For the second season in a row, Orlando managed to qualify for the playoffs in one of the last available spots, got a huge upset win in the first game of the series but then lost all the following games and got eliminated.
Very few teams will have the same level of continuity that Orlando will have this season, which might be an edge for them early in the season. Their rookie Cole Anthony will be the only major addition to a roster that knows itself very well.
Coach Clifford is a defensive first head coach that managed to put Orlando in the top 10 of the defensive rankings in the last two seasons . This goal will be harder to reach this season as Jonathan Isaac will likely miss the whole season. His potential replacement Al-Farouq Aminu suffered a setback during his recovery from a right meniscus surgery back in January, so Orlando will have some defensive issues on the perimeter.
Already without Isaac midway last season, the Magic defense suffered a considerable drop in efficiency. In that stretch, the Magic went 12 consecutive games “Over” the total just before the Covid-
With Vucevic already established as a solid offensive player, Orlando is counting on Markelle Fultz’s development (the best story of the year for them last season) and especially on Aaron Gordon to dominate at the PF position, something that simply did not happen last season as he had a subpar offensive season with just 43.7% FG, 30.8% 3pts and 67.4% FT. This will be a decisive season in order to understand if he is just a solid role player like these numbers are showing or if there is another gear on him.
Given that Orlando should regress on defense given Isaac’s absence, this means that Orlando will need a boost on offense, an area where they have been in the bottom 10 of the league in the last two seasons.
For that, Fultz, Gordon and eventually Cole Anthony will have to be the key to create this boost on the offensive end, and for the Magic, that means a respective effective field goal percentage (the Magic were just ranked #27 last season with a putrid .506).