It is very easy to get wrapped up in the disappointment of the Orlando Magic’s current losing slide. They have lost eight of nine games to fall below .500 at the midpoint of the season after Wednesday’s home defeat to the Philadelphia 76ers.
The optimism from early season strength and a 19-13 record have worn off in this dreadful January.
Still, the Magic promised they would be in the Playoff conversation and play meaningful basketball games. Taking that step up was a key goal for the season and an important point for the team moving forward in its rebuild.
Many fans would be sitting in October thinking 20-21 is a dream, and that is an important point to remember. While there is still plenty of disappointment over how the Magic are playing right now, this perspective is not lost on general manager Rob Hennigan. He spoke with Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel in a midseason update:
Clearly our play over the past few weeks has been choppy and inconsistent, which has been frustrating. We’re continuing to search for that balance and rhythm that we had earlier in the season. We’ve shown we’re capable of doing it. Now it’s a matter of harnessing it consistently and executing the plan that Scott and his staff are laying out each night. I think the root of our frustration has been the inconsistent play, the up-and-down play, and that’s certainly not something to take lightly, and we need to get it addressed and put our finger on why that’s happening.
But if you take a step back and look at the big picture, I’d say, by and large, we’ve made considerable progress. We’re a game out of the eighth seed in a much-improved Eastern Conference. We’ve played more games decided by three points or less than any team in the league. The next step for us is obviously doing a better job of closing out those games, and I think the key thing to remember is we’re doing it primarily with players in their first, second, third, fourth and fifth years. I looked up this stat the other day: Eighty-six percent of our total minutes played this season have been played by players with five years of NBA experience or fewer, and I believe that’s the second-highest percentage in the NBA behind Philadelphia.
The flip side of that coin is that it shows we’re still very much a work in progress. It shows we’re still building, we’re still climbing, and the reality is that young teams like ours are going to take a few steps forward, fall a few steps back, with probably a few U-turns in between. But we believe our guys will eventually figure it out.
It also shows we need to keep improving the team and adding to the team and looking at every possible way to do that.
The Magic have shown themselves, if anything, to be far from a finished product at the midpoint of the season. There is some definite tweaking for them to do in the coming months — whether that be at February’s trade deadline or during the offseason.
Still Orlando has accomplished a lot this season to this point in regaining respectability and at least being in the Playoff conversation. Of course, the story is only half written. And the team has to come out of this slump and stay in the Playoff hunt — they are only a game out of the final Playoff spot — to make this season a success.
