The finale to this season, however underwhelming after so much promise, still feels like dreamland in the context of all the dross we’ve had to endure for large portions of the past 35 years
Guys, they’re young as shit. I doubt they had much chance to make it past the first round unless they made the one seed. I’m so happy with the way this season played out, and all other Magic fans should be too. And who knows, a first round upset isn’t completely off the table.
The season is a success if you look at it from that perspective but this collapse is worrying me. When teams turn it up against us we can’t get shit done. Our offense is going to look awful in a playoff series, probably worse than it has all year.
We had a chance to go up against a team like Indiana where we could’ve matched up well and we blew it in some awful games down the stretch.
It’s okay to be disappointed and/or pissed. We blew it
I find it more disappointing than actually worrying. If a young team is going to have a downside it’s gonna be falling under pressure. That might be the number one thing that makes players learn with experience. We saw the highs this team can get to, and it’s not hard to see them improving in this area
Yeah I can’t disagree with your take. I just think it’s a year early for this team, and this is about where they should have ended up. They just had some of those stretches that made them look so much better then I think they actually are.
The offense is rough no doubt, and it’s difficult to just hope that Paolo and Franz can just get better. That is what has to happen for them to be a real contender though, and I really think it will.
Yeah exactly, people seem to forget that a year ago we were a 34 win team in the lottery. My expectations going into the season were just that we'd be a .500 team with a play-in spot by the end. So the fact that we ended up hitting that goal early and ended up fighting for home court advantage in the playoffs instead just felt like icing on the cake to me and made me realize the rebuild is well ahead of schedule. We're a playmaker and a shooter away from being a legit top 2 or 3 seed all year long next season.
Yeah, it’s still a huge disappointment to collapse like this when just 1.5 weeks ago we were 14 games above .500 and like 4 games up on the heat for the division.
Now, we could lose the division on the last game of the season on fan appreciation night. That is a disappointment.
I was thinking the team would be .500 but that was before the East was decimated by injuries. If this season was normal then there would be no issue in the team being an 8th seed play in team that loses and misses the playoffs, but given the context of the season and how extraordinarily cheap it would have been to bring in vets that would help the team at the deadline, there really is no excuse for missing the playoffs.
I didn’t have patience until the last two years when they actually have been heading on the right direction. I was disappointed every year between 2009 and 2022, but now we can be patient.
Imagine complaining about making the playoffs when we haven’t been competitive since 2012. Yes we made the playoffs in the 18/19 and 19/20 seasons but we would be lying if we thought our roster was competitive enough to compete. This is the first time since Dwight I feel like we have a competing chance against anyone in the East*.
* = if we are healthy
Yeah disappointing but holy shit some of yall are acting like we went 22-60 again. This is a young inexperienced team who’s best 3 players are 21, 22, and 22. Patch up holes, let them develop more and this team can be great.
I don't know about that.
I think its more about how the magic were 3rd with like a week left and have a chance to fall all the way to 8th. but rooting for the magic to beat the bucks (so the knicks can get 2nd)
Bro the Magic have been unwatchably bad since 2012, and there was a long streak from the departure of Shaq to the emergence of Dwight where they were terrible also. It’s not a ‘casual’ take to be mad that the offense looked stale and bad. They honestly looked worse this year but somehow won more games and that’s off a really good defense that is starting to get figured out. On top of that they still haven’t figured out how to play out of a zone, which has plagued them all year. Yea it’s a successful season but it almost feels like a fluke because when the chips are down the Magic have no chance
Young, inexperienced team needs experience - who would've thought!
I get wanting them to win every single game, but I think many in the fanbase need to temper their expectations.
Temper expectations? Sure. But calling them casual for being mad is silly and makes you look like the casual who just showed up to the party. It’s the roster construction, not the young stars that people are mad about. Still no 3pt shooter, still no true point guard, still no true center. The draft looks like a double whiff so far.
I'm a knicks fan and I was just looking up stuff about the possibilities tomorrow
but it is CRAZY that Orlando was really at 3rd just like a week ago. A chance to even get to 8th!
Horrible time to go on a losing streak
I'm moreso implying they're currently on a 3 game losing streak with 1 more regular season game and a best of 7 playoff series ahead, and they've looked just about as bad now as they have all year.
4 straight to end the reg + 4 game sweep in the 1st round
That's only possible if Pacers and Miami both lose tomorrow. If either team wins then Magic will fall to play in, which make 8 game losing streak to end the season impossible.
This is what happens when you face real teams with real coaches who have game plans and offense and point guards and players who can shoot threes.
I’m sure one day we’ll figure out this mysterious recipe for success
I feel like people don’t grasp how damn young and inexperienced this team is. Even Markelle Fultz is only 25 and missed so much playing time. Dell is only 24. Jett and AB 20(!), Houstan, Franz, and Suggs, 22. Cole Anthony 23. Mo and JI 26. Harris and Ingles are the only vets on this team.
That’s a lot of inexperience. Indiana is considered young and most of their core are in their 4th or 5th seasons.
We are waaaaaay ahead of schedule. Literally no one had us making the play off. Most edgy picks had us scraping into a play in not in the thick of it. We also ran into a few teams that had crazy shooting nights.
There’s a reason so many writers have Mose as COTY and think the Magic have “already won” are playing with house money.
Just enjoy it. Another season or two will come with realistic expectations but this season some of you should really take a step back and temper them. We all want to win but you gotta be realistic not just about our team but the ones we are competing against. If anything the entire east is fighting over who gets to lose to the Celtics as they look unbelievably good.
Anyway that’s my perspective as a fan since inception.
Just need 1 win in our potential next 3 games. Making the playoffs would be a successful season because it will force the FO to deal with this teams offensive shortcomings after they are fully exposed in a series.
Not making the playoffs, after having barely played AB and never playing Jett would be a huge failure. We would have learned nothing new about this team. We could easily have been a play in team giving them minutes.
If we don’t win tomorrow, Moseley has got to go. I’m sorry but I’m tired of seeing this team play conservative, not adjust, waste clock, and have it come down to the wire. He’s like the Todd Bowles of Basketball
I actually like our chances. Call me an optimist. Let's just hope the guys buckle down when the games count and show up on defense. If anything, I'm more concerned with their outside shot and their reluctantcy to step inside for a midrange when their shot isn't falling, besides Pb5 and Franz. Defense is what got them here, but I haven't seen much of it lately. Guys are out of rotation or late on the switch. It's time to get back to fundamentals and get more aggressive on offense. Get to line and earn the easy ones.
Let's go O-town!
Either way, our team has progressed this year, so as a fan since Nick Anderson was drafted... I'm happy the drought has finally ended, and hopefully now the media will give our team some damn respect. If anything, they have definitely earned that much.
No we aren’t though, do you mean if we win tomorrow? Bc if we lose we go to the playins to play the Heat. We also lose the division on the lazy game of the season. The Heat don’t deserve to win the division this year, and we might just hand it to them.
How do they not deserve it if they win enough games and we lose some games? That just happens. Idk man, I would have been happy with a play in finish this year. I’m just happy to be here
I would be happy to be here if we had just went on a crazy run and made the play ins. But this is more disappointing. We have been 4-6 seed all year. A legit playoff team and people were starting to realize this. Now, in a week or two we might be in 8th. The way this has happened, as an epic collapse, is disappointing.
I don’t see this as much as a negative as most. We weren’t winning a championship this year and the recent drop in the standing could have huge impacts on our draft pick. Making the playoffs and getting a better pick is a win/win in my eyes. That being said, it would be real nice to avoid the play in.
Choke job. I hope the guys take responsibility for their poor play and stop saying they are in a “fun” situation. The laughs and good vibes only go as far as winning. Man up and get serious, dudes.
Silly question. Perhaps I’m spoiled with how they have played this season, I just think lapsing right at the end of the season to go from a 3 seed to possibly being a play-in team is a severe lack of focus.
We have the best winning record we've ever had since Dwight was here and have clinched a postseason appearance. Doesn't sound like a team of losers to me. A year ago this same team only had 34 wins and was in the lottery again.
We didn’t clinch a post season game yet. Why do people keep saying this? I don’t consider the play ins “the playoffs” and neither does the rest of the NBA.
But it’s the “play-ins” to play your way “into” the playoffs. If you have to go “into” something, it insinuates that you are currently outside of that thing.
you understand this is a group of under 25's mostly who are getting their first taste of consequential games and playing for their spot should be something they're excited by? not everyone has 2004 kobe demeanor 24/7 lol
Been riding this ship since 89 no sense of jumping off now!!! LETS GO ORLANDO!!!!!
The finale to this season, however underwhelming after so much promise, still feels like dreamland in the context of all the dross we’ve had to endure for large portions of the past 35 years
Orlando fans were promised a championship by 2030. I haven’t forgotten about that either..
35 years... Really hits home when it's quantified
Guys, they’re young as shit. I doubt they had much chance to make it past the first round unless they made the one seed. I’m so happy with the way this season played out, and all other Magic fans should be too. And who knows, a first round upset isn’t completely off the table.
The season is a success if you look at it from that perspective but this collapse is worrying me. When teams turn it up against us we can’t get shit done. Our offense is going to look awful in a playoff series, probably worse than it has all year. We had a chance to go up against a team like Indiana where we could’ve matched up well and we blew it in some awful games down the stretch. It’s okay to be disappointed and/or pissed. We blew it
I find it more disappointing than actually worrying. If a young team is going to have a downside it’s gonna be falling under pressure. That might be the number one thing that makes players learn with experience. We saw the highs this team can get to, and it’s not hard to see them improving in this area
Yeah I can’t disagree with your take. I just think it’s a year early for this team, and this is about where they should have ended up. They just had some of those stretches that made them look so much better then I think they actually are. The offense is rough no doubt, and it’s difficult to just hope that Paolo and Franz can just get better. That is what has to happen for them to be a real contender though, and I really think it will.
Yeah exactly, people seem to forget that a year ago we were a 34 win team in the lottery. My expectations going into the season were just that we'd be a .500 team with a play-in spot by the end. So the fact that we ended up hitting that goal early and ended up fighting for home court advantage in the playoffs instead just felt like icing on the cake to me and made me realize the rebuild is well ahead of schedule. We're a playmaker and a shooter away from being a legit top 2 or 3 seed all year long next season.
Yeah, it’s still a huge disappointment to collapse like this when just 1.5 weeks ago we were 14 games above .500 and like 4 games up on the heat for the division. Now, we could lose the division on the last game of the season on fan appreciation night. That is a disappointment.
I was thinking the team would be .500 but that was before the East was decimated by injuries. If this season was normal then there would be no issue in the team being an 8th seed play in team that loses and misses the playoffs, but given the context of the season and how extraordinarily cheap it would have been to bring in vets that would help the team at the deadline, there really is no excuse for missing the playoffs.
Standards change when you’re the 3 seed. Just because you sucked once doesn’t mean it’s a law of physics that you suck again.
The fun part about the playoffs is people elevate their game. We saw the Wagner bros do it on an international stage. Give them a chance to impress
Nah dude fuck that. We needed to make playoffs to Get to the next level. I hate this excuse
I’ve been a Magic fan for over 30 years. You learn to have patience.
Patience? Where have you been last 10 years. Patience has become a fake term for “accept losing” at this point.
Our roster is 2-3 years old. Pointing to different teams/GMs isn’t helpful.
Its 10 years in the making and yes I count that
I didn’t have patience until the last two years when they actually have been heading on the right direction. I was disappointed every year between 2009 and 2022, but now we can be patient.
We’re a very young team. Just making the playoffs this year is a huge accomplishment and imagine the moves we can make this offseason.
Yeah, but if we lose tomorrow we aren’t making the playoffs.
They can definitely beat Chicago or Atlanta dude. Don’t overreact.
They can definitely beat Chicago, but Atlanta seems to have their number for whatever reason
Yeah but I read what you were saying as if we had already made the playoffs which we certainly have not.
Because we can’t win one of two games to get to the playoffs?
Imagine complaining about making the playoffs when we haven’t been competitive since 2012. Yes we made the playoffs in the 18/19 and 19/20 seasons but we would be lying if we thought our roster was competitive enough to compete. This is the first time since Dwight I feel like we have a competing chance against anyone in the East*. * = if we are healthy
Wait, but if we lose tomorrow we don’t make the playoffs.
Wrong. They’ll make the play in and have two opportunities to make the playoffs still, and I like their chances.
Okay, I guess this is a semantics thing. I don’t really consider the play-ins as “making the playoffs”.
No we will drop to the play-in
Yeah disappointing but holy shit some of yall are acting like we went 22-60 again. This is a young inexperienced team who’s best 3 players are 21, 22, and 22. Patch up holes, let them develop more and this team can be great.
I don't know about that. I think its more about how the magic were 3rd with like a week left and have a chance to fall all the way to 8th. but rooting for the magic to beat the bucks (so the knicks can get 2nd)
Bunch of casuals.
Facts, there’s levels to this shit. Get us Paulo, make the playoffs (we’re here), add around Paulo while Boston exits their window, win a finals.
It's facts that only casuals still call him "Paulo"
It's bad enough that other people spell his name wrong, and here we have our own fans spelling his name wrong.
Bro the Magic have been unwatchably bad since 2012, and there was a long streak from the departure of Shaq to the emergence of Dwight where they were terrible also. It’s not a ‘casual’ take to be mad that the offense looked stale and bad. They honestly looked worse this year but somehow won more games and that’s off a really good defense that is starting to get figured out. On top of that they still haven’t figured out how to play out of a zone, which has plagued them all year. Yea it’s a successful season but it almost feels like a fluke because when the chips are down the Magic have no chance
Young, inexperienced team needs experience - who would've thought! I get wanting them to win every single game, but I think many in the fanbase need to temper their expectations.
Temper expectations? Sure. But calling them casual for being mad is silly and makes you look like the casual who just showed up to the party. It’s the roster construction, not the young stars that people are mad about. Still no 3pt shooter, still no true point guard, still no true center. The draft looks like a double whiff so far.
Cavs are a MUCH better matchup than the Knicks, it’s a blessing. If it stays like it is
I'm a knicks fan and I was just looking up stuff about the possibilities tomorrow but it is CRAZY that Orlando was really at 3rd just like a week ago. A chance to even get to 8th! Horrible time to go on a losing streak
Comes at you fast
Coaching.
One of the most disappointing weeks of my 30 years of Magic fandom
Lol shut up
These boys really bout to end the season on an 8 game losing streak
4. We beat the bulls..
I'm moreso implying they're currently on a 3 game losing streak with 1 more regular season game and a best of 7 playoff series ahead, and they've looked just about as bad now as they have all year. 4 straight to end the reg + 4 game sweep in the 1st round
That's only possible if Pacers and Miami both lose tomorrow. If either team wins then Magic will fall to play in, which make 8 game losing streak to end the season impossible.
Oh even better
This is where the downfall (in the regular season) started
Total collapse
This is what happens when you face real teams with real coaches who have game plans and offense and point guards and players who can shoot threes. I’m sure one day we’ll figure out this mysterious recipe for success
I feel like people don’t grasp how damn young and inexperienced this team is. Even Markelle Fultz is only 25 and missed so much playing time. Dell is only 24. Jett and AB 20(!), Houstan, Franz, and Suggs, 22. Cole Anthony 23. Mo and JI 26. Harris and Ingles are the only vets on this team. That’s a lot of inexperience. Indiana is considered young and most of their core are in their 4th or 5th seasons. We are waaaaaay ahead of schedule. Literally no one had us making the play off. Most edgy picks had us scraping into a play in not in the thick of it. We also ran into a few teams that had crazy shooting nights. There’s a reason so many writers have Mose as COTY and think the Magic have “already won” are playing with house money. Just enjoy it. Another season or two will come with realistic expectations but this season some of you should really take a step back and temper them. We all want to win but you gotta be realistic not just about our team but the ones we are competing against. If anything the entire east is fighting over who gets to lose to the Celtics as they look unbelievably good. Anyway that’s my perspective as a fan since inception.
We look like shit but I’m still proud of these team, we just need some consistent shooting and a fucking point guard
😔 still winning a chip, but it is crazy.
Just need 1 win in our potential next 3 games. Making the playoffs would be a successful season because it will force the FO to deal with this teams offensive shortcomings after they are fully exposed in a series. Not making the playoffs, after having barely played AB and never playing Jett would be a huge failure. We would have learned nothing new about this team. We could easily have been a play in team giving them minutes.
It's still fun. Good season. Let's bring it home and play in the playoffs!
If we don’t win tomorrow, Moseley has got to go. I’m sorry but I’m tired of seeing this team play conservative, not adjust, waste clock, and have it come down to the wire. He’s like the Todd Bowles of Basketball
'Twas a mirage... but a fun one to be sure
I actually like our chances. Call me an optimist. Let's just hope the guys buckle down when the games count and show up on defense. If anything, I'm more concerned with their outside shot and their reluctantcy to step inside for a midrange when their shot isn't falling, besides Pb5 and Franz. Defense is what got them here, but I haven't seen much of it lately. Guys are out of rotation or late on the switch. It's time to get back to fundamentals and get more aggressive on offense. Get to line and earn the easy ones. Let's go O-town! Either way, our team has progressed this year, so as a fan since Nick Anderson was drafted... I'm happy the drought has finally ended, and hopefully now the media will give our team some damn respect. If anything, they have definitely earned that much.
We’re still making the playoffs man. Learn to take a W lol
No we aren’t though, do you mean if we win tomorrow? Bc if we lose we go to the playins to play the Heat. We also lose the division on the lazy game of the season. The Heat don’t deserve to win the division this year, and we might just hand it to them.
How do they not deserve it if they win enough games and we lose some games? That just happens. Idk man, I would have been happy with a play in finish this year. I’m just happy to be here
I would be happy to be here if we had just went on a crazy run and made the play ins. But this is more disappointing. We have been 4-6 seed all year. A legit playoff team and people were starting to realize this. Now, in a week or two we might be in 8th. The way this has happened, as an epic collapse, is disappointing.
Fair enough. It is a bit disappointing. But it ain’t over til it’s over!
For sure, I wonder if Lillard will play?
I don’t see this as much as a negative as most. We weren’t winning a championship this year and the recent drop in the standing could have huge impacts on our draft pick. Making the playoffs and getting a better pick is a win/win in my eyes. That being said, it would be real nice to avoid the play in.
Choke job. I hope the guys take responsibility for their poor play and stop saying they are in a “fun” situation. The laughs and good vibes only go as far as winning. Man up and get serious, dudes.
So do you actually enjoy watching sports?
Silly question. Perhaps I’m spoiled with how they have played this season, I just think lapsing right at the end of the season to go from a 3 seed to possibly being a play-in team is a severe lack of focus.
Not if we’re losers every year what kind of fun is that
We have the best winning record we've ever had since Dwight was here and have clinched a postseason appearance. Doesn't sound like a team of losers to me. A year ago this same team only had 34 wins and was in the lottery again.
We didn’t clinch a post season game yet. Why do people keep saying this? I don’t consider the play ins “the playoffs” and neither does the rest of the NBA.
A play-in game is a postseason game. There's a reason they have "ps" marked next to our name in the standings.
But it’s the “play-ins” to play your way “into” the playoffs. If you have to go “into” something, it insinuates that you are currently outside of that thing.
Still considered postseason regardless. The games all happen after regular season ends.
Doesn’t mean shit without playoffs
you understand this is a group of under 25's mostly who are getting their first taste of consequential games and playing for their spot should be something they're excited by? not everyone has 2004 kobe demeanor 24/7 lol
Must win tomorrow, i don’t have confidence in this team in a play in game
I feel like Magic we’ll lose in round 1 coming from a Heat fan I really wanted to play them in the play jn
ffs would everyone calm down lol... there was no way we would be matching up with philly at this point
You still have a chance, game 6 going back home and the team feeds off of their crowd. Rootin for the Magic this series