Each new NBA season brings with it potential.
It does not matter what the preseason prognosticators say or what anyone else believes, there is always a level of excitement that comes with the start of a new year. That 0-0 record always brings the potential for anything.
There are of course more realistic outcomes and teams are real with themselves. But there is also no doubt that they all believe they can accomplish even the loftiest of goals.
The freshness of new opportunities always helps energize a team.
Outside of the team, other things certainly can do that. Like winning the No. 1 overall pick. Sprinkle in a few encouraging preseason games (especially at the Amway Center), and suddenly there is a lot more that seems to be building and working.
The Orlando Magic are preparing to start a new season and it is one with seemingly endless possibilities and a lot of excitement stored up.
The excitement for Wednesday’s season opener against the Detroit Pistons — and perhaps the curiosity ahead of Saturday’s home opener against the Boston Celtics — is palpable. It can be felt in the new Advent Health Training Center as much as it can be felt around town.
"“Honestly, you feel the excitement from everywhere,” coach Jamahl Mosley said after practice Tuesday. “You walk around the city, you see the people who are really excited about what we’re doing and how we’re growing this team the right way. There are nerves to it which you expect it to be. But you want that. You want them to compete and play with a level of joy and passion and that’s part of the joy and excitement.”"
It is hard not to feel and see this excitement from all corners.
Whether it is the confidence and determination from the team itself or fans buzzing about the future and possibilities that might occur to national media ready to predict the young Magic team as a League Pass darling.
This is not business as usual (at least for the last decade) in Orlando. One way or another, it feels like something is brewing.
The question though is just how that all comes together.
That is as much part of the curiosity of the opener and the first weeks of the season. Everyone can talk about an optimistic and big game before all the games start to count, now the team lines up on the court and sees what actually will work.
This is a time of the year to believe in the best version of this team and what it can do. And that should include at least the thought of the Play-In Tournament. That is something a few Magic players would talk about directly even if the powers that be are only willing to speak of the team’s goals in generalities.
The most specific goal came from Markelle Fultz’s somewhat cryptic “4 seed” tweet in August. But there is a bit of that why not us attitude. And why not?
"“We have a confident group,” Gary Harris said at Media Day. “We know the talent we have in here. It’s not going to be easy by any means. But if we come in and do the stuff we’re supposed to do on a daily basis, we don’t cut corners, we hold each other accountable, we push each other and we get better each and every day, we can look up at the end of the season and that can be a very realistic chance. Nothing is going to be given to us. Nobody is going to say they expect us to be that so we have to go out there and take it.”"
It would indeed be a tall task to make Fultz a prophet for the season, especially in an Eastern Conference that has so drastically improved, especially at the top. But Harris was at least willing to say that the playoffs are a realistic goal for this team.
But the question should turn to what this team can actually accomplish and where it can actually finish. That is where there is a wide range of expectations and potential outcomes.
The team could suddenly burst with its young talent coalescing into a potential Play-In Team or more. As Harris noted on Media Day, teams grow up and develop very quickly. The Denver Nuggets teams he was a part of suddenly turned into contenders seemingly overnight after a few years in the playoffs.
Remember, the Cleveland Cavaliers were expected to languish at the bottom of the standings before last season before one of their young players turned into a superstar, a player discarded in a trade emerged as a defensive force and a rookie put them over the top as an elite defensive year.
Things happen and teams can suddenly spark into contention quickly.
That seems like the far-upper bounds of what is possible. But the Magic have the talent to be competitive in that way. If everything clicks just so, there is a path to the Play-in Tournament.
Going from 25 wins to 35 wins is not that big of a gap. It takes flipping some close games and stringing together wins at the right time. A little bit of confidence can go a long way. As can belief. And this team seems to be full of it.
But just as the team can come together behind belief in each other and their way, it can be broken just as easily.
The going prediction for the Magic is they will make some modest gains but remain near the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
A rash of injuries at the wrong time or to the wrong player could send the team spiraling in a way that the team cannot recover — both from inexperience and from a lack of talent. The team is already facing key injuries with Markelle Fultz and Gary Harris missing training camp and the start of the season — Jonathan Isaac feels like a bonus at this point after two years away.
This team is very young. There is a lot they have to learn. And while there is an emphasis on reducing and not repeating mistakes throughout training camp, there is still the feeling the team will still make its share of mistakes.
This is the reality of the season. The Magic are on the edge between being ready to compete and still thinking about ping-pong balls toward the end of the season.
That kind of wide range is part of what is exciting about this season. Just about anything can happen.
Likely the final result will be somewhere in the middle. The team is capable of taking some significant steps forward. Or maybe some baby steps forward.
Progress is still progress.
This team though is capable of all of it. All the good and the bad. The potential for growth and excitement for the future. All the struggles and difficulties that come with being so young.
That journey begins now. And that part is the most exciting.