Revisiting Orlando Magic Top 25: Where the 2018 Magic rank

Last year, we ranked every team in Orlando Magic history. Today, we update that list and figure out where the 2018 Magic fit in franchise history.

We are currently ranking the most popular player in Orlando Magic history as part of our offseason distractions. The fan polling is ongoing on @omagicdaily. Check in every day to vote on our next poll as we formulate our fan vote.

But history marches on. Our previous lists do not remain static. New players get added to the mix and new teams make their mark.

And while it does not make sense to gather everyone to re-rank these lists every year — there are not that many changes — it does make sense to update the lists in small ways. Or at least comment briefly on how the list might change from year to year.

We have put together two lists as a staff in the last two years — hitting the two big lists you can hit in the top 25 players in Magic history and a ranking of all 28 teams in Magic history.

Today, I want to revisit last year’s list of the top 28 teams in Magic history and find a place for the 2018 Magic.

Obviously, the Magic’s 25-57 season last year was a disappointment. It will rank the 2018 Magic among the worst teams in franchise history. Among teams in the current post-Dwight Howard rebuild, last year’s Magic team certainly is among the biggest disappointments.

The best place to start, it seems, is to figure out where the season ranks among its contemporaries in this current rebuild.

According to Basketball-Reference, the Magic had a 105.2 offensive rating and 110.1 defensive rating. That ranks as the best offense since this rebuild began and the second-worst defensive rating in that time period. The offense is in the middle of the pack in Magic history.

The 2018 season was an odd season, no matter how anyone cuts it.

We can continue to rehash it — starting 8-4 and then collapsing among injuries and inexperience — but the season turned out how it turned out. It felt like rock bottom for the franchise. There was little cap flexibility to move forward and no potential All-Star to hang onto. Jonathan Isaac is still a ball of potential. Aaron Gordon is intriguing. And the record only ended up giving Orlando a shot at the sixth overall pick.

At least in some of the Magic’s other seasons during this rebuild, there was a feeling of hope. Victor Oladipo was building toward something. There was an interesting group of young players all growing at the same time in Victor Oladipo, Tobias Harris and Aaron Gordon.

A direction is something this team is missing. Maybe in Jeff Weltman’s first year as president of basketball operations, he should get some benefit of the doubt in establishing the base of his rebuild. That base has continued to grow this offseason.

But it certainly was not a season that accomplished much. In the grand narrative of growth in this rebuild, it is hard to make much sense of what happened in 2018.

Perhaps it is more operative then to compare the 2018 season to the other season that saw the Magic hit rock bottom — the year before in 2017.

In the 2017 season, the Magic pushed all their chips into the center of the table trading away young assets for veterans and spending wildly in free agency. The season was a complete disaster. Orlando won only 29 games and got general manager Rob Hennigan fired.

Last year, we ranked that team 23rd among all-time Magic teams. Two teams in the current rebuild — 2014 and 2013 (the first two years of this rebuild) — rated worse than that season. That is a symbol of the full stop this rebuild took.

Certainly, there were a lot of positive signs in 2018 that the team was doing something different. Gordon finally emerged as a potential All-Star player. Even in his fourth year, he finally looked like a player who could keep growing into a featured player in the rebuild.

Nikola Vucevic and Evan Fournier had strong bounce-back years. Newcomer Jonathon Simmons had a career season shining with more playing time. D.J. Augustin had a strong bounce-back year too, taking over as the starting point guard after the trade deadline.

There were good things to point to. But ultimately the team’s collapse through November and December that eliminated the Magic from the Playoffs early on in the season will be the story to tell.

Regardless of all that — and regardless of the team winning four fewer games — the 2018 team was probably better than the 2017 team. That Magic team had a better offensive and defensive rating and seemed to rate better overall in most of the four factors.

Does that make this group better than the 2015 team that finished with 25 wins? This group probably is not as good as the 2016 team that seemed to put things together finally to get to 35 wins.

Orlando Magic

In reality, that is probably where this past year’s group lies. It is similar to that disappointing 25-win season that saw the team dismiss Jacque Vaughn and seem to stagnate a bit.

That team had Victor Oladipo and Tobias Harris trying to figure out how to work well together and struggling to do so. Nikola Vucevic was still coming into his own and Evan Fournier was experiencing real playing time for the first time. Gordon was a rookie derailed with an injury for much of the first half of the season.

The 2018 team lacked the scoring punch Harris and Oladipo could provide. But it also features a much more mature Vucevic and Fournier along with Gordon’s emerging stardom.

The 2015 team might be the better version of a 25-win team than the 2018 team. But the two are fairly comparable.

And so it is probably fair to put the 2018 Magic as the 23rd- or 24th-best team in Magic history. Likely they are the second or third best team in the current rebuild.

That is not saying much. Even the best team since Dwight Howard left is probably not better than No. 20 in Magic history.

We are talking about being one of the best teams during the worst stretch in Magic history. No one will talk wistfully about the 2018 season, that is for sure.

The hope remains the Magic are starting to build back in the right direction. And that better days are ahead.

Almost certainly, the 2018 season will remain one of the worst seasons in Magic history, although still far from the worst the franchise has seen.