Orlando Magic Daily Mailbag Volume 37: The gift under the tree
Merry Christmas from Orlando Magic Daily! We are giving you presents by opening up our mailbag and answering your questions about the Orlando Magic.
Merry Christmas, Orlando Magic fans!
Well, at the very least happy relief.
When the schedule came out this offseason, everyone figured Christmas would be in the midst of a difficult part of the schedule. Everyone hoped and figured the team’s continuity would enable them to get out to a hot start and build a cushion for this point of the season.
Instead, the Magic have given their fans something of a lump of coal. The team faced injuries early in the season and some uncharacteristic shooting slumps. The defense has fallen off to frustrating levels. The Magic are very much seeking their identity again.
Instead of flirting with home-court advantage and making the playoffs comfortably, the Magic find themselves as the lead dog in a pack of teams racing to the bottom for the final spot in the playoffs.
That is not ideal. And not anywhere the Magic want to be.
As the Magic hit the Christmas break, they are licking their wounds a bit. They are vastly underperforming expectations.
But the season is not lost. Far from it.
The main goal for the Magic this season was to make the playoffs again. The season is certainly a failure if they do not reach that admittedly low bar with the amount of money invested to keep last year’s team together.
After that, the goal is to continue developing young players and try to make a little more noise in the playoffs. The team will likely discover its ceiling and limitations in the process.
The Magic likely already are discovering some of those limitations already. There are big questions hovering over the team already as the team continues to underperform and hover in the pole position for the playoff race. It is easy to see these questions taking up all the oxygen in the room.
But it is also important to recognize the Magic still can achieve all their goals.
Both Jonathan Isaac and Markelle Fultz have looked better than expected as they continue to grow their games — and there is a lot of growth to go for both of them. And the Magic are still holding on in the playoff race. With a favorable late-season schedule, the Magic should feel some comfort.
Of course, they have to put in the work to get there. They have to right the ship defensively and find better flow offensively. They have to make everything work and recapture that spark from last year’s playoff run.
It feels like a cold Christmas while the Magic work to figure all of this out.
But do not worry, I have a gift for you. Some answers — or at least things to watch for — as we ponder some of these questions.
It is time to go into my Santa’s sack of mailbag questions and answer your Orlando Magic questions this holiday season.