push.
Looking even at the numbers, the Magic last year ranked among the very worst teams in franchise history. According to Basketball-Reference’s Pythagorean Wins metric, only four teams had a worse record than this year’s Magic.
Orlando Magic
There is no other conclusion to make. The Magic team that took the floor in 2017, despite all the talent and all the expectations, was one of the worst Magic teams in the franchise’s history.
There were teams that had worse offenses and defenses. There were teams that were less talented for sure. But there were fewer teams that had a more uncertain future.
The 2004 Magic seemed at the end of an era and soon traded Tracy McGrady. But the Lottery gifted the team with Dwight Howard.
The 1990 Magic get a pass for their struggles as an expansion team. The new team smell had not worn off. The city was just happy to have a team. It created plenty of memories in that first year.
The 2013 Magic were just starting their new rebuild. They knew they would struggle in the first year after Dwight Howard.
The 2017 Magic had no excuse or reason for their season going so far off the rails. They have no sure way forward.
It is hyperbole to call the 2017 Magic the worst team in franchise history. There were worse teams in Magic blue. But there are few teams that played this poorly with such little prospects for immediate improvement. Orlando should get better just on continuity, but there remains a fair amount of skepticism.
It was a rough season for the Magic, without a doubt. The future does look better with the additions the Magic have made this summer. But how much better is still a matter of some debate. And things could quickly go off the rails.
What is clear following the 2017 season is the Magic as a franchise have never been lower. The team’s prospects for ending this franchise-long playoff drought are not looking good.
Next: Time is not right for Orlando Magic to strike for a star
It is clear from taking a look at how the 2017 team compares to other teams in Magic history that this past year was one of the worst in franchise history.