The FIBA World Cup is now in the rearview mirror. That puts the start of training camp and the NBA regular season clearly on the horizon.
The Orlando Magic will open their training camp with Media Day on Oct. 2 and the first practice on Oct. 3. That is a mere three weeks away.
The anticipation for this year’s season is palpable. The Magic finished last season strong and showed real hints that they can win consistently. Paolo Banchero set the players’ expectations pretty clearly when he accepted the Rookie of the Year Award: It’s playoffs or bust.
Management probably will not go that far. But “leveling up” one more time does lead to only one conclusion and place for this team to reach.
Thus the anticipation for what this team can accomplish and its potential to grow even further is only expanding as we get closer to training camp.
It will be a battle for the Magic to achieve their goal. They are not a shoo-in to reach the postseason just because they seemed to be on an upward trajectory last season.
Training camp is less than a month away for the Orlando Magic. Their schedule breaks down into several key stretches that could determine the year’s outcome.
Everything is going to have to come together right for this team to reach its potential and meet its objectives and expectations.
That is why the schedule is still pretty important. The Magic will be the first to tell you that they believe the only thing that kept them from reaching the postseason last year was their 5-20 start. That might have happened because of injuries at the guard spot as much as anything. But the team cannot afford to put themselves in that deep of a hole again.
The Magic will have to do a good job navigating the schedule this year to put themselves in a position to make the postseason. Especially considering how difficult the start of the schedule will be.
As we turn our attention toward training camp now, the best way to digest the journey ahead is to break the season into segements and find the most important stretches this season.