The Orlando Magic are heading into next season with the same big-picture goals, but a much heavier sense of unfinished business.
That was the wound from last spring: a season full of promise that still ended in the first round, with the Magic walking off the floor at Little Caesars Arena in May and staring at the same result they were trying to escape. They had talked all year about homecourt advantage, winning a playoff series and pushing toward the NBA Finals. Instead, they were back in the Play-In Tournament and left trying to explain how a team with that much belief could still come up short.
Paolo Banchero made clear the disappointment still lingers. Speaking on The Stephen A. Smith Show, he called last season the one that hurt the most.
"This last year was probably the one that hurt the most, being up 3-1 and losing in Game 7 and feeling like we had a real shot," Banchero said on The Stephen A. Smith Show.
"Franz going down hurt us. Just telling everybody that we can't be satisfied.
Losing in the first round, that can't be the standard. That's not good enough.
"With everyone, that was already understood. Me, myself and some of the guys on the team have had a lot of conversations over the summer.
You can tell it's a different type of mentality and a different level of focus. I think everybody is ready to take that next step."
That next step is exactly what the Magic keep circling back to. The season did not just end with a loss; it ended with a Game 6 collapse that featured an NBA-worst offensive showing in the second half when they had a chance to close out the series.
Injuries also kept the team from ever fully showing what it thought it could be. The result was frustration, and plenty of it.
The Magic entered the year with real buzz after a second playoff trip and the addition of Desmond Bane. Around the league, some saw them as a team capable of reaching the Eastern Conference finals or even threatening to win the conference. For a while, they gave people reasons to believe, including a 3-1 series lead over the 60-win Detroit Pistons.
But that edge disappeared, and so did the season’s momentum. Franz Wagner’s injury stripped away a major piece of the team’s versatility, and Orlando never recovered in time.
Banchero has said the team has to own that failure, even with Jamahl Mosley taking the blame on the outside. President of basketball operations Jeff Weltman has echoed the same sentiment, saying the finish left a bad taste around the organization. Banchero’s only public comments after the season, before this weekend’s interview, carried the same message: almost advancing is not enough.
The offseason has not erased that feeling. If anything, it seems to have sharpened it.
The early outlook still has Orlando in the Play-In Tournament, and not many people are willing to peg the Magic as a surprise Eastern Conference finalist the way some did a year ago. They are viewed more as a peripheral threat now in a crowded conference. But inside the franchise, the goals have not changed.
Banchero repeated that at Fanatics Fest in New York last weekend, saying the target remains homecourt advantage and a deep playoff run.
The Magic mostly brought back the same roster, with Sean Sweeney as the biggest change. That puts a lot on the new direction to click quickly. The team’s success will depend on whether Sweeney can find the right approach to get more out of this group, and whether the players fully buy in.
That buy-in has to come from everyone, but especially from the two stars leading the way in Banchero and Franz Wagner. The Magic’s future depends on young players taking real steps forward, not just talking about potential.
That is where the pressure sits now. The league already saw what this group could be.
The Magic have talked enough about it. Now they have to show it.
This is a season with redemption written all over it. Orlando has the same belief, the same expectations and the same opportunity. What it needs now are different results.
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