The NBA is starting to shut down for a little while (or relatively shut down).
Summer League is over and the league is going to find some quiet for the next month before training camps begin in late September. That is usually when things get quiet. It is the NBA though, anything can still happen.
There is still one more piece of business to take care of. And the NBA is doing a slow release of that business.
The league announced its opening week and Christmas Day national television schedule as the league’s 2022 and 75th anniversary season gets set to begin. The rest of the schedule will get released Friday at 3 p.m.
The NBA schedule is set to come out Friday. While the Orlando Magic will not have many games on national TV, if any at all, we have a few suggestions for games the national broadcasters could grab.
Pretty soon, then, Orlando will have its road map for the 2022 season laid out. And that will make the 2022 season feel all the more real, especially with the roster and excitement for the new pieces on it almost completely set.
The schedule itself is never particularly interesting.
We know there will be 82 games — 30 against Western Conference opponents, 16 against Southeast Division opponents and another 36 against the rest of the Eastern Conference. The bigger mystery and the trick of it all will be in where the road trips come in and how difficult the start and finish might be.
The one thing that no one should expect for the Magic is any national TV appearances. Having the fifth pick in the draft, even selecting someone as high profile as Jalen Suggs, is not going to be enough to get the team a national TV game. Neither is the fact the Magic are predicted to have one of the worst records in the Eastern Conference.
Orlando is not going to be on national TV at all when the schedule comes out. The team will probably get a few token NBATV appearances. The Magic will toil in anonymity and hopefully slowly gain everyone’s respect.
Thankfully, Orlando will have all of its games on Bally Sports Florida.
That is just how this team is built. The Magic are super young and that is going to lead to inconsistency. On top of this, they will be slowly integrating Jonathan Isaac and Markelle Fultz back from major injuries.
Everyone is assuming the Magic are going to be more focused on player development and there will be a little less focus on winning as a primary goal (although still important).
That does not make for good matchups on national TV. The Magic are not exactly a team to feature at the moment.
Still, there will be a few games that have the storyline push that should get at least some cursory look for national TV — or at least on NBATV.
The only thing we seemingly can count on is the Orlando Magic will open the season against the Miami Heat — they have opened at the Amway Center against Miami in four of the past five seasons. Magic fans would relish the meeting with Kyle Lowry.
Before the schedule comes out, here are our five best national TV candidates.
5 Orlando Magic games for national TV
Magic at 76ers
It is hard to believe with all the animosity Philadelphia fans seem to still harbor toward Markelle Fultz he has yet to play at Philadelphia against the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Magic were set to play at Philadelphia at the end of the 2020 season and it was even going to be on NBATV on a Sunday early evening. Then the pandemic pushed that game to the bubble and Fultz escaped Philadelphia. The Magic did not play at the 76ers until the last two games of last season and Fultz was already out with an injury.
Nobody is ducking anybody. The schedule just has not lined up for Fultz.
The Sixer Sense
Fultz has moved on but Philadelphia fans do not forget. And they are also a bit delusional about what happened. Things did not work out and Fultz faced a real injury.
The Magic were happy to pick up the pieces and sign Fultz to a three-year extension. He has averaged 12.2 points per game and 5.2 assists per game on a 47.9-percent effective field goal percentage in 80 games with the Magic.
In four games against the 76ers with the Magic, Fultz is averaging 10.8 points and 4.0 assists per game with a 42.3-percent effective field goal percentage. But remember one of those games he came off the bench in the bubble and the other was a blowout loss at the beginning of the 2021 season in Orlando.
Fultz is a far different player. And he will be spending his time working his way back from the torn ACL from last year. Nobody quite knows what Fultz will be.
But everyone has long had that first game back in Philadelphia circled on their calendar. Fultz surely has and wants to show up both for his team and for himself.
The hope has to be that this return happens in the middle of the season so Fultz can be closer to full force when he steps onto the Wells Fargo Center floor.
There may not be any game that is more hotly anticipated and have more natural national interest than this one. If the national audience and Philadelphia fans still care about Fultz.
5 Orlando Magic games for national TV
Magic at Raptors
Jalen Suggs reportedly was not thrilled about getting picked fifth — although he was thrilled to join the Orlando Magic. He reportedly has the mindset of making the four teams that passed over him pay for the oversight.
The reality is everyone expected Suggs to go within the top four. So when the Toronto Raptors passed on him to take Scottie Barnes, there was a legitimate shock. And, of course, a legitimate wave of excitement inside the Amway Center and among Magic fans. They are very happy with the result, to say the least.
Orlando Magic
Like so many other rookies, everyone will be curious about the what-ifs of these things. Every Magic fan was prepared to have Scottie Barnes on the team. Just as many Raptors fans were probably prepared to welcome Suggs to their roster.
These two players probably will not be inextricably linked like the opening week battle between Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks and Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks. Those two players traded directly to each other has created a natural comparison — with Young fans taking the upper hand thanks to Atlanta’s run to the Eastern Conference Finals.
But Suggs and Barnes will at least start off as competitors. Raptors fans especially will be watching Suggs and hoping that he does not shine too brightly to make their selection of Barnes look silly.
Summer League is a place to start. Suggs averaged 15.3 points per game and 6.3 rebounds per game with a 47.6-percent effective field goal percentage in three games. Barnes averaged 15.5 points per game and 6.8 rebounds per game with a 44.1-percent effective field goal percentage in four games.
Let’s call that a draw for now.
Again, Orlando is pretty happy with how things turned out. And Suggs will have plenty to prove when he makes his first trip to Toronto. That is if he indeed wants to make sure the teams that passed on him regret doing so.
5 Orlando Magic games for national TV
Magic at Blazers
First off, Jalen Suggs is from Minnesota. He was Mr. Football and Mr. Basketball in Minnesota in high school before heading to Gonzaga. That should create some interest in Suggs’ first game at Target Center against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
They just are not the kind of marquee opponent that is getting on national TV — although Anthony Edwards’ emergence last year along with young stars in Karl-Anthony Townes and D’Angelo Russell might well change that sooner than later.
It is far more likely Suggs’ return to the place where he played college will get a national television nod. Indeed, the broadcasters are often desperate to get West Coast teams to fill that 10:30 p.m. slot so teams like the Portland Trail Blazers always get more national television appearances than their standing in the league might otherwise get them.
If I were to pick any game to get a mid-January TNT nod or a random ESPN Friday nod, it would be the Magic’s trip to Portland.
That is as close as Suggs will get to Spokane, Wash., home of Gonzaga. A mere 353 miles and a five-hour drive away.
It is moments like these you wish that Seattle still had a NBA team because Suggs would have an Indiana-style cheering section for his homecoming.
The idea though of seeing Suggs close to his spiritual or collegiate home going up against Damian Lillard is exciting. That would be a stellar matchup. And it will be a stellar matchup for years to come (hopefully).
Not to mention, the Magic hired several former Blazers’ assistant coaches including Dale Osbourne.
The Magic’s best bet for a national TV game are these trips to the West Coast. And so the Magic have the best mini-storyline with the Blazers for now.
5 Orlando Magic games for national TV
Magic vs. Rockets
The NBA is celebrating its 75th anniversary this season. There are going to be a number of things the league is reportedly planning to celebrate.
We have already seen the 75th-anniversary logo released. The league has also begun releasing some classic jerseys for some of its iconic longtime franchises.
Houston Rockets
There are a few rumors around the league that teams may all get some 75th-anniversary jerseys calling back to their classic designs (that will surely get Magic fans excited).
There are also some rumors the schedule may reflect some celebration of the 75th anniversary too. That there may be a week or a selection of games that will specifically celebrate the league’s history.
The Orlando Magic are a relatively new franchise at just 33 years old. They have some history in their Finals appearance sin 1995 and 2009 and the rise of Hall of Famers Shaquille O’Neal and Tracy McGrady along with future Hall of Famer Dwight Howard. Magic history is part of the NBA history.
If the league is planning an anniversary week, then the Orlando Magic should get a pairing with the Houston Rockets in a rematch of the 1995 Finals and the regrettably iconic Game 1 of that series in Orlando.
Not only that though, but this would also be an intriguing showcase of two of the more interesting young teams in the league.
Obviously second overall pick Jalen Green against fifth overall pick Jalen Suggs is the big headline of the game to sell to the advertisers. But an interesting matchup between young bigs Christian Wood and Jonathan Isaac would also be present. These are two teams that hope to be part of the Finals and deep playoff runs years down the road.
That is a long time in the future. But this feels like the best classic matchup the league could come up for the Magic. Even if it is not one that gets the big lights of a national TV audience.
5 Orlando Magic games for national TV
Magic vs. Bulls
The Orlando Magic made three transformative trades at the trade deadline last March. Orlando faced all three of those former players last year, but only Evan Fournier returned to the Amway Center before the season ended.
So the returns of both Aaron Gordon and Nikola Vucevic will be dates Magic fans have circled on their calendars — maybe for different reasons considering Gordon’s comments since arriving in Denver as well-meaning as they might have been.
The return of two-time All-Star Nikola Vucevic will be an emotional one for everyone involved. Vucevic spent nine seasons with the Magic, one of the longest-tenured players in franchise history, averaging 17.6 points per game and 10.8 rebounds per game.
Vucevic is one of the best players in franchise history. There is no debating this, even if he does not have the team record that should put him in the pantheon.
His first return to the Amway Center should come with its own tribute video and recognition from the crowd.
The team Vucevic is bringing with him is certainly one that is creating some intrigue. This is not the same team the Magic shocked in Chicago for one of the best wins of their 2021 season.
The Bulls have another All-Star in Zach LaVine and they added DeMar DeRozan and Lonzo Ball this offseason. Chicago is all in to return to the playoffs this year.
Orlando is still very invested in Chicago’s future — and Chicago doing poorly. The Bulls still have to send the Magic their pick in 2023. And so Chicago is hoping to do enough to keep LaVine past this season when he becomes a free agent.
The clock is ticking for the Bulls.
This might not carry much national intrigue. But this will be a big day for the Magic on several levels when Vucevic returns to the Amway Center.