The Orlando Magic are a hungry team this offseason.
They have not talked publicly very much since the end of their season -- when they were sent home without doing traditional exit interview media interviews. But the common theme from Franz Wagner, Desmond Bane and Paolo Banchero's interviews is that they are not happy with their season last year and they are eager to get back together.
They are putting that to work in this offseason.
Franz Wagner joined Paolo Banchero, Jevon Carter, Jamal Cain and Jase Richardson in Los Angeles for the Rico Hynes pick-up runs this week -- Desmond Bane and Nikola Vucevic are also supposedly there, too. Noah Penda did a Q&A on his Instagram story where he noted how eager everyone is to get back to work.
It was a difficult season. It led to change on the bench in the form of a new coach in Sean Sweeney. But the roster is mostly the same.
Magic players know that they have been given an ultimatum to prove themselves as a group. And even then, changes might be inevitable. There is a lot of pressure on this season.
There is also not much belief.
The early odds from the sportsbooks have the Magic back in the Play-In Tournament for the third straight year, and possibly slipping down to ninth with the improved Eastern Conference. Nobody is talking about Orlando in any serious way.
Most of the sportsbooks have set the Magic's over/under at 43.5. That feels low for a team that still won 45 games even with everything working against them.
"They were a 45-win team last year with Franz missing more than half the season due to injuries," Tim MacMahon said on The Hoop Collective. "It was a pretty toxic situation for whatever reason with Paolo in particular with Jamahl Mosley. That relationship deteriorated. None of us were surprised that they moved on from Jamahl Mosley. I don't think they are way over. But I do think they are over 43.5, and I think they are right in that 45+ range that they have been occupying."
That is pretty much the long and short of it. A lot of things went wrong last year and the Magic still found themselves in the mix in the Eastern Conference.
It can't go worse, right?
From very early in the season, injuries derailed the team.
Franz Wagner played only 34 games. When he did play, the Orlando Magic went 20-14 (a 48-win pace) and then went 3-1 in the Playoffs against a 60-win, top-seeded Detroit Pistons team.
Paolo Banchero put up career numbers in several facets, but struggled to make jumpers or completely silence his critics and analysts, who looked at his impact stats and plus/minus numbers. Banchero would probably be the first to say he did not have the season he hoped for.
Jalen Suggs dealt with injuries and inconsistency. Desmond Bane got off to a slow start before he found his footing.
There were rumors and reports of discontent with coach Jamahl Mosley that would wax and wane depending on how the team was playing. Mosley got the axe for the team's struggles and was replaced by Sean Sweeney.
The Magic are still hopeful that the best version of themselves was hidden beneath all of that. They believe that they never saw the team they envisioned.
Still, Orlando sticking largely with the same roster that was responsible for a disappointing 45-win season is not inspiring confidence.
At every turn the team had to climb the standings, though, they fell flat on their face. That is at least partially why not making any changes to the roster is not sitting well. And the Eastern Conference did improve.
But that is a lot put on their plate.
Orlando is still a quiet contender in the Eastern Conference with plenty of upside and talent. The Magic are capable of making a breakthrough with a new coach in tow.
There are plenty of reasons to believe that a bounceback is due.
A bounceback season?
The Orlando Magic's thesis for their offseason was that when the team was healthy, it had one of the best starting lineups in the league.
If anything, the last two years have left the Magic wondering just how good this team can be. They do not know the team's ceiling.
Everyone else has seemingly set that ceiling based on two injured years.
Orlando has given them nothing else to work off of.
The Magic had about a month where they exchanged one win for every loss. They followed a seven-game win streak with a six-game losing streak in March.
Despite all of this, the Magic still won 45 games. They finished a game behind the Toronto Raptors and Atlanta Hawks for fifth in the East -- that 52-point loss and 29-point loss in the spring loomed large at the time and larger after the season.
Orlando Magic fans could easily point to three losses the Magic could have flipped the season on its head -- the losses to the Los Angeles Lakers and Indiana Pacers during the losing streak in March stand out, as does the regular season finale against the undermanned Boston Celtics.
That is a 48-win team! Not quite what the Magic expected before the season, but that changes how everyone views last season.
The margin for error at the heights the Magic are trying to chase are very narrow. And the team is still trying to close that gap. They still need to prove they can close that gap.
And ultimately, the Magic need to prove they can win in the Playoffs. And losing a 3-1 series lead has everyone down on this team entering the season.
Still, it is hard to think that things could go worse for the Magic than it did last season. And that makes it hard to imagine the team would not surpass 43 wins.
It makes it hard to imagine that a bounceback is not likely, if not merely possible.
The Magic are being undercounted and underestimated entering this season. But like everyone else, nobody knows how good this team truly can be.
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