The Orlando Magic entered the 2025-26 season with high expectations.
They knew entering 2025 they were close to something special with Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner as their anchor players. Injuries derailed their 2025 season, but they felt confident enough to push the chips in.
The acquisition of Desmond Bane completely changed the team's outlook, setting them on a path to winning a championship -- and all the apron restrictions attendant with going for that goal. Orlando came into the season believing in big dreams.
The season itself has had its ups and downs. Integrating Bane into the offense has been a bigger challenge than anticipated, even if he has helped elevate the team. Orlando changed elements of its offense and has made progress, but has lost some of its defensive toughness.
And, of course, injuries to key starters has been the story even if they are not long-term injuries like the Magic faced last year.
Orlando enters 2026 with a 19-15 record, fifth in the Eastern Conference. The team is still two games behind the third-place Boston Celtics and a half-game behind the fourth-place Toronto Raptors.
The Magic reached the NBA Cup semifinals, proving they have enough to compete against the best teams in the Eastern Conference, but still giving them something to reach for the rest of the season.
2026 figures to be a big one for Orlando. The team is still fighting to meet its expectations. There is still a lot of growth to go. There are things for this team to strive for.
It is cliche to think about how 2026 will be different. And the NBA calendar runs summer-to-summer, so a team's goals get reset mid-year. But there is still a lot the Magic want to do.
Like we all do, it is time to set some resolutions for the Magic to achieve.
1. Get healthy
For the last two seasons, health has been the big story for the Orlando Magic.
Last season, Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner got hurt early in the season and did not return until January. It took both players some time to get back up and running. It affected the Magic's seeding to see both of them have to work their way back.
It has already affected the team's seeding this year, as the Magic are fighting to rise above the pack of teams in the middle of the Eastern Conference playoff race.
What the Magic seem at least moderately sure of is that when they are healthy, they can be among the best teams in the league.
Orlando's starting lineup of Jalen Suggs, Desmond Bane, Franz Wagner, Paolo Banchero and Wendell Carter has a net rating of +18.0 points per 100 possessions (122.6 offensive rating/104.6 defensive rating) in 117 minutes and 11 games.
The Magic simply have not seen their best lineups enough to draw any conclusions, except the potential they could be so good.
It is easy to lean on health as an excuse for everything that troubles the Magic this season. Orlando would like to get rid of that excuse.
2. Grow the team's maturity and leadership
With all the expectations and two years of Playoff series under their belt, it is hard to believe the Orlando Magic still have the third-youngest team in the league, still. Tyus Jones is the only player older than 30 on the roster.
That has been one of the team's biggest strengths. They seem to have boundless energy. That is part of the team's identity.
But that can work against them. They can be get a little too excited and play too fast. They can be out of control. In big moments, they can let the emotions of the game get to them.
They need some calm and maturity. That was even something the team noted after its win over the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday. The Magic let frustration with the officials lead to three technical fouls in a close game.
Orlando still loses its cool.
The Magic do not need to lose their try-hard personality or change who they are. But this team is beginning to learn how to win more seriously.
They need their best players to be a calming voice and presence. They need consistency in action and speech from Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner especially. That is something both players have acknowledged they need to improve in.
Orlando will go as Banchero and Wagner go, both on and off the court.
3. Maintain offensive growth
Entering the season, the Orlando Magic knew they needed to improve their offense. They could not be at the bottom of the league in offensive rating yet again.
The Magic hired Joe Prunty to help rebuild the offense and generate some new ideas. They aimed to improve their pace and get out and run more, to take advantage of their strong defense.
That has largely worked.
The Magic start the new year ranked 17th in offensive rating at 114.5 points per 100 possessions. The team was flirting with a top-10 offense before facing a major downturn in the last two or three weeks, which gutted the team's offense.
Still, being near the league average -- and the team's offense should improve when they get healthy -- is a huge boost to the team. If the Magic's defense can get itself back to an elite level, they should have plenty of scoring.
There is still a lot more to do. That is what the Magic are missing to reach title contention.
Orlando is ranked 26th in the league with 0.968 points per possession in half-court offense, according to Synergy Sports. The Magic still have not fully improved. This is not a fully humming machine.
Getting Franz Wagner and Moe Wagner back from injury should boost the offense. The Magic hope that Paolo Banchero is slowly regaining his form after his groin injury and early season shooting struggles.
But the Magic need to keep focusing and improving on offense. It is the key to unlocking the team's latent offense.
4. Create a championship mindset everywhere
The Orlando Magic have not hidden from their championship aspirations. They have all said it out loud. And that is what makes this period feel so different. Orlando is not quiet about what they want to accomplish, and it feels real.
They put their money where their mouth is with the trade for Desmond Bane. They even did it in their willingness to give a Rose Rule max to Paolo Banchero a summer after giving a controversial max to Franz Wagner.
The team has committed a lot to continuity and believing that their young roster will naturally improve and get better. That is a rebuilding mindset. The team could have some patience to wait.
Now that the team is flirting with the first apron and will be above the first apron at least in 2027, the team needs to be aggressive.
There is no patience. Now is the time to strike.
The Magic must maintain a championship mindset throughout the organization.
That starts with the players and the work they put in during the summer to keep improving. Internal improvement is still a big piece of it.
But it also means president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman needs to be active at the deadline. They need to keep looking for ways to improve the team -- even if the goal is to avoid the tax.
The Magic need to be real about their playoff performance too. If they do not reach their goal sin the postseason or it is clear they are missing something that is not on the roster, they must be aggressive to correct it.
The Magic are a championship-level team. They will need to act on it.
5. Enjoy the journey, nevertheless
This is just good life advice as much as anything.
It is easy to obsess over the destination. It is easy to be so into the day-to-day game and occurrences and project out to the bigger project and worry about where we are going. Panicking over every little thing is easy to do in a world that features so much instant gratification.
But it is important to step back and take a look at the big picture. Orlando can weather daily ups and downs so long as the team is closer to the ultimate goal at the end of the season.
That is something coach Jamahl Mosley has been so good at throughout this rebuild. He has always worked to have the team ready for the end destination, even if it meant hiccups in the process.
That still seems to be the case as he takes a lot of the criticism from championship-hungry fans. Mosley has faced a lot of heat.
But Mosley's teams have always played better later in the season. He has outperformed his full-season win percentage after the All-Star Break. The Magic's best basketball is yet to come.
Even then, winning a championship is a multi-year journey. It takes failure and the questions that come with it to overcome and win a title. It is important to remember that the journey is part of the destination and to embrace every moment of it.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, Magic fans!