Orlando Magic 35th Anniversary: Orlando Magic's greatest teams by tiers

The Orlando Magic could not ask for a better start to celebrate their 35th anniversary season.

The throwback jerseys look fresh. The In-Season Tournament court looks fantastic and their City Edition jerseys have been met with solid reviews.

Not to mention the team has hit Thanksgiving on a five-game win streak, a 10-5 record overall (the team's best 15-game start since 2011) and a win over the defending champion Denver Nuggets with a huge In-Season Tournament game against the Boston Celtics waiting for them in a Black Friday matinee.

Things are going very well for the Magic right now as this young 2024 team tries to make its mark in the history of this franchise. It very much feels like this is the start of something for the team and the start of a stretch of solid years.

The Orlando Magic's 35th anniversary season is well underway and there is plenty to celebrate as we sort through the best teams in franchise history.

Fans are certainly feeling that excitement too. Everyone seems bought in with some energetic atmospheres at the Amway Center (and sellouts in four out of five games after the Nuggets game Wednesday was not somehow labeled a sell out).

The Magic have done their part to make this season feel special in addition to the great play on the court. The team has made it a point to celebrate its past, honoring Rashard Lewis and Darrell Armstrong on the court already this season and giving recognition to other Magic alumni who have rolled through.

It is not just about the remixed version of the Orlando Magic Theme Song and the "hit the music" button they push to launch it after every home win. The vibes for the Magic have been excellent and it is truly a year to celebrate (after several anniversary seasons that felt a bit empty with the on-court production).

We do not yet know where the 2024 season will rank among the great seasons in Magic history. It is far too early to come up with that analysis. There is still a lot of season left to play.

But we are overdue to rank the best teams in Magic history. We have not come up with that list since 2017 (and it looks like that list may have been partially eaten up in our server migration this week). We may have to revisit that again this summer.

So we cannot let our 35th anniversary season go by without at least putting together some list of the best teams in Magic history.

This is not a strict ranking of the teams though. As a site, we will leave that to a more robust review and process. And you will notice teams are sorted by year rather than in rank order. But what will do today is rank the teams by tier -- sorting teams both by record and where they fit in the larger Magic history.

Orlando Magic's greatest teams by tier

Tier 7: The worst of the worst

The Orlando Magic's expansion season was never about the team's record. It was never about how the season turned out. It was about the moments and the fact Orlando had a team.

There were a lot of great moments from that inaugural season. From beating the Detroit Pistons in the opening preseason game. Two wins over the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers (Otis Smith game-winners in both!). Orlando had a team. And that is what mattered for the Magic's first season.

The Orlando Magic felt like they had promise after a 31-win season in their second season. That gave way to the disappointment of the 1992 season and an injury-filled 21-win season. The shine of an expansion franchise was starting to wear off and the Magic needed to find a purpose and a way to win. That was going to be the measure.

Who knows how the franchise would have evolved and developed if not for winning the NBA Draft Lottery that summer.

The Tracy McGrady era flamed out spectacularly. There is no other way to put it.

Orlando's constant waiting for Grant Hill to be healthy and constant shuffling of the deck chairs around him finally turned up craps for the team.

McGrady was still brilliant that season -- 28.0 points per game. But he suffered a frustrating season where the team just was not good enough. And it was enough to ask out at the end of the season.

The Orlando Magic had been to back-to-back Playoff seasons in 2019 and 2020. They believed they were set to make the Playoffs again. They had Nikola Vucevic playing at an All-Star level, a set defensive identity and Markelle Fultz with a healthy offseason.

Fultz's torn ACL eight games into the season (after a blistering start) changed everything for this team. The Magic suffered injury after injury that season and the bottom just dropped out. Not even a miracle worker like Steve Clifford could save the team.

Orlando ultimately hit reset completely. The team traded away the core of its last decade in Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon and Evan Fournier. The team accepted that a rebuild was necessary and that the team had gone as far as it had gone, selling high on Vucevic at least to set the team up.

The Orlando Magic's first year after the 2021 reset was an expected rough ride. The team was far too young with a rookie coach at the helm in Jamahl Mosley. The goal was just to keep everyone together and keep everyone growing in the right direction. Like most rebuildling teams, they needed two cracks at the Lottery.

Injuries were again the story for Orlando. The team missed several key players. But Franz Wagner developed as a future star and the team seemed to have at least the beginnings of something.

Winning the Lottery that summer did not hurt either.

Orlando Magic's greatest teams by tier

Tier 6: Bad, but not the worst

Expansion franchises are supposed to take a while to find themselves. They are supposed to need time for some seasoning and to amass talent. They need to find their identity.

The Orlando Magic's first season was an 18-win season but full of big moments. Their second season, as much as it is forgotten, was surprisingly good. A 31-win season in their second season was a miracle.

The young players whom the Magic had started to invest in started to pan out in a meaningful way. Nick Anderson and Scott Skiles especially started to come into their own and the drafting of Dennis Scott laid the foundations for what was going to come for the franchise. Even if it took a major step back in 1992.

There were some legitimately high and fun moments in the first Orlando Magic season without Dwight Howard. Everyone expected a 20-win season and things eventually to fall apart. But there were good moments.

There was the 2-0 start at home that made everyone think this will not be so bad. There was the Orlando Magic defeating the Los Angeles Lakers on the road in their first game against Dwight Howard -- not to mention following that up with a win at the Golden State Warriors on a back-to-back. There was Glen Davis making a serious All-Star push before breaking his arm in December. And, of course, there was the early fun of Tobias Harris trying to prove the Milwaukee Bucks (and ironically Scott Skiles) wrong.

Those first seasons in a rebuild can be tough. Fans have to find something to hold onto. There was something to be intrigued with during that season. That is a success.

The Orlando Magic's second year in their post-Dwight Howard rebuild brought some optimism. Victor Oladipo easily could have won Rookie of the Year and showed some promise. Arron Afflalo hinted at being an All-Star even though the Magic's record was so poor. But the team was still far away and more focused on Lottery luck than wins on the floor.

The Orlando Magic in their third season of their rebuild were expected to make things happen. They were expected to make some progress.

Even though their lottery luck did not turn out, they had a young Aaron Gordon and Elfrid Payton to add to a young core that featured Victor Oladipo, Nikola Vucevic, Tobias Harris and the recently added Evan Fournier. However, the team still did not seem to have a clear direction.

The dysfunction in those years became apparent. The team fired Jacque Vaughn mid-season as they struggled to find their identity. The team was spinning its wheels and young players were struggling to find progress.

Oh, the 2017 season. It started out with so much promise. The Orlando Magic believed they were destined to go to the playoffs after trading away Victor Oladipo and their draft pick (Domantas Sabonis) for Serge Ibaka. They had free agent money to burn and spent it on Bismack Biyombo, Jeff Green and D.J. Augustin.

Well, that did not work. Not at all.

Almost immediately, Ibaka seemed to check out understanding the team and its leaders were not quite serious enough to win. The Magic were a mismatched roster that did not really know what it was trying to do. Everyone was mismatched from Aaron Gordon playing the 3 to Serge Ibaka and Nikola Vucevic trying to share the floor.

And Oladipo turning into an All-Star two years later and Sabonis now turning into one of the best centers in the league only made the decision and the season worse.

Orlando Magic's greatest teams by tier

Tier 5: Getting Closer

The Orlando Magic have missed the playoffs with a .500 record or better just twice in franchise history. That would be Shaquille O'Neal's rookie season on the fourth tiebreaker. And then there is Chuck Daly's first year with the Magic in 1998 in an injury-filled forgettable season.

Anfernee Hardaway played only 19 games as the knee and ankle issues began to take over his career. Rony Seikaly played only 47 games as the Magic began to rearrange the team and seek a new direction in the years after Shaquille O'Neal.

Orlando was still chasing a spotlight and finding it hard to achieve.

Of any team that missed the Playoffs in Orlando Magic history, no team engenders as much as joy and appreciation as the 2000 Heart & Hustle team. This group created one of the most magical seasons (pun intended) in franchise history. Everyone still talks glowingly about this team.

The Magic were predicted at the beginning of the season to win fewer than 20 games. Yet they became an energetic defensive group that came within two games of making the playoffs. They are the model for everything Magic fans want to see from their team.

The first year after trading Tracy McGrady was both exciting and promising and still somehow deeply disappointing. The Magic had all the excitement of adding the first overall pick in Dwight Howard and everything he could be. They also were determined not to rebuild fully, bringing in an All-Star in Steve Francis to replace Tracy McGrady.

The results were . . . mixed.

A 36-46 record and missing the playoffs were still in the cards. It was both encouraging for how much potential the team had -- including Jameer Nelson finding his role off the bench and pushing for more playing time. But also discouraging because late season injuries derailed the journey.

So too did the decision to trade Steve Francis' best friend in Cuttino Mobley for a disgruntled and frustrated Doug Christie, going from a title contender with the Sacramento Kings to a middling team in the Orlando Magic. Things never clicked.

That is probably the best way to describe the Magic of that season. It just did not click for all the exciting moments the team had in the process.

The 2005 Orlando Magic went 36-46 and it felt like a disappointment. The 2006 Magic went 36-46 and it felt like a triumph.

That is the difference between a more veteran team falling short of expectations and a young team seemingly on the rise. This 2006 season saw the Magic hand the reigns over to young players like Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson (with Grant Hill providing a steady beat when he could on the floor). The team traded the disgruntled Steve Francis. They made this about the youth movement.

And Orlando paid it off. The Magic put together a stellar 16-6 run to close the season. That took the team from 20-40 and out of the playoff race to one of the last teams eliminated from playoff contention -- losing out on the playoffs before their penultimate game.

This run to end the season was proof that their young players were taking the key steps forward. Howard and Nelson were ready to take on a larger share as the team prepared to make the playoffs and start a long run.

The 2016 Orlando Magic were the closest the team got to the Playoffs during the Rob Hennigan era. Yet, it was still marked by how dysfunctional the team was.

Scott Skiles helped build the team to a 19-13 record. But then things completely fell apart with a terrible January record and reports Skiles wanted to quit the team (he eventually would resign suddenly just before the NBA Draft Lottery).

The Magic made matters worse by making a panic trade of Tobias Harris for Brandon Jennings -- essentially for cap room. It was a season full of promise that crashed and burned.

Frank Vogel's final season with the Orlando Magic did not have anything too notable happen. The team played some solid defense but not solid enough to be elite. They were poor offensively. It was a team that was spinning its wheels and not clear what direction it was headed.

Not even new executive Jeff Weltman could really do much to change things immediately, opting to evaluate the roster and see where the team could improve. This group was better than its record and showed Nikola Vucevic could reach another level.

The 2023 Orlando Magic was a special and fun season. The kind of season that makes everyone believe the team is set for something special but is clearly not quite ready.

The team will tell everyone it was a Playoff team if not for a disappointing and injury-filled 5-20 start to the season. As history moves on and we see what this season sprouts, we may view this team as much more significant and important (honestly, I am fudging my rankings some because newcomers to the rankings tend to get underranked with how I run my ongoing ranking system).

Paolo Banchero clearly looked like a budding superstar in his rookie season. Franz Wagner continued to develop. And Orlando started to carve a defensive identity in the final games of the season. Going 29-28 in the final 57 games was a victory.

Clearly that momentum has paid off.

Orlando Magic's greatest teams by tier

Tier 4: Playoff Teams, Group 1

The first year without Shaquille O'Neal was one of growing pains for a team suddenly toppled from championship contention. The Magic definitely missed O'Neal, as any team would missing such an elite and important player.

Anfernee Hardaway stepped up and proved he was not just living in Shaquille O'Neal's shadow. He averaged 20.5 points per game. He then turned in one of the best playoff series performances in Magic history, averaging 31.0 points per game in the five-game series with the Miami Heat. That included 42 and 43-point performances to stave off elimination at the Orlando Arena.

The season was not without turmoil though. The players led a revolt that ousted coach Brian Hill with a vote of no confidence. And the franchise looked to an uncertain future even with Hardaway leading the way.

The lockout-shortened 1999 season was weird for everyone. Players showed up out of shape and the 50-game season was congested which meant everything was a sprint. The Magic actually tied for the top seed in the Eastern Conference with the Miami Heat (who also lost in the first round) and the Indiana Pacers.

Nick Anderson and Anfernee Hardaway had one last strong season in a Magic uniform before the team decided to fully reset and restart the team. It was a great regular season even if the whole year was weird -- do not look at the offensive numbers.

The first round though was again a disaster as the disconnect between Anfernee Hardaway and coach Chuck Daly became ever clearer. Allen Iverson was a star on the rise and the Magic were a team in decline.

The Orlando Magic returned to the playoffs after their big free-agent spending spree in the summer of 2000. The team missed out on Tim Duncan and Grant Hill played only four games in his first year (John Gabriel still won Executive of the Year for winning in July), but Tracy McGrady proved to be a bona fide star right from the tip.

McGrady, a promising young bench player and eventual starter with the Toronto Raptors coming off a strong playoff debut, became a superstar immediately in Orlando. McGrady averaged 26.8 points per game, 7.5 rebounds per game and 4.6 assists per game. This was a star player and the Magic did not have to rebuild long.

The Orlando Magic reached the playoffs this season, falling in four games to the Milwaukee Bucks. But that series included an incredible overtime performance in Game 3 from McGrady to stave off elimination and cement his stardom.

Tracy McGrady probably wishes he could take back saying the Orlando Magic had advanced out of the first round after taking a 3-1 series lead in Game 4 of the team's first-round series with a young Detroit Pistons team. The 8-seed with a 3-1 lead in the first year of a best-of-seven first round felt like a real upset. Magic fans know what happened next.

The burden on McGrady was very real throughout that playoff series -- as was how incredible McGrady was during that series with 31.7 points per game, 6.7 rebounds per game and 4.7 assists per game. The burden on him as a player was also very real. The Magic just could not give him any help.

This was the bottom for Orlando and, eventually, the whole project would fall apart as McGrady was incapable of carrying the team on his own. And certainly the Magic needed the help that Grant Hill was unable to provide thanks to his injuries.

The Orlando Magic will tell everyone they were set to turn the corner when the league shut itself down for the COVID-19 pandemic. They came back from a big road win against the Memphis Grizzlies to look forward to a big homestand to try to replicate the run late in the 2019 season. Then the league shut down.

Orlando was a playoff team again no doubt. Injuries slowed them down and hit the team's record hard. But the Magic were locked into the 8-seed when the season reopened in the Bubble at Disney.

The Magic never quite got their footing back from that part of the season. Injuries hit the team in the Bubble too -- particularly an injury to Aaron Gordon in a game against the Toronto Raptors and, of course, the devastating knee injury to Jonathan Isaac.

Orlando Magic's greatest teams by tier

Tier 3: Playoff Teams, Group 2

Only one team is going to be included in this group that did not make the Playoffs. In fairness to the 1993 Orlando Magic of Shaquille O'Neal's rookie season, they missed the playoffs on the fourth tiebreaker to the Indiana Pacers. And that loss enabled them to get the one ping pong ball in the hopper to get them the top pick in the draft and eventually Anfernee Hardaway.

As we are learning with today's Magic team, learning to win in the league is hard. Even with an elite player like O'Neal who became an All-Star in his rookie year and took the league completely by storm.

The Magic learned how to win really quickly. That was the impact O'Neal had immediately on the franchise. This was Orlando's first season at .500 and the first time the team was competitive in a serious way.

This was an impressive showing from the Magic and everyone knew the playoff berth was right around the corner with O'Neal in place.

The lockout shortened 2012 season was miserable from the start.

Rumors of Dwight Howard wanting out started at the end of the 2011 season. When the lockout ended, Howard immediately came forward with his request to get traded. The melodrama and "Dwight-mare" continued from there.

Howard, of course, was good enough to keep the team in playoff contention and in the playoff picture. The Magic were still a very good team.

But when Howard went out with his back injury, everything fell apart for the team. And that was eventually what clinched him leaving after he temporarily ended the drama by declining his early termination option.

This was a forgettable season. But they did still make the playoffs.

The 2007 Orlando Magic were the Magic's triumphant return to the postseason and the first trip to the playoffs for a young Dwight Howard. It was inevitable the team would finally have this breakthrough, especially after the strong finish to 2006.

But a lot came together. Grant Hill was finally healthy giving the team a steady veteran scorer. Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson took full control over their starting spots with the team. And even Hedo Turkoglu started to show hints of what he would become with Stan Van Gundy coming the following season.

The Magic were not the elite team they would become. But they were starting to piece it all together. And they had the breakthrough into the postseason. It was a four-game sweep, but it was still a memorable journey.

It is hard to describe just how special the 2019 Orlando Magic was and just how cathartic it was for the Magic to reach the playoffs. After seven years of not having much direction, everything crystallized to end the season and led to one of the most memorable playoff runs in the franchise's history.

The Magic finished the season 22-9 and snuck into the playoffs as the 7-seed and then stole Game 1 from the eventual champion Toronto Raptors on a D.J. Augustin three-pointer late in the game.

This was cathartic because so many of the pieces that seemed to have no direction under the previous management regime came together and found a way to create success. They committed defensively, got rewarded with an All-Star bid from Nikola Vucevic and found a way to win.

It was refreshing. And even though the team did not create much of a future, having that one moment was encouraging.

Orlando Magic's greatest teams by tier

Tier 2: Getting Serious

The Orlando Magic have not been out of the first round very often in their history. There are the four teams we will get to in Tier 1 -- the elite of Magic teams -- and then there is the 2008 team that broke through with a series win over the Toronto Raptors (we will get to them).

That is it for playoff success.

That does not mean there are not memorable playoff teams along the way and teams that we care to remember and think about. There are teams that made a major impact despite not having the postseason success that we all want.

They can be teams like the 1994 Magic, the first team in franchise history to make the playoffs and a clear precursor to what would come the following year. Shaquille O'Neal and Anfernee Hardaway took the league by storm and the team had homecourt advantage in their three-game sweep to the Indiana Pacers.

So many of these teams had the beginnings of really good teams. And that is what matters.

The Tracy McGrady era was great for the highs McGrady bought. He is the greatest scorer in Magic history. And he was a reason to show up to the arena every night (even if far too few Magic fans did).

The 2002 team represented his best overall group. Mike Miller in his second year came into his own as a good sidekick to Tracy McGrady (Grant Hill was, of course injured). The team's record was only slightly better than the previous season.

But this represented the Magic's highest finish in the McGrady era. They were the fifth seed and had a good chance against the Charlotte Hornets. If not for Baron Davis forcing overtime in Game 3, the Magic might have been able to take a decisive 2-1 series lead in the best-of-5.

McGrady had a stellar season that year, averaging 25.6 points per game and 7.9 rebounds per game. Just another big statistical season without the help to make much of an impact.

The Orlando Magic have lost in the second round only once in their franchise's history. Still nobody seemed too upset when they took a five-game loss to the vaunted Detroit Pistons.

They were happy to be in the second round though, winning their first playoff series in 12 years with Dwight Howard as the team's anchor. He was incredible in his first playoff series with home-court advantage averaging 22.6 points and 15.8 rebounds per game in the five-game series with the Toronto Raptors.

The Magic knew they had something special in Howard before the season. This surprise season showed the beginnings of the 2009 Finals team and Howard's ascent to superstardom.

It was a special time for sure. And there is nothing quite like seeing a team on the rise.

The end of the Dwight Howard era was obviously a frustrating one. And there may have been no more frustrating and disappointing season in the Orlando Magic history than the 2011 season.

The team came off the disappointing finish to the 2010 season but still had championship aspirations. But from the very start of the season, something just felt off for this group. Orlando never really felt together and never felt like it had the same vibes as the previous team -- that was so together and so eager to play together.

The Magic ultimately made some major trades in December to try to cut out the rot. That panic move ended up closing the team's window.

Howard was of course good enough to keep the team in contention and give them home court. But the rest of the players did not step up and the window felt shut after a first-round loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

Orlando Magic's greatest teams by tier

Tier 1: Mt. Rushmore

There should be no surprise who the four teams are that make up the Orlando Magic's Mt. Rushmore. Fans can debate which era of Magic team is their favorite and which is the greatest, but there is very little debate about the paremeters of the debate.

So to keep the peace this Thanksgiving, let's just make sure we give them all their just due. There will be peace at this table.

There is no doubt about the impact the 1995 Orlando Magic team had. The duo of Shaquille O'Neal and Anfernee Hardaway blossomed before anyone expected into this unexpected trip to the NBA Finals. And really even a chance to win with homecourt advantage.

It is best that we leave what happened there to rest.

Everyone believed this was a Magic team that would be around for a long time.

They had the best young big in the league who even in his third seaosn in the league was capable of winning big games and leading a team. They had tons of shooters at a time when the league was not sure how to use the 3-point shot effectively at a high level. They had a dynamic guard that proved to be a matchup nightmare at 6-foot-7 in Anfernee Hardaway.

The 1995 Magic were a team ahead of their time both in style and in experience. And they are beloved by everyone around the league for how they took the league by storm with flair and panache.

There was a lot of carry over from the 1995 season to the 1996 season and it seemed like the Orlando Magic were destined to be the team challenging the league for titles. The Chicago Bulls came back with a vengeance with their 72-10 season and this seemed like the rivalry for the future in the league.

That would not be because of the discord that seemed to grow throughout the season. It was "Why Not Us, Why Not Now?" in 1995 but in 1996 it was everyone trying too hard to get theirs individually in a lot of ways.

Despite all of this, the Magic posted their best regular season record in team history (that still stands) even with Shaquille O'Neal missing the first 22 games with a hand injury he suffered in the preseason. That allowed Anfernee Hardaway to blossom as an individual player. But it certainly created some discord as the young Magic franchise was still learning how to handle its star players.

Nobody quite saw the 2009 Orlando Magic reaching the NBA Finals. Even the most optimistic of fans (I thought they were still one year away and a competitive second-round series was the goal).

Unlike the 1995 team, which seemed inevitable that they would reach contention (although not that soon), the 2009 Magic had no inkling of competing for a championship. They were still largely unproven against the elite teams and their run was a surprise.

That might be why the 2009 Magic are one of the most popular and beloved teams in Magic history. They came out of nowhere and had a lot of personality as they took down the defending champion Boston Celtics and the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers.

Their imperfections were what made the team so beloved. They struggled to take out the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round and trailed 3-2 in the series with the Boston Celtics. They needed big plays from Hedo Turkoglu, Dwight Howard and Rashard Lewis to advance.

The underdogs are always the ones who stand out. And that is why the 2009 team is so special.

If the 2009 Orlando Magic were beloved for their imperfections, the 2010 Orlando Magic were knocked down a peg for their perfection. This was a team that solved a lot of the depth and versatility issues that may have kept the Magic from winning in 2009.

They had an incredible 33-8 run in the second half of the season and went all-in with a star trade for Vince Carter and depth acquisitions in retaining J.J. Redick and Marcin Gortat in free agency AND signing Brandon Bass in free agency.

The Magic were a juggernaut in the 2010 season. And then went out and won the first two series in the playoffs in two four-game sweeps. Where everything was hard in 2009, everything felt easy in 2010.

That might have been the problem. The margins for winning a championship are always small. It came down to a pair of Vince Carter missed free throws and a missed putback from Jameer Nelson. The Magic got beat twice at home by a tougher Boston Celtics team. But the teams were not that far apart.

This might be the best team in Magic history (I will reveal they came out on top on my rolling yearly statistical analysis, but the margin is always very close between the 1995, 2009 and 2010 teams). But no one will remember them that way because of how disappointing the season ended.