There is not a lot going on in the basketball world right now outside of the WNBA -- unless you are super into The Big 3, The Basketball Tournament or whatever dunk contest thing TNT is airing right now.
With free agency mostly finished, this is when many around the NBA take their summer vacations. There is not much for teams and players to do except count the days to training camp.
And two months is a long time. The Orlando Magic and most of the NBA wait for Sept. 28 for their media day and the start of training camp.
The anticipation is killing everyone. Everybody is restless to get this season started.
Just ask Anthony Black:
can’t wait to play basketball
— Anthony Black (@anthonyblack) July 27, 2026
Noah Penda echoed that excitement in a quote tweet. The Magic even shared the same sentiment on their social media to kickstart a thread of highlights from last season.
Everyone is eager to start the season.
The Magic may be eager as anyone. They have seemingly lost their place as a fun up-and-coming team after a third straight first-round exit. Nobody is talking about them or quietly pushing them down the standings.
This is a team eager to make itself known.
While nobody is talking much publicly -- and when they have, the focus has been inward -- it is clear from the Magic's few public appearances they are eager to get things started.
As much as anything, there is a hunger to make up for last season. Nobody was happy with how last season went. And this group believes they can still accomplish big things.
That is animating the offseason.
A hunger to do more
After the Orlando Magic lost in Game 7, Paolo Banchero seemingly issued a challenge to his team.
He said the team should not be satisfied with making a playoff cameo. It was time for the entire team to be focused on doing more.
Banchero has always viewed himself as among the elite players in the league. He certainly carries himself on the court as if that were the case. And the Magic have launched into a playoff team alongside his arrival.
The shine of being the No. 1 pick has worn off some in the national conversation. Banchero has been the lightning rod of criticism.
He has certainly heard it as he posted on his secondary Instagram account's story on Wednesday.
Paolo Banchero posted that after sharing an extended rant by some content creator criticising Banchero for working out with Kevin Durant rather than LeBron James or Carmelo Anthony and working on his jumper.
Not that Banchero already is not a force going to the basket and getting to the line. Or that he took the fewest mid-range jumpers in the career.
No player has more motivation to prove a lot of people wrong than Banchero.
Banchero has become the Internet's favorite punching bag for his poor advanced stats. He is the kind of "empty calories stat hoarder" that was in vogue throughout the 1990s especially but is not valued anymore.
Banchero clearly wants to be more. And he should be as eager as any player in the league to get back on the court and play his way out of some tired narratives.
Banchero is the level of player where the only stat he and anyone else should care about is wins. And that is indeed where everything will start for him. The Magic went 26-25 in the 51 games Franz Wagner missed (all but four games) last year. That was the biggest indictment on Banchero.
He has a lot to prove. And the noise has only gotten louder.
If he is feeling that way, imagine how the rest of the team feels after a frustrating season. And especially with the lowered expectations from outside the locker room.
Lowered external expectations
The Orlando Magic addressed their expectations head on last year.
Everyone was buying Magic stock after they acquired Desmond Bane (he is mostly working out in Texas too) last year. People penciled them into the conference finals.
Jamahl Mosley told the media during training camp that whatever expectations people outside of their building had, the Magic had greater expectations internally. They believed in what they could accomplish a lot.
Last season's 45-win, 8-seed season that has led to zero major moves to the lineup has quieted the external expectations. The Magic still clearly believe -- perhaps imbued with confidence from the front office's faith.
But nobody around the league is predicting the Magic to do much more than reach the Play-In Tournament again. Maybe there is an admission this team can climb the rankings. But they want the Magic to prove it first.
The Internet briefly flamed Wendell Carter for saying "I respect it" when Kelly Iko of Yahoo! Sports asked him about LeBron James' signing with the Philadelphia 76ers. Some of that criticism is, "Who is Wendell Carter to have some comment on LeBron James?"
Carter said nothing non-obvious or weird (Carter is spending most of his summer in his hometown of Atlanta, where he held his own basketball camp and is in the same city that his good friend Angel Reese plays in). But it spoke to the confidence the Magic have.
Carter seemed to see James' arrival in the Eastern Conference as a challenge. There is a determination for the Magic to prove their place in the Eastern Conference.
The summer is all about talk. And there is a lot of talk right now.
After last season, Orlando really cannot talk. This team is eager to prove itself on the court.
For now, everyone is doing their own thing before they likely begin trickling back to Orlando around Labor Day.
Anthony Black, for instance, is in Dallas working out and participating in pro runs at SMU. Paolo Banchero is still mostly in Seattle, having just wrapped up his P5 Elite camp for the top high school prospects in the country.
Franz Wagner completed his own basketball camp in Berlin.
There are still plenty of passion projects, development and work for all the players to do on their own. Everybody needs an offseason to reset and take some vacation.
But clearly there is some anticipation for the upcoming season. Clearly, this team cannot wait to get back on the floor.
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