Not every Magic fan is going to make it to every home game, but a couple dates on the 2026-27 calendar stand out right away.
The Orlando Magic’s schedule has been public for weeks, and if you’re the type who picks and chooses instead of locking in a full slate, there are two nights that look especially worth the trip.
The first comes on Feb. 2, when New Orleans comes to town.
On paper, a Pelicans game usually wouldn’t jump off the page. But this one carries extra juice because it puts former Magic coach Jamahl Mosley back in the picture, now on the opposite sideline from new Orlando coach Sean Sweeney. The teams will already have seen each other once before that, meeting for the first time on Jan. 8 in New Orleans, so there will be a little context built in by the time the rematch lands in Orlando.
Mosley’s run in Orlando ended after five seasons, and his final chapter with the team closed with the Magic blowing a 3-1 first-round lead against the No. 1-seeded Detroit Pistons. A day after that playoff exit, his time with the franchise was over.
He didn’t stay available for long. The Pelicans hired him on May 18, giving him another chance to steer a struggling team in the right direction.
Sweeney, by contrast, steps into a much stronger situation than the one Mosley inherited, after Mosley helped turn Orlando into a repeat postseason team. Now the pressure is on Sweeney, a first-time head coach, to push that progress even further.
Then comes Feb. 12, when Miami makes its first regular-season visit to Orlando.
That one feels late on the calendar considering how often these teams were seeing each other last season as division rivals, but it should be one of the more interesting tests on the home schedule. If both teams are healthy, it will be the first real look at the Magic against Miami’s new-look group featuring Giannis Antetokounmpo, Klay Thompson and others.
And for Orlando, there’s a practical layer to it too: any win over the Heat matters in the chase for the playoffs. The Magic went undefeated against Miami last season, but repeating that kind of clean sweep figures to be a tougher assignment this time around.
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Branham arrives with the kind of profile that makes sense for a club in Orlandos position: limited NBA experience, some appeal as a three-point threat, and enough uncertainty to keep the upside tethered to the risk. His minutes have trended down in recent seasons, which is part of why this is such a restrained swing rather than a headline-grabbing acquisition. For the Magic, the real question is whether these conservative additions can add up to something useful once Sean Sweeney gets his first season underway. [Read more 🡒]
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