Magic Season Grades: Judging Orlando’s Season After Blowing 3

After a wild ride to end the season, the Magic’s campaign is finally over.

Orlando looked on the verge of washing out before the playoffs even began after an awful loss to end the regular season followed by an utterly lifeless showing in the first play-in game. But the roster completely turned things around, earning the No. 8 seed and immediately jumping the Pistons to take a shocking 3–1 series lead over the No. 1 team in the East.

But the Magic failed to take advantage. The tide turned against them once Franz Wagner got hurt again and a historically awful collapse in Game 6 set the stage for a devastating Game 7 defeat in Detroit. Despite needing only one more win to move onto the second round and shock the NBA world, Orlando is instead heading home with a long offseason ahead of the franchise.

Let’s grade how the regular season and playoff run went for this year’s Magic squad.

Magic regular season grade: C-

Orlando Magi — The Magic’s regular season left much to be desired. | Brad Penner-Imagn Images

The Magic were arguably the most disappointing team in the NBA this year and that wasn’t going to change no matter how the playoff run went.

Orlando traded three first-round picks for Desmond Bane last year as the final addition the roster needed to compete at the top of the conference. Bane, at least, delivered—but nobody else did. Everybody on the Magic’s roster struggled throughout the season, and Paolo Banchero in particular had a tough campaign. The young Orlando forward was expected to take a big step forward this season and instead took a step back; he dropped from 25ppg last season to only 22 this year while shooting worse from three. The 23-year-old has many good years in front of him but he made for a big letdown this season at large.

Wagner, the other half of the Magic’s young forward pairing, essentially had a lost year due to an ankle injury that just would not go away. He finished the season with only 34 games played and only enjoyed a few good moments against the Pistons before getting hurt again.

Orlando’s final 45–37 record doesn’t quite convey the struggles the team went through this season. On a disturbing number of nights the roster looked disjointed and completely uninspired under coach Jamahl Mosley. Injuries were certainly a factor but for the most part the Magic just played bad basketball for most of the season—bad enough that it overwhelmed more positive developments like Bane’s excellent play and Anthony Black coming into his own.

Magic playoffs grade: B

All the above points made Orlando’s playoff run all the more baffling—and exciting.

After looking dead in the water from October to April, the Magic suddenly played like the team we all thought they could be once the playoffs began. Orlando’s defense was suffocating. Banchero played like a true No. 1 scoring option while getting support up and down the roster once Wagner was ruled out halfway through the series. Bane and Jalen Suggs were outstanding. Jamal Cain came out of nowhere to become a critical aspect of the rotation and had the dunk of the playoffs. The roster at large played with amazing energy and focus.

It was honestly remarkable to watch. We’ve seen teams peak in the playoffs after underwhelming moments in the regular season but the Magic team we watched this regular season didn’t seem capable of even scratching the heights they’d reach in the postseason. It served as much-needed proof of concept, that Banchero was indeed a true No. 1 and the roster assembled around him was capable of playing winning basketball in the playoffs despite the obvious offensive deficiencies.

All that makes for a very rosy view of the direction the franchise is heading. But they blew a 3–1 lead. That is a very difficult pill to swallow regardless of context. And they blew that lead by scoring 19 points in the second half of Game 6 despite going up by 22 in the first half.

It was a fitting encapsulation of the multitudes this Magic team contained: they could look like one of the best teams in the world for one quarter and like they had never touched a basketball the next. A very strange team. After experiencing the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in the same series, a B feels like it captures the whole range well enough.

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