Orlando Magic battling to make the toughest leap for a team

The Orlando Magic have proven they are good enough to make the playoffs. Now comes the toughest challenge — improving and going deeper.

The Orlando Magic did not end the season the way they wanted in 2016. The front office, perhaps previewing the turmoil that would come, had split apart some of the team and made a clear signal they were going for free agency to force the team forward, no longer satisfied with the team’s slow pace.

The team should not have missed the playoffs after starting the year 19-13. They were in position for homecourt advantage as they made a trip to London to face the Toronto Raptors. But things were not the same.

The whole organization — players and front office — felt they were close and felt that disappointment of falling short of the postseason and collapsing the way they did.

And overall, that was a sign of progress. The team understood it could be better and was disappointed with their results. They had the proof of that. They also seemed to believe they underachieved. And the Magic were determined not to repeat that season, searching for a clearer way forward.

Still, 35 wins was a strong sign the Magic were headed in a direction. Or so they thought.

Coach Scott Skiles addressed the media at exit interviews and did not seem ready to revel in the best record the team had in four years. The task for his team was far from complete.

Skiles is a no-nonsense coach. He always had his eye on the bigger prize.

That might also be what drove him to push players too hard. There was certainly some bristling to his approach on the roster and in the front office. The divides were clearly bubbling. But at the end of the season had not boiled over — ending with his sudden resignation right before the draft.

But Skiles’ words on that exit interview day still ring true.

Even though getting from 25 to 35 wins in the 2016 season felt monumental at the time, it was meaningless without taking the next leap. And Skiles said that would be the most difficult leap.

Going from 25 to 35 wins was easy, he said. It was going from 35 to 45 wins and then on to 50 wins that would prove hard.

The difference between the teams in the 30s and low 40s is not that much — a few close games turning here or there, perhaps — but to be a truly elite team or a consistent playoff team is a much bigger leap and a much more difficult ask for any team.

The 2016 team was never set up to make that leap. Management gutted a lot of the young players that made things work and made panicked trades to try to solidify the team’s base without a clear vision — from their new coach or from management — to make it work.

That was a key lesson. A lesson that even a 10-win improvement can be a sign of trouble. And it is only worth as much as that next step.

If a championship is a goal, the key is to find that next step and continue growing. That is hardly easy.

The current Magic group did not waver from the course they were on. And now they will face the most difficult leap teams in the NBA can make.

Last year Orlando went 42-40, making a 17-win turnaround from the 2018 season. The team got the playoff reward for that kind of jump. But like that 2016 team, now it is left wondering how it makes the jump from 42 to 50 wins and true contention.

The Magic brought back the entirely same roster as they had last year — adding only Al-Farouq Aminu to the rotation. The team is hoping that continuity will create a similar result to last year. Not just a similar result but a team taking a step forward.

There are legitimate questions about whether this team will do that. But there are even more questions about whether the team can take that step forward with the same roster.

Those questions have been asked ad nauseum through this part of the offseason. A lot of it depends on whether Jonathan Isaac and Aaron Gordon can take another step forward in their games. Then it turns to what the Magic can get from Markelle Fultz and Mohamed Bamba after rough starts to their careers.

And, yes, it still depends on the team getting the same level of play from Nikola Vucevic and Terrence Ross as they did during their career seasons in 2019. There are still a lot of questions for the Magic to answer.

But there are always those questions for a team trying to level up.

The Milwaukee Bucks made the playoffs for the first time with Giannis Antetokounmpo in 2015 and then took a step back, missing the playoffs in 2016 before returning as a mid-40s win team. They were the seventh seed in 2018 before Antetkounmpo took a leap as a player and the whole team jumped up suddenly to the best record in the league.

The Denver Nuggets faced a lot of these questions too, finishing ninth in the Western Conference for two straight seasons before making their own leap into the upper stratosphere of their conference.

Orlando Magic

Teams can make progress suddenly and reach those upper stratospheres. But it comes with its share of struggle and its requirement management be smart with who it believes in.

Teams do not always progress. There is always plenty of risk and not every team makes that next step from 40 to 50 wins. The path forward is not easy.

The Detroit Pistons were poised to make that next step with Andre Drummond and Tobias Harris after a close four-game series against the Cleveland Cavaliers. But that never came and the team moved on to acquire Blake Griffin. Their path forward is still fairly uncertain.

That leap is not easy to make. And fans who are concerned about getting stuck in the “treadmill of mediocrity” are right to be concerned about that. This is the risk of moves going wrong. And it can be tough to dig themselves out of it.

Even in Magic history, the team got stuck in the middle unable to grow as Tracy McGrady carried the team.

This seems to be the theme then is that players continue to grow and get better. When that happens — especially if a player takes a significant leap into stardom — the team takes the leap with them. So long as the team seemingly has that path forward, it is on the right track.

The team just has to go out and do it. Ultimately it is action and not conjecture that gets teams over the hump.

This is perhaps the growth that seems the most difficult to forecast for this year’s Magic team. Who is set to make that big leap that could propel the team from the fringes of the playoffs to that next level?

Maybe what the Magic are hoping happens is they can prove they have a stronger supporting cast to absorb a star in a trade the following summer to help the team make that leap.

It still feels like Orlando’s goal this coming season is to solidify their foundation and start to see what seeds sprout from those roots.

Where exactly that will take them is uncertain. Because the growth they are trying to make now is arguably the toughest leap a team has to make.

Orlando has its toughest challenge ahead of it. One that will either see the team succeed or raise more questions about the team’s future.