The Orlando Magic struggled through a 25-win season this year and left many unanswered questions. As they look forward, they must answer these five.
The Orlando Magic season ended with a thud. The team won just 25 games and finished with the fifth-worst record in the league. It was not the season the Magic imagined they would have. Not even with the tempered expectations they expressed before the season.
Orlando began the process of making changes to the roster in dismissing coach Frank Vogel. Surely the roster will change from there too. The offseason is going to be a time for turnover and some hard questions for the franchise.
President of basketball operations Jeff Weltman has a lot of work ahead of him. He likely used this season to try to understand just what work needed to be done. Most of the work he likely did was behind the scenes to create a better basketball culture and environment. But now comes the difficult task of remaking the roster.
If this year was a year to evaluate things, Weltman likely learned a lot. Yes, there were injuries which made the waters a bit muddier. But there was still plenty to learn in interacting with players on the team and seeing how they responded to adversity.
To say the least, things did not look good. Weltman said it best himself during his press conference at exit interviews Thursday: “We need to get better.” That is seemingly a rallying cry.
It will be impossible to turn over the entire roster in one offseason. Not every piece the Magic eventually need to shed will likely be gone by the time the season kicks off again in October. The team will still have some lingering questions it has to answer.
Some might say Orlando is closer than it appears today. Certainly, you can argue the Magic are better than their record thanks to those injuries. And there will be plenty of time to discuss what moves the Magic need to make and how best to turn over the roster in the coming months this summer.
For now, it is time to ponder and examine some questions left unresolved after the season ended. As the page gets turned, these questions will surely rattle in everyone’s minds.