The NBA's schedule is due out next week, according to Marc Stein.
Despite the delay of LeBron James' free agency and the pending Kawhi Leonard trade and investigation, the league is on track for an early August schedule release.
While there are still eight weeks before the start of training camp, the schedule's arrival makes the season feel a whole lot closer. It at least allows me to set my schedule for the next six months.
It sets out the path for the season. We can predict where the trouble spots will be and the periods the Magic must get through -- besides mapping out the NBA Cup path and thinking about the final stretch of the season, which has been vital in all three of the Magic's playoff pushes.
There is one thing that is missing as the team prepares for the season: A new TV home.
Many teams around the league were left without a home with the collapse of FanDuel Sports Network and Main Street Sports Group. The company ceased operations after last season. It sent the teams that were on those networks searching for a new local television home.
But teams around the league are starting to announce their new homes -- both for over-the-air TV and streaming.
The Magic seemed to prepare for this throughout last year. Orlando aired a simulcast of the FanDuel broadcast on WESH-2 and its affiliate station CW-18 for 10-plus games last season. It indicates this is the direction the Magic will go for their TV rights next season.
The team has not announced any changes, merely telling Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel in July that the team will announce its broadcast plans at a future date. Even when it was working with FanDuel, the Magic tended to announce its broadcast schedule very late.
It will be a season of change for the Magic on TV with David Steele's retirement and Dante Marchitelli installed as the team's new play-by-play voice.
The last question is where will the Magic end up?
What other NBA teams are doing
It is instructive then to look at what other teams are doing around the league.
Moving off FanDuel Sports Network is not an Orlando Magic issue alone. About a dozen teams were on FanDuel Sports Network last year when the regional sports network shut down. Other teams like the Phoenix Suns and New Orleans Pelicans left early, forming their own broadcast groups and securing local distribution for their games.
The Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz even set up their own direct-to-consumer streaming apps to broadcast their games. They are still available on over-the-air TV.
The other FanDuel teams are mostly following that pattern.
The Miami Heat have already announced their games will air on WPLG Local 10, an independent local TV station that was formerly the area's ABC affiliate. They are still looking for a TV partner in Palm Beach County as of this writing.
Other teams are announcing their plans ahead of the season.
The wildest is the Minnesota Timberwolves agreeing to a five-year deal (with a one-year opt-out) with streaming service DAZN. Their games will air exclusively on the streaming app -- mostly known for its collection of combat sports events, but the company recently bought FIBA's streaming service, Courtside 1891. The Wolves will have up to 15 games still on over-the-air TV, but the bulk of the games will be on the streaming service.
They are not the only ones to join with DAZN and the streaming service could have a much bigger role in the NBA ecosystem.
The Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks are moving their streaming rights from the Gotham Sports Network service to DAZN for the season. Both their games will still air on their team-owned networks -- YES Network for the Nets and MSG for the Knicks.
The Sports Business Journal reported the Magic are likely to find their streaming home with DAZN.
It seems like this will likely be the model the Magic will follow.
They will likely air games on an over-the-air network like WESH-2, Orlando's NBC affiliate, and CW-18. And then join a streaming partner like DAZN to air their games.
Many of these deals have one-year opt-outs as the NBA considers bundling these local TV rights with a company like Amazon to distribute games. The league is trying to create a streaming hub for its broadcasts for the 2028 season.
Whatever the Magic end up doing might be a temporary home as they and the league seek some permanence.
What other local teams did
It is instructive too what other teams in the area did.
The Florida sports teams were somewhat unique in that almost all of them were part of FanDuel Sports Network -- there were two FanDuel networks in Florida to accommodate all of these teams, FanDuel Sports Florida and FanDuel Sun. Many of them were left to find new homes last year -- Main Street Sports Group prioritized paying NBA teams, allowing NHL team sand MLB teams to get out of their deals.
The Tampa Bay Lightning found a new home on Scripps Sports locally in Tampa. They were aired on WRBW Channel 65 in Orlando. They also streamed on their web site for a fee.
MLB followed a similar route, centralizing its local broadcasts on its MLB.TV service. Fans could watch the Tampa Bay Rays or Miami Marlins online through those services.
But they also found local TV homes through cable and satellite providers giving the Rays and Marlins their own dedicated channels that only air their games. Spectrum customers in Orlando can watch both the Rays and Marlins on those dedicated channels -- channels 103 and 104, if you are curious about the setup.
There was relatively now disruption in how fans could consume those games, other than the hassle of finding which channel they were located.
Change is hard.
But the Magic are likely following their model, airing games over-the-air locally and then reaching deals to air in other markets around the city -- the Magic expanded their over-the-air schedule to include MOR-TV in Tampa in the middle of the season.
It would appear games will likely stream on DAZN next season, although that deal is not official. It does not appear the Orlando Magic will go to a streaming-exclusive model like the Minnesota Timberwolves.
But the Magic are still clearly working some of this out. Nothing has been announced officially.
With the season on the horizon, everyone should be eager for that official announcement.
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