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Alex Martins: The goal for the Orlando Magic is to get better

By Philip Rossman-Reich

ORLANDO, FL - NOVEMBER 20: Nikola Vucevic #9 of the Orlando Magic shoots the ball against the Indiana Pacers on November 20, 2017 at Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images)
ORLANDO, FL - NOVEMBER 20: Nikola Vucevic #9 of the Orlando Magic shoots the ball against the Indiana Pacers on November 20, 2017 at Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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The Orlando Magic have a simplistic goal for the 2019 season — to get better. It is something that is hard to measure, but the team is not moving too fast.

The 2019 season is slowly coming into view as the calendar hurtles toward Sept. 24 and the beginning of training camp.

The Orlando Magic were pretty quiet throughout the summer, only adding Mohamed Bamba and Melvin Frazier in the draft and acquiring Jerian Grant and Timofey Mozgov via trade. All those players should make some impact this year, but few of them are game-changing players.

For a team that won 25 games, it is hard to expect a whole lot of things to be different entering this season.

True, a healthy Magic team should be a whole lot better. Orlando lost more than 200 games to injury to key players too — Aaron Gordon missed 24 games with various injuries, Nikola Vucevic and Evan Fournier each missed 25 games, Jonathan Isaac missed 55 games and Terrence Ross was out 58 games.

Having those players playing more than even 60 games would almost certainly shift a few wins Orlando’s way. But how many wins or how much the team might be better is still too uncertain to say.

The Magic are not likely a significantly better team. But they should be a better team. And at the moment, Orlando seems like it is in a stage of development where it is fine focusing on the future.

The expectations in Orlando are fairly low. The team is not talking about the Playoffs openly — aside from new coach Steve Clifford optimistically saying why can’t the Magic be the team that surprises everyone — and it seems they are focused on a slow development rather than rushing to get to the Playoffs.

Magic CEO Alex Martins was not putting the cart before the horse either when he met with the media Wednesday to discuss the Magic’s new entertainment complex. The expectations are to get better.

"“Our expectation should be that we are going to grow our players collectively,” Martins said. “We’re excited to see how these young players, in particular, have improved themselves over the course of the summer. I can tell you I look down on the practice floor every single day and the majority of our guys have been here all summer long working on improving their games. We’re excited to see how it all comes together.”"

“Getting better,” of course, is a subjective thing. But that has largely been the Magic’s goal for the last five or six years.

Things have run into trouble for the franchise when it seemed that progress has stopped — that is when the Magic fired Jacque Vaughn and then again as the team struggled through the 2017 season.

It seems Martins and the Magic want to take things slowly and are not going to push things faster than their team can develop. That would explain a lot of Orlando’s quiet offseason. The team did not have a lot of cap room to begin with and seemed hesitant to make any risky or major moves outside of re-signing Aaron Gordon to a four-year contract.

Orlando instead is banking on internal improvement to push the team forward.

That is what might be the most promising of what Martins said. So many players were around the Amway Center throughout the summer from Terrence Ross doing his rehab to Jonathon Simmons and Aaron Gordon dropping in for some workouts. Evan Fournier, Nikola Vucevic and Mohamed Bamba also had plenty of time in the Amway Center at various times in the offseason.

It is not quite clear just how much better any of those players might be from their offseason workouts. The Magic will have to wait to see that in training camp and the preseason before making any conclusions just how good this team will be.

But by all accounts, most of the Magic players have diligently put in their work to prepare for this season. It seems everyone is returning is looking for some measure of redemption after last year. This is not a team that is going to lie down and give up on the Playoffs before the season begins. Even if expectations are low.

The overall organizational goal though seems to be about the long term. The Magic are not going to rush the process or try to speed things up like they had before. And so their expectations for the immediate 2019 season seem to be low.

How they measure success then seems to be less about wins and losses and more about seeing a future for the team and seeing young players continue to improve. If the Magic exit the 2019 season with more wins and see their young players — especially Aaron Gordon, Jonathan Isaac and Mohamed Bamba — take steps forward to build a core for the future.

Next. 2019 Orlando Magic Player Outlook: Jonathon Simmons. dark

It is a simplistic goal for sure. One that is probably a bit of a low bar. But it is a necessary step for the team to begin building itself back.