The 5 biggest threats to the 2025 Orlando Magic in the Southeast Division
The Orlando Magic have an air of confidence about them this preseason.
This is not the same young team experiencing winning for the first time. They know how to walk the walk of the playoffs. And while they have not done it over multiple years, they have the confidence they are going to the playoffs for years to come.
More than that, this young team likely believes they will be hanging more banners. They hung one over the summer with a new Southeast Division banner hanging with the others at the AdventHealth Training Center.
Hopefully, they will win so much that each year does not need an individual banner in the AdventHealth Training Center because they need room for other banners.
The 2024 Southeast Division championship banner may not be the one they ultimately want. But even Paolo Banchero had to acknowledge it was good seeing that representation of their accomplishments hanging in the practice facility.
The Magic have bigger ambitions than winning another division title, but winning a second straight division title—something the team has not done since the 2009 and 2010 seasons—is definitely part of the journey this team wants to be on.
The Southeast Division might be considered the weakest division in the NBA. It has a pair of teams not expected to compete for the Playoffs and two veteran teams trying to reconfigure themselves. And the Magic themselves are not yet established as a perennial playoff team even if that is where they are headed.
The Magic play only 16 games against teams within their division. But unlike the other teams, they know they will get at least four games against the four other teams in the Southeast. And the Magic should not sleep on their potential to cause chaos.
The Magic are the clear favorites to win the Southeast Division again. But they have plenty to watch out for as they try navigating their way back to the top.
5. Brandon Miller, Charlotte Hornets
Orlando Magic fans know all too well the danger that Brandon Miller presents. And with how much attention was placed on Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama, Brandon Miller got lost in the shuffle among the top rookies last year.
Make no mistake about it, Miller looked like he was a player and a future All-Star as he began to figure things out last year. Again, the Magic know that all too well.
In one of the most gut-wrenching and frustrating losses from last year, Miller scored 32 points on 5-for-6 3-point shooting in the Hornets' stunning April win over the Magic. That was a loss that set the table for a frantic final week of the season for Orlando.
That game was not isolated last year. Miller averaged 18.5 points per game and shot 35.5 percent from three after the All-Star Break as his workload started to grow.
Against the Magic last year, Miller averaged 22.8 points per game, also putting in games of 21, 18 and 20 points. Most of those happened early in the season as he got his footing in the league.
Everyone is now expecting big things from Miller in his second season. And the Hornets are a quiet team to keep an eye on in the Eastern Conference. They can play better than their record (for reasons that will be come clear in a later slide).
Miller is one of the big wild cards in the league. And he has future All-Star written all over him.
With the way the Southeast is developing, the future battle might be between the Magic and the Hornets if they are not careful. Miller is a big piece of the future in the Eastern Conference.