Orlando Magic’s slow start is bringing into focus the team’s big questions for the future

The Orlando Magic are starting to emerge from a slow start to be the playoff team they can be. But that start is a harbinger for future problems.

The Orlando Magic are universally considered a playoff-caliber team now.

The team made the playoffs last year and then brought back virtually the entire rotation from last year. That simple rollover gave plenty of reason to believe this team could stay on the same course.

With Markelle Fultz and Al-Farouq Aminu joining the team’s rotation and Mohamed Bamba waiting in the wings for his chance, there were more than a few who saw this team challenging for home-court advantage. This was still a young roster with the potential to grow.

That is as much of the reason as any as to why the Magic decided to stick with what they had. After a seven-year absence from the playoffs, the franchise was not about to start over with a rebuild when they know they have a group that can be successful. They wanted to remain competitive.

So the checkbook was opened to keep Nikola Vucevic and Terrence Ross. The team decided to pick up Markelle Fultz’s option — really sight unseen with him on the floor — and roll back last year’s roster.

That was a team that had a lot of baggage behind it with years mired in a rebuild and that 42-win season and a seventh seed. It was young with Aaron Gordon and Jonathan Isaac as the most promising prospects. But there were legitimate questions of just how high the ceiling for this group was.

The fair criticism for the Magic in keeping the whole group together was to wonder if this team could really challenge for home-court advantage in the Eastern Conference or get out of the first round. The worst place to be, after all, is stuck in the treadmill of mediocrity.

The first 10 games brought a sobering reality. Progress is rarely a straight line and the team faced adversity from the beginning as every single player found it difficult to get a shot to go in.

That was never going to last. But the struggles the team faced there and dating back to the playoffs last year reveal big weaknesses for this team. They may be weaknesses the team can ignore or push aside in their goal of returning to the playoffs this year. But the future is abundantly clear.

This is what it means to be in the middle. The building part is not necessarily over, but the team is keenly aware that it has to find its way forward.

And, as John Hollinger of The Athletic put it, the Magic are squarely in the middle now — just look at how quickly the Magic recovered in the early standings with two wins in three games after a sluggish start. Now the question is how do they find their way forward and whether this is the group that can take them there.

You are only stuck in the hamster wheel of mediocrity when there is no way forward. The Magic have a way forward in fostering the development of Aaron Gordon (24), Jonathan Isaac (21), Markelle Fultz (21) and Mohamed Bamba (21).

But that is their future. And the team again will face some tension with its present.

Nikola Vucevic and Evan Fournier are the biggest presences in the offense still. And the offense is not particularly good. There is clearly improvement the team needs to make and those young players are not consistent enough to take over and still deliver the team its playoff promise.

The Magic have turned things around recently, but these early season struggles have revealed something everyone has suspected about this team. It is not surprising Orlando is not a great offensive team. It would always be a bit of a struggle to be really good offensively.

The team does not have the star player they can dump the ball to manufacture points. If everything the team wants to accomplish points to being able to do them in the playoffs, the team has some serious questions.

This need for precision and rhythm offensively played itself out in the first 10 games. When the team faced tough defenses and could not get the ball moving or fell into one-on-one play, the team failed. And failed miserably.

Coach Steve Clifford said during that difficult stretch the Magic struggled to play basketball. They could run the sets to get the ball in the hands of the guys they wanted, but they could not do much to make plays at that point. And, with the focus on playing at a faster pace, transition play has remained ragged.

The Magic have had difficulties manufacturing consistent offense — from open shots to transition points to execution in the half-court. Everything has to be precise and it is easy for the team to slip into the bad habits that muck up the entire project.

The margin for error for this team is still very small. And defense will understand in the playoffs exactly how to lock down the paint and bring out the Magic’s worst offensively.

To be sure, while the team knows it will have to fight to make the playoffs still, they have an eye on what will work and what will not work during the playoffs. Experience should lead to some better play for players who struggled when the team gets there. But the fundamental flaws still exist.

For now, Orlando is starting to come through to the other side. The team is recovering from the injuries that slowed development in training camp. Players are starting to regain their rhythm. The offense is starting to produce and the team’s defense is still a rock, perhaps even better than it was last year.

But the early-season struggles show there is a lot of work to do to get this team to the next level. Internal development can certainly foster some of that growth — Gordon could still take that leap as he finds his way in the new offense and Isaac has been the biggest surprise and impactor of the early season.

Orlando will eventually need to look outside of its roster to improve. It is no surprise the team is getting linked already in trade discussions. That will continue because the team understands its next step is to push in for this kind of a deal (probably not the one already rumored).

The Magic eventually want off the wheel of mediocrity. The team right now just wants to establish that it is there. That it can compete fully at that level. Then they will seek their way forward.

The first weeks of this season show that once the Magic get there, they may have undeniable weaknesses they cannot paper over when the chips are truly down. And that realization — perhaps realized already — will lead to the need for a change somewhere down the line.