The Orlando Magic are less than a month away from opening their training camp. Less than four weeks, in fact, with the team gathering for media day on Sept. 30 and beginning practice on Oct. 1. Their first preseason game is on the afternoon of Oct. 7 in New Orleans.
Magic basketball is so close, everyone can taste it.
The countdown to Oct. 23 and the beginning of the regular season is on. And everyone cannot wait to put aside the offseason questions and see this team play. Especially considering how last year went.
Magic fans could not wait for last season to begin after the strong finish to the 2023 season. The 2024 season delivered in ways even optimistic fans could not have imagined. That has only increased the anticipation for the 2025 season.
When a young team wins for the first time, competes for homecourt advantage and nearly advances out of the first round, everyone can now clearly see what this team is capable of doing and what is possible once again. The Magic have a lot of expectations ahead of them this season.
There is much to look forward to in the Magic's upcoming season. And everyone wants to get to the start of the season already because there is so much to see and do this year.
Getting the schedule has only added to the excitement. The Magic have five games on national TV after getting just one last year. They are in the spotlight a whole lot more. But they also clearly have something to prove.
Those games certainly already stand out on the schedule. Orlando Magic fans have their two home national TV games—against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Dec. 19 and the Cleveland Cavaliers on Feb. 25–circled. Everyone will look forward to the Magic putting their best foot forward.
But there are a lot of games that already seem to have a ton of importance even before the season begins.
The Magic will tell you every game is important. Players repeat that the biggest lesson they learned last season was how vital every game is to the team's ultimate success. But it is also true that some games mean a whole lot more than others. Or are more anticipated and easier to circle in September than others.
These are the five most important games on the Magic's schedule.
5. Opening Night: at Miami Heat (Oct. 23)
It is probably too easy to pick out the first game of the season as one of the more important games. It is easily one of the most anticipated games of the season as all opening games are.
But games against the Miami Heat always have a ton of meaning. There is a lot of important symbolism in those games not just because these are intrastate rivals.
The Heat are the team the Magic and the rest of the Southeast Division—maybe the entire Eastern Conference—have been chasing. To be the champs, you have to beat the champs as they say.
While the Magic finished ahead of the Heat in last year's standings, there is still the whiff of "Is this team really better?" After all, if the Orlando Magic had lost its last regular season game to the Milwaukee Bucks, they would have fallen to the 8-seed and headed to Miami for a Play-In Tournament game.
On top of that, Orlando went only 1-3 last year against Miami, including two injury-riddled defeats (on both sides) at Kaseya Center in January and February.
The Magic have left some space for a 2024 Southeast Division championship banner (it was not hung the last time I was in the facility in July), but they did not win it convincingly. And a second banner in 2025 would say something entirely different.
Everyone is expecting the Magic to take the mantle as the best team in the Southeast Division sooner rather than later. With the Heat facing many questions on their roster and their future after skating through last season—a chief Heat complaint is they did not take the regular season seriously—it seems likely the Magic are set to rule over the Southeast for the foreseeable future.
But they have to take it first. And that is the big question for the Magic, whether they can put a stake through the Heat and finally kill off that team that has struggled to stay in the hunt for homecourt advantage the last two seasons.
The rest of the league is probably not going to buy rumors of the Heat's demise until they are finally rebuilding—Jimmy Butler's uncertain contract situation is accelerating the urgency surrounding this season. Miami is not letting go of its grip over the state or the division without a fight.
On opening night, the Magic then have a chance to make a pretty big statement of intent. A win in Miami on opening night asserts dominance and intention. Intention that the Magic are going to run the state for the rest of the season.
At the very least, Orlando has to show it is looking to defend what it gained last year and begin expanding its ambitions for the next season. Opening night is a big one.
4. NBA Cup finale: at New York Knicks (Dec. 3)
There is still a little bit of suspicion around the league about the importance of the NBA Cup.
The league's second running of this mid-season tournament is an idea that is still trying to catch on. To some, it feels like "fetch" trying to happen. To others, it is a nice distraction early in the season.
Last year, even as the Orlando Magic competed to win their group, they were confused about the rules. Moritz Wagner had to pause his press conference and ask a public relations official to help him with the math that put the Magic in first place in their group and what needed to happen on the final day of the tournament.
For a team like the Magic, the In-Season Tournament was a valuable experience. It put them in pressure, must-win situations. For the Magic, last year's In-Season Tournament run seemed like the team announcing its seriousness about competing in the East as the beginning of their nine-game win streak in November.
This year's NBA Cup schedule will be tougher. The Orlando Magic were drawn into a group with the Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks, two teams that expect to compete in the Eastern Conference. The Magic will again have something to prove.
The stakes were increased with the NBA putting the Magic and Knicks in their featured game on the final night of the NBA Cup's group play phase. Assuming the Orlando Magic take care of business against the Brooklyn Nets and Charlotte Hornets in their group, the final game against the New York Knicks on Dec. 3 at Madison Square Garden will have implications on whether they can advance in the tournament.
Never mind that it is the nationally televised game in the Eastern Conference on TNT at Madison Square Garden. This is a pretty big spotlight.
Who knows how serious the Magic or Knicks will take the NBA Cup. It is small potatoes in the long run. Then again, the Indiana Pacers got a nice experience boost from reaching the In-Season Tournament Final last year, just as the Orlando Magic did.
The experience is what you make of it.
Dec. 3 is going to be a night a lot of Magic fans are looking forward to and it is a chance to tell the rest of the NBA world the Magic are a dangerous team early in the season.
3. Chance at the Champs: at Boston Celtics (Jan. 17)
One of the overarching themes of this season for the Orlando Magic will be about the Magic proving their place in the league.
Yes, Orlando reached the playoffs last season and got some recognition. But how much of this offseason has been spent questioning this team and its key players?
Is Franz Wagner worth the max contract he signed? Is Paolo Banchero efficient enough to be the kind of star you can build a championship team around? These are the kind of questions that have annoyed Magic fans.
Getting big questions like this asked about your team is part of what it means to be a contender. It is not always couched as criticism—even if Magic fans got very defensive about it this offseason.
Orlando is still trying to prove itself as a future contender. Nobody is quite ready to say the team is there.
There is one opponent that defeating and playing well against changes everything. Defeat the defending champions and you get viewed a little differently. Considering the Orlando Magic swept the Denver Nuggets last year, maybe that is not entirely true.
But the Orlando Magic have been a difficult team for the Boston Celtics in the past. Even Celtics legends and fans acknowledge that. The Celtics know the Magic can be a tough matchup. And Orlando's win last year in the In-Season Tournament (albeit with Kristaps Porzingis missing the second half) was a major victory for this young Orlando team.
The Magic will get a nationally televised game against the Celtics on Jan. 17 at TD Garden to show whether they are entering the contender tier of teams.
This is a game to circle for that reason. Just as it is because it comes in a particularly difficult stretch of the season. Orlando is heading to Boston after a trip to Milwaukee. The Magic have to show they are able to step up and win these big games.
There are none bigger than this opponent.
2. Playoff Rematch: vs. Cleveland Cavaliers (Feb. 25)
The Orlando Magic will be trying to take a step up this season. And the way to do that is at first to do something really simple: Beat the team that ended your season.
The Cleveland Cavaliers will always have a part of the Orlando Magic's story. They were the ones that ended that first playoff series. And while there was not a ton of animosity between the Cavs and the Magic (or their fan bases for that matter), there is still some satisfaction in beating the team you lost to in the playoffs the year before.
Just think of how great it was for the Orlando Magic to defeat the Indiana Pacers in the 1995 Eastern Conference Finals a year after getting swept by them in the first round.
The fact the NBA put two of these matchups between the Magic and Cavs on national TV (the other is Dec. 1 in Cleveland) suggests the league sees some entertainment value in this matchup. It did go seven games with all seven games being at least moderately entertaining despite the team's lack of offensive punch.
This should be just another game on the schedule. But the Cavs are scheduled to come to Orlando just once next season. Fans will be eagerly awaiting this game. And that this game is on national TV (one of two at the Kia Center next year), this is a game for the Magic to put their best foot forward.
Especially since it is coming in February and after the trade deadline when teams are starting to gear up for the playoffs. There is a lot on the line in this kind of a game. And the Magic will likely be battling the Cavaliers once again for homecourt advantage and playoff positioning, The Magic need every one of these wins they can get.
It should be a challenge as always.
Orlando played the series with Cleveland largely without Jarrett Allen—he claims he got hurt in Game 1 but sat out the rest of the season after Game 4. Allen's presence changes the equation and so the Magic have something to prove as they try to unseat a more veteran team ahead of them in the standings.
The emotions of the 2024 Playoffs will likely have faded by February 2025. But the statement and measure is there nonetheless.
1. The Regular Season (near) Finale: at Pacers (April 11)
Last year, every seeding in the Eastern Conference seemed to be on the line entering the final week of the season.
The Orlando Magic certainly did not make things easier on themselves with their late three-game losing streak. That sent them to the final game of the season needing a win to secure their playoff spot or fall to a road game in the Play-In Tournament in Miami.
In the end, the 2-seed New York Knicks were separated from the 8-seed Miami Heat by four games. The 4-seed Cleveland Cavaliers were only two games ahead of the 8-seed. Everything was on the line in the final day of the season—even if the Knicks and Cavs were involved in some chicanery to try to draw the Magic or not.
The lesson should be that every game is going to be important heading to the final days of the season. And Orlando finishing with a two-game road trip is going to be a major test for this young team as they try to keep their head above water.
This is going to be a competitive Eastern Conference.
That penultimate game against the Indiana Pacers is going to be a big one then. The Magic and Pacers finished tied in the standings last year with 47 wins. Orlando won the season series 2-1, thanks to two early season wins in Indianapolis, to earn the tiebreaker and the date with Cleveland rather than Milwaukee.
The Pacers made the Eastern Conference Finals so it all worked out in the end for both teams, it would appear. But the two up-and-coming teams are likely going to be competing for the same real estate once again.
The two teams playing each other in the penultimate game for both then could have major implications heading into the final game of the regular season. The Magic and Pacers should be a strong rivalry for years to come.
For the record too, the Magic travel to Atlanta to close their season while Indiana ends its season at Cleveland. That is quite the difference too if the Magic need one last push.