This is the time of year everyone wants to still be playing.
The NBA Finals and the championship are still the ultimate goal. Winning in the spring means more than winning in December or any other time of year. The regular season is meant to set up success in the Playoffs. It is not an end goal itself.
Sitting at home watching the second round or the conference finals is not a fun feeling for teams that have their eyes on winning the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
Nobody is going to sit here and make mountains out of mole hills.
But trophies are trophies. And the Magic had their chance to win a trophy this year, even beyond their 3-1 series lead in the first round.
The NBA is still trying to establish its early-season NBA Cup as something to care about. It remains a curiosity with varying degrees of intensity.
But for the first time in the Cup's three-year history, it actually proved to be predictive. Perhaps it is gaining some prestige.
Three of the four teams that went to Vegas that early December weekend have reached the conference finals. The only team that did not, of course, was the Orlando Magic.
The Orlando Magic might argue that they were a Franz Wagner injury away from punching their ticket to the conference finals. With the Detroit Pistons erasing a 3-1 deficit in their first-round series after Wagner's injury and now playing a Game 7 against the Cleveland Cavaliers to reach the conference finals, that reality seemed very close.
Maybe the NBA Cup is a better predictor of future success than it has been. Maybe the Magic are much closer and next year's Cup will be a test case for their potential contention.
Or maybe that trip to Vegas is meaningless still and the NBA Cup remains a quirky side project.
The Magic nearly won the East
It is still hard to imagine that the Orlando Magic's run to the NBA Cup was this season with all the things that took place this season. The trip to Las Vegas truly felt like a lifetime ago.
It was still an accomplishment for this team. Or, at least, it felt like it at the time. It seemed to legitimize the work and progress the team had made. It put the team on a national stage for the first time.
What might be even more incredible is to think about who the Magic had to beat to get to Vegas.
The Orlando Magic got put in the group of death, having to face the Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers and Detroit Pistons in group play (the Brooklyn Nets were the other team in the group and required a closing kick from Franz Wagner to defeat).
The Magic beat the Celtics in a 123-110 romp, making 17 3-pointers to pull away and maintain the lead. They rolled past the 76ers in a 144-103 romp on NBC. And then they held off the Detroit Pistons on the road 112-109 thanks to a 37-point showing from Desmond Bane.
Those are three Playoff teams. Those ended up being the top two seeds in the East.
The Orlando Magic earned the top seed and defeated the Miami Heat 117-108 to advance to Vegas. By that game, Franz Wagner was out for the first time with a high ankle sprain. They were without him when they played in the semifinals.
The New York Knicks defeated the Orlando Magic 132-120 in Las Vegas, behind 40 points from Jalen Brunson. Jalen Suggs scored 25 of his 26 points in the first half, as he dealt with a hip injury. Paolo Banchero was still coming back from the groin injury, but still scored 25 in the game.
It felt like the Magic were on the stage, but not quite ready to win a championship.
But that is what the NBA Cup is supposed to be for a young team. It was a proving ground.
The Magic were on a big stage for the first time after two strong showings in the Cup's first two years -- losing on the tiebreaker in the first year and advancing to the knockout round in the second year.
The Orlando Magic nearly reach the Cup final this time -- the New York Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs to win the trophy. They were not far in December. And perhaps they were not far in the spring either.
They led the 60-win Pistons 3-1 as the 8-seed before injuries shook the roster, and the team could not recover. It still feels like Orlando is not far with some better injury luck and another year of experience.
The Magic are the odd team out from that gathering in Vegas. They should be hungry to make good on their potential.
Will the NBA Cup matter again?
Before this year, the NBA Cup was not predictive at all.
In the first season, the Los Angeles Lakers won the inaugural trophy, giving the team some legacy legitimacy, but they lost in the first round. They beat the New Orleans Pelicans in the semifinals, who got swept in the first round.
The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Indiana Pacers in the final. The Pacers used it as a launching pad to make the Playoffs and reach the Eastern Conference Finals. They defeated the Milwaukee Bucks in the semifinal and then again in a first round upset.
In 2025, the Milwaukee Bucks came back to win the NBA Cup. But they lost again in the first round in the Playoffs.
They defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder in the final. The Thunder went on to win the NBA Finals.
The two semifinal losers -- the Atlanta Hawks and Houston Rockets -- did not escape the first round. The Hawks lost two Play-In games and missed the Playoffs.
This year is the outlier in terms of NBA Cup teams finding success. Who knows what next year will bring.
The Magic will likely bring a different approach to the NBA Cup. They will likely be learning a new offensive system and establishing themselves with a new coach. There will probably be some hiccups early in the season during the NBA Cup.
Orlando will likely be in the "group of death" again.
But the Magic should still view the NBA Cup the same way: It is their proving ground and a chance for them to show the league they are serious.
They did that this year and could not follow through. And they are watching the conference finals at home because of it.
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