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5 Bold Predictions for the Orlando Magic’s 2020 Season

By Philip Rossman-Reich

The Orlando Magic enter the season eager to build off last year's playoff appearance. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
The Orlando Magic enter the season eager to build off last year's playoff appearance. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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Evan Fournier, Orlando Magic
The Orlando Magic are hungry to make their playoff appearance mean more with a second trip and a second round bid. (Photo by Gary Bassing/NBAE via Getty Images) /

The Orlando Magic enter the 2020 season with high expectations to make the playoffs and do a lot more. Where will they end up?

This time last year, there was cautious optimism for the Orlando Magic.

They left their roster largely intact from a disappointing 25-win season in 2018. The team installed a new head coach, but expectations were low that anything dramatically would change. The real expectation for the season was to begin establishing a base and beginning to move forward.

Coach Steve Clifford was hired to build that base and that foundation. He helped turn the Charlotte Hornets (then Bobcats) around in his first year and make the playoffs. This team did not have a Kemba Walker to drive the team. Nobody thought the team would turn around so quickly.

If anybody had predicted the Magic would make the playoffs last October, they might have been called crazy. It would have been easier to predict wholesale trades with Nikola Vucevic‘s free agency.

Even deep into January, it did not look like the Magic were going to make that turnaround. The team was not in a position to tank for a lottery pick, but it definitely felt like a time for transition.

What is always interesting about the NBA is how quickly things can change. The Magic went 22-9 to finish the season. They earned their way into the playoffs as one of the best teams after the All-Star Break.

Suddenly all the pieces fit together.

The playoffs became a humbling experience. The Orlando Magic were not expected to give the Toronto Raptors much of a series. Stealing Game 1 was a victory in itself. But the dream ended quickly as the eventual champions slowed the Magic down.

But things have changed now. Orlando enters the season confident and sure of what it can do and what it can accomplish. The narrative of the last few years hoping the team would take a leap have been replaced with the expectation the team continues to progress.

The playoffs are no longer a dream, but a baseline. And everything builds off that.

The team still has plenty of young talent to grow and develop. The team is expecting to make bigger noise in the playoffs this year. The team has real expectations and pressure.

It all starts with one step Wednesday against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the team’s season opener. From there, the team will be tested to make its breakthrough.