Florida's basketball teams still mired in mediocrity

They are magnets to each other.

No matter how many changes that Florida's two NBA teams make, they find their way back to similar spots in the standings. And they keep finding two other teams in the same basic spot.

Orlando. Atlanta. Chicago. Miami.

Those were the four teams in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament at the end of the 2024-25 season, occupying the seventh through 10th spots, with Orlando and Miami both advancing out, only to both lose in the first round.

Guess which four teams were in the play-in spots entering Friday's night NBA play, with less than half of the 2025-26 season remaining?

Orlando. Miami. Chicago. Atlanta.

So all that's happened is that Miami and Atlanta swapped spots, and that could change in a couple of days, since the teams are so closely bunched together.

Meanwhile, two teams that missed the playoffs and play-in entirely last season, Toronto and Philadelphia, have jumped all four of those teams into regular playoff spots, as 2024-25 playoffs qualifiers Milwaukee and Indiana have dropped out entirely.

Entering tonight, the Magic, Heat, Hawks and Bulls are in the East play-in spots.

Last season, the Magic, Heat, Hawks and Bulls were in the East play-in spots.
— Five Reasons Sports 🏀🏈⚾️🏒⚽️ (@5ReasonsSports) January 25, 2026

This is what's known as purgatory. And while it's disappointing for all four teams, it is most depressing for the two Florida ones, because they were supposed to be somewhat better than this -- Orlando, in particular. The Magic traded four first-round picks for Desmond Bane to add to its talented young core, and while Bane has been good, all three of the Magic's top returning players have missed time, and haven't looked all that elite in the minutes they've shared on the court.

Miami was projected to be somewhere around the 7th or 8th seed by most prognosticators, but after a 14-7 start in which the Heat flashed a faster, more free-flowing and competent offense, it seemed like they might finally get out of the middle mud. Not to be. Tyler Herro's unreliability has hurt, but so has a regression back to the mean by many in the supporting cast, without a true superstar to carry them.

Atlanta, meanwhile, had an encouraging first few weeks behind Jalen Johnson, which was part of the reason it felt comfortable trading Trae Young, but the Hawks have struggled since that trade. Chicago? No one really knows what the Bulls are doing, except barely treading water as they have for so many seasons now.

This is not the company you want to keep.

And yet here they all are, again.