At media day last year, the Orlando Magic were not hiding from who everyone else thought they could be.
Desmond Bane's arrival and the promise of a full season with Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, along with Jalen Suggs' return from a tricky knee injury, seemed to put all the pieces together for a big season. The national media was on board, predicting the Magic as a dark horse Eastern Conference finalist and the next team to rule the roost.
The Magic did not do anything to calm those expectations.
Coach Jamahl Mosley leaned into them, saying that whatever external expectations anyone had for his team, the internal expectations were greater. Everyone actively talked about the Playoffs and going deeper.
The team was certainly capable. They even proved that at various parts of the season.
Media day on Monday will play out with much diferent circumstances. There will be the typical excitement for the start of the season. Optimism is in great supply across all 30 teams in late September. Reality has not hit.
But reality is already in place for the Magic. The offseason was spent discussing how the team has hit a financial dead end. Keeping this roster together without results is impossible. And the team is not projected to deliver those results.
Every player on the roster is facing pressure like never before. The team has many big decisions ahead.
Many of those will come in the winter at the trade deadline and in the offseason. Until then, like the Cleveland Indians in Major League, there is nothing left to do but win the whole thing.
The Magic have no choice but to embrace all this pressure and feed off the doubt surrounding them. They have no choice but to make all of the franchise's decisions even more difficult. They have no choice but to go prove they can be the team they always thought they could be.
There is pressure from all sides this season. This media day will not be the same happy-go-lucky occasion it was last year.
But there should be a determination to prove a lot of people wrong. And the freedom that this could be this group's last chance together.
The Magic should lean into the skid, embrace all the chaos that will follow, and make the most of this season. It is the only way forward to succeed.
A disappointing 2026 season
What played out in the 2026 season was akin to the bottom dropping out.
Everything that seemingly could go wrong did go wrong.
Franz Wagner played only 34 games, dealing with a left high ankle sprain that never went away despite three attempts to come back during the season. Banchero struggled to find that superstar gear and got loaded with criticism. Suggs' eccentricities overshadowed any growth he made.
The team never turned on Jamahl Mosley, but his voice clearly lost weight. And the intensity and never-say-die identity that defined the team quickly fell away in key moments.
It still ended in a 45-win season. But an 8-seed and a third straight first-round exit, after blowing a 3-1 series lead, at that, left everyone with a bitter taste.
The 2026 season was one of the most disappointing in Magic history, lining up with deconstructing seasons like the 2004 flatlining that led to Tracy McGrady's trade or the 2011 and 2012 playoff disasters that spelled the end for Dwight Howard.
That this group remains largely intact to get a second chance in the 2027 season is a testament to the front office's faith in the group. But it undoubtedly puts immense pressure on the team to perform.
That faith needs to be rewarded for this team to move forward with any semblance of consistency or continuity now.
The Magic did not keep this team together if they did not believe they could achieve the lofty expectations from last year. Orlando is still aiming to rise in the Eastern Conference.
But the league does not abide anybody standing still. Orlando must take the step forward.
NBA reality has arrived
Reality has begun to set in for everyone on this roster.
It is not merely the coaching change to Sean Sweeney that could be a seismic shift for the team. It is the reality that the Orlando Magic are suddenly quite expensive.
Change is inevitable for a group that has mostly been together for the past five years simply because of the league's team-building rules.
Everyone is feeling that pressure.
The summer was spent questioning Paolo Banchero's credentials as a superstar player, something that it is hard to argue against with an uneven 2026 season. Franz Wagner had to endure questions about his durability after two injury-filled seasons.
Jalen Suggs has had constant questions about his ability as a point guard. The Magic have been pushed to decide between keeping the longtime guard or extending Anthony Black, with the team bumping into the apron.
The Magic spent four first-round picks to acquire Desmond Bane. He delivered completely in his first season.
But Bane proved not to be the final piece to contention the team hoped for. The Magic are backed into not controlling their draft until 2031 -- this season is the last time they control their first-round pick without any conditions until then.
Wendell Carter must continue to prove he can be more than a solid defender at center. Tristan da Silva is preparing to enter his extension summer with plenty of questions about his role in the league. Nikola Vucevic, the Magic's lone newcomer, is trying to show he still has a place in the league on a winning team.
Even someone like Jase Richardson must take whatever opportunity he gets and prove he has a future in the league too.
Everyone is facing some kind of pressure individually.
But the only way to answer all of these questions is to do so as a team. The Magic must succeed as a team to quiet the noise and ease the pressure.
If this is indeed the last year the Magic can afford to keep this group together as constructed, then they should embrace that opportunity. This is their chance to silence those doubts together.
There is no avoiding it. Pressure is ever-present in the NBA. It is part of the job in an ever-shifting landscape around the league.
The Magic's big decisions will come in the offseason. They are unavoidable. But June, and even February, are a long ways away.
There are still games to play. And there is still a chance to prove who this team can be.
As the team gathers for media, the Magic must embrace that opportunity and rise to it.
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