The Orlando Magic made the Playoffs as a 7-seed last year. Looking at recent history, it is easy to draw lessons on how they must grow next.
The progression to a contending team is supposed to be a straight line.
You spend a few years building up talent in the draft, supplementing it with free agents and other young players. You show steady improvement year over year until you make that breakthrough and get playoff experience.
Then you use that playoff experience to launch into the stratosphere.
The Orlando Magic’s title-contending teams have all followed a somewhat similar route.
The Magic drafted Shaquille O’Neal in 1992 and immediately became a .500 team. They lucked into the top overall pick in 1993, using it to acquire Anfernee Hardaway, and made the playoffs as a 4-seed in 1994, taking a humbling first-round loss in their first playoff series.
A year later, they were the top team in the Eastern Conference and contending for titles.
The 2009 Magic followed a similar build-up.
The Magic drafted Dwight Howard in 2004. They had a team of veterans that stayed competitive for two years. Then in year three, the team broke the mold and made the playoffs as an 8-seed, getting swept in the first round.
The next year, with a new coach in tow in Stan Van Gundy, the team won its first division title and won a playoff series for the first time in 12 years. The following year they were in the Finals.
There is clearly a progression for most teams. They start as a lower seed to get some playoff seasoning and then they rise to the top. Sometimes it is sudden, sometimes it takes some time. But there are clearly lessons to learn on the way up.
There is another trend that emerges from Magic history alone. There is some shock — whether it is the internal development of a superstar player or a coaching change — that pushes the team to a new level.
Progress and continued improvement are far from inevitable.
Other teams show this too. The bottom of the playoff standings can be a stepping stone or a ceiling.
Tracy McGrady‘s first playoff team in 2001 earned the seventh seed. The next year they were the fifth seed and then they fell back to eighth — their record was about the same hovering around .500.
Making the playoffs is the first step. Losing in the playoffs is a learning lesson.
Orlando going 42-40 last year and getting into the playoffs was the first step. Everyone recognizes it as such. The team wants to do more.
That part is not easy. As the record of seventh seeds in the Eastern Conference shows, a path up is far from inevitable. History can teach where the 2020 Magic can grow like them or fall apart like other teams.