Excuse me if things seem pretty dour on the site at times.
We run through our step-up series in the offseason to point out critical areas players need to improve and expand upon to help the team grow and develop next season. I personally tend to try to keep an even keel so when fans get too excited, I tend to try to pump the brakes and manage expectations.
Let this post be a message then that the excitement for this upcoming season and the promise it brings is very real. It is hard to tamp down the optimism for what the 2024 season can be at any rate.
Goodness knows the front office has tried by keeping the team’s goals pretty vague to “leveling up” once again. Of course, there is only one place the team can “level up” after last year — and that is to the postseason.
The front office may not be willing to admit it, but everyone associated with this Magic team is willing to say it. The expectations are for the team to make the postseason.
The Orlando Magic expect to make a step up to make the postseason this year. And everyone, including Jalen Suggs, is excited to see what happens this year.
Paolo Banchero certainly laid the gauntlet down when he accepted the Rookie of the Year Award and said the team was already talking about the postseason early in the offseason. That focus and that conversation certainly have not stopped.
If you think fans are excited about what this Magic team can be, then imagine how the players are feeling. As Jalen Suggs confirmed on a recent episode of The Sixth Man Show, the Magic are indeed just as excited as you or I might be for the 2024 season and what it means for the franchise:
"“I think every conversation I have with people about next season, I start to ramble and smile and nod. I just can’t wait,” Suggs said. “I know and the people who have been with me know what this summer has been like and the separation I have made from myself as a player these past few years and a person these past three years. It’s just growth everywhere. The squad, we’ve been talking all summer, we’ve been in the gym together all summer, hanging out off the court. I think everyone is just dialed in on taking that leap mindset-wise to the next level. It’s going to be a good one. The Orlando Magic next season are coming.”"
That is certainly something everyone associated with the Magic want to hear.
While there are a lot of Magic players preparing for the FIBA World Cup, a good chunk of them have been working out together in the Amway Center. Some even took the trip to Colorado with VP of Player Performance, Arnie Kander.
summer interlude pic.twitter.com/7ZQOKaHrJA
— Orlando Magic (@OrlandoMagic) August 7, 2023
But there is definitely some awareness to it too.
Suggs said that the entire team seems to be focused on getting off to a better start acknowledging that the team only missed out on the postseason because of its 5-20 start to the season. He welcomes the early West Coast road trip on the Magic’s schedule as a chance to test the team’s focus.
There was a lot to build off of to end last season. We like to throw out the 5-20 start because injuries clouded so much — including various ankle injuries and a concussion to Suggs — but the team still had a chance to weather that storm and keep themselves in the race. The team was always climbing uphill.
Suggs was probably climbing uphill more than most. The start-and-stop nature of his first two seasons due to injury has put him a bit behind the 8-ball.
Nobody questions his effort or his energy on the floor. He is one of the best perimeter defenders on the team and quietly around the league. Suggs is something of a chaos agent. He just disrupts everything.
But his jump shot has taken some time to come around. He shot only 21.4 percent from three in his rookie year. He bumped that up encouragingly to 32.7 percent. Suggs showed further signs of his shooting development, jumping to 36.0 percent in 19 games after the All-Star Break.
That is a small sample, but it was encouraging. And everyone is curious what a healthy offseason will do for him. By all accounts, including Suggs’, he has had the full offseason with no restrictions to work on his game.
He is among the many young players who will have a lot to prove for the Magic this season. And among the many players who could end up flipping this season into a truly special one for the Magic as a whole.
That is part of what makes this such an exciting season for the team in general. There is so much room for this team to grow. And even if it is not a full leap, that should help the team be more competitive and stay in contention for the postseason in a way they were not last year.
This is an exciting season for all of those reasons. Everyone just cannot wait for it to get started.