There is not a lot new inside the AdventHealth Training Center as the Orlando Magic gathered for the first time as a full team for media day on Monday.
The jerseys are now in their second year. Nikola Vucevic is the only adition made to the main roster. Everyone else if familiar and those bonds and togetherness carry over from previous years.
There is a foundation for the Magic to build with.
But things are undoubtedly different. As Desmond Bane put it, everything is different about this season. It was easy to tell from media day last year to media day this year. The Magic have a lot of new things swirling around them.
"Even media day feels a little different," Bane said at media day. "Last year we were riding in on a high. Just made a trade and we are envisioning everyone being healthy and what this team can be. This year is more steady, even-keeled, day-to-day. Our work will speak for itself, which is where I think we need to live. You focus on the day-to-day, the results will come."
The Magic got a dose of reality last season. The good vibes that had the Magic projected to be among the Eastern Conerence contenders quickly collapsed. The team struggled to find its footing all season long.
Was it youthful exuberance and a team that had never dealt with such lofty expectations and the tools to achieve it? It did feel like the Magic believed that the process would be easy.
Was it a deeply flawed team struggling to overcome its shortcomings? Was it simply injuries?
Whatever it was, even with the same roster, this season required a different approach. And the Magic knew that.
The front office changed coaches, hiring Sean Sweeney to lead the tactical changes and bring a more serious, detail-minded approach. But most importantly, the players bring a new approach to the season.
The roster might not be different, but the team is determined to make the outcome different this season. That requires change.
A new coach, a new way
The big change for the Orlando Magic was changing coaches.
The addition of Sean Sweeney is a major move for the Magic. While the roster has not changed much, Sean Sweeney is a different coach from Jamahl Mosley. He brings a new approach to the team. One the players are eager to tackle and work with.
That does mean starting over, to some degree. This is not the same Magic team as before. Their process will be different.
"For us, we want to do a great job teaching, first and foremost, and establishing the standards that we have," Sweeney said at Media Day. "Not just the standards. We want the behaviors and actions that accompany what high standards look like. We want to see who we are in what we do -- how we talk to each other, the way we go about things."
Everyone expects Sweeney to restore the team's defensive identity. That will be vital. Offensively, he is expecting a connected, faster-paced team.
But the big impression from Sweeney is the more direct and focused way he approaches things. Tristan da Silva said he sat down with everyone in the last week to discuss specific roles. And while those are not set in stone, the Magic enter the season with a clearer idea of what everyone is expected to do.
The rest will come down to teaching, implementation and execution.
"I think our organization will be better in terms of our team and how we go out there and play every night," Paolo Banchero said at media day. "I think guys will be set in their roles. I think we will be a lot more intent out there on both sides of the ball and a lot more together. It's the same team, but I think things will be different."
The Magic were fully capable last year. But they were inconsistent with the energy they played with.
Sweeney is bringing with him the focus and intensity to get that right. Or at least, that is what he and the Magic hope. That is a major change. One that nobody quite knows how it will turn out.
The players do their part
The new coaching staff will present new ideas. Everyone is curious how that will work out. But none of it matters if the players do not do their part.
That led to a much more serious and different approach to the offseason.
Desmond Bane said the team made it more intentional to spend time together and work together -- whether that was much of the group arriving in Orlando earlier than usual or playing in the Rico Hines Run in Los Angeles.
Nothing matters if the players do not come to the season with urgency. Everyone knows where this team must finish.
"I think we've said this the last couple of years: Just trying to turn the next page and level up as a team, as an organization," Franz Wagner said at media Day. "Obviously we have had some success. But we have so much untapped potential and so many levels we can still get to. For me, personally, it's a feeling at the end of the year. If you got the most out of the team, out of the group, out of yourself, it's a feeling that you have. I want to have that feeling at the end of the year."
There is some untapped potential to this group and this team. There is something still left on the table.
Weltman made it clear that the team was betting on the foundation that it had built and the team's youth. The team is still one of the youngest teams in the league. There is still room to grow.
The pieces just need to come together.
"I got to know how much [Paolo Banchero] really wants to win and how great he wants to be," Sweeney said during media day. "That's exciting as a coach. With Franz [Wagner], I got to know how smart he is and how committed he is to playing the right way. You can go down the line. Desmond Bane is leadership personified. Wendell [Cater], the effort that he puts in to be a team guy. Goga [Bitadze] and how competitive he is. Anthony Black, how locked in he is. There's a lot to be excited about."
The Magic have the talent. But what last season's disappointment brought was doubt. The team was unable to pull those pieces together.
That is the biggest thing that has changed. Orlando knows now what happens if the team is not pulling in the same direction and not playing at its best.
Getting there will take some maturity. If last year taught this team anything, it was that nothing will come easily. Everything will be earned.
The Magic must go out and take their opportunity. Right now, everyone believes.
"Every team, when you sit up here, on Media Day and talk about how good of a chance they have to do something special, and we truly do," Bane said during Media Day. "We are one of those teams. We have to act like it on a daily basis for us to have a chance for it to become our reality. I'm looking forward to the challenge."
The roster may not be that different for the Magic. But there is clearly a change happening beneath the surface.
Orlando is eager to see how that pays off.
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