How we all feel and why

[ORLMagicGirl15]

I have such mixed emotions, I have no idea what to think. On one hand, disappointment is what I've known these five years which taught me to taper my expectations. Looking at our summer acquisitions, we didn't add a top 3 draft pick, no superstar pickups and no budding playmaker. We've added a ton of high character guys that would be coming off the bench on playoff teams. On the other hand, these past five games have shown me that this season is not like the past five years. The team didn't need half a season to get acclimated to each other, they've built that trust and chemistry before the preseason. We've added a great draft pick in Isaac who understand and can play the game at this level, Simmons as an alpha male, and a bunch of players that seem to enjoy the game of basketball and just want to help this team win.......OH YEAH Vuc and Gordon, what has gotten into them? And yet we have no idea how Elf is going to play for us. It's a little overwhelming to think that we have a CHANCE to make the playoffs.

I want a good season and I want to be able to enjoy it.

[Bensational]

I'm feeling a real heart and hustle vibe from this team. They just want it.

Vuc raining 3's is a thing of beauty. Plus, he's making some beautiful plays off the dribble with defenders closing out on him and not wanting to give him space.

Evan shooting lights out and clutch is just gorgeous.

AG showing he can be a scorer is that kind of hope we've been praying for the last 5 years.

Simmons off the bench is the heart of this team. I know he plays a bit reckless, but I love it. And he's got that bench unit competing with a fire as if they were starters themselves.

Isaac off the bench is just straight up tingles up my spine. Watching him do it all on both sides of the court so early on just has me pumped for what he can become in the future.

Then there are the other, lesser acknowledged components.

Ross just doing his thing and keeping defenses honest as a shooting threat, then playing hard on defense.

Augustin bringing the O and shooting like a stud in a time of need.

Biyombo and Iwundu bringing the cheer squad off the bench.

This hot start and the wins are exactly what this team needed to come together.

I think this season is our Boston-esque coming out party. A team of 'no names' will suddenly all have profiles by the season's end.

[Optimus_Steel]

I'm feeling a real heart and hustle vibe from this team. They just want it.

I think this season is our Boston-esque coming out party. A team of 'no names' will suddenly all have profiles by the season's end.

I feel the same. There is something about this team; intangibles they’ve never had. Has that Boston vibe from a few years ago.


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[MagicStarwipe]

I'm loving it, but....

Mod edit - it’s funny, but you know it’s inappropriate

[GameOver25]

I'm just waiting for the Magic to hit a rough patch and watching the board meltdown. It's obviously going to happen at some point.

[CPBalla2003 n da 863]

I’m stunned... happy and cautiously optimistic... we as Magic fans are just waiting for a letdown... so far it’s not happening. I’m enjoying the moment but I’m really crossing my fingers that it’s more than that.


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[ChosenSavior]

Taking these games one game at a time and trying my best to not get too high on the wins and not too low on the losses but damn this season already destroys the nightmare we all had to endure last year. I believe in this team though 100% and this season is going to be a crap load of fun for all of us.

[Knightro]

There are several things fueling this early season success. Let's take a closer look

Team Factors

The Magic are playing much faster
They are currently playing at a 106.3 pace factor as opposed to last year where they played at 99.3. Speeding things up has led to an increase in turnovers forced and points off turnovers.

The Magic are shooting SIGNIFICANTLY better from 3 and it's having a trickle down effect
Not only are the Magic are shooting a ridiculous .459 from three (.328 last year) as a team, all the extra space that has been opened up because of this sizzling start has created driving lanes. The Magic are shooting .681 as a team inside 5 feet, up from .593 as a team last year. I would anticipate both of these numbers to regress back to the mean.

The switch-everything defensive scheme has proven to be very effective against teams that lack elite penetrating guards
I don't know if this defensive scheme can hold up against high end point and shooting guards, but it's looked great against teams that can't run the pick and roll that well with their guards.

The new additions have played significantly better than the players they replaced
Watson, Green and Meeks combined to play 688 miserable minutes after the Ibaka trade last year.
-Green (-18.2 NETRTG) was replaced by Isaac (+14.7)
-Meeks (-8.7) was replaced by Simmons (+8.0)
-Watson (-19.5) was replaced by Mack (-7.2)

Isaac is already a MONSTER on defense. 20 year olds just aren't supposed to have a 5.1 DBPM. It's early, but that ranks No. 3 in the NBA. Judah is also averaging 3.8 "stocks" (STL+BLK) per 36 minutes. The only players in the league with over 3.5 "stocks" per game right now are Giannis, Durant and Boogie.

Simmons has been a consistent scoring punch off the bench, reaching double figures in all five games. He's the best player on the Magic at drawing fouls and his energy has been infectious. He hasn't been as good defensively, at least statistically speaking, as the previous two years with the Spurs, but he's hardly been bad on that end.

Individual Factors

Fournier is healthy
Two years ago, Fournier earned his 85M with an excellent age 23 season. 4.0 offensive win shares, 2.3 OBPM and a nifty little .462/.400/.836 slash line. Through a combination of injuries and being asked to shoulder more of an offensive load than he was perhaps ready to handle, Evan slumped badly last year. This year? He's healthy and is playing this year like what we expected him to do last year. The most impressive thing to me is how much effort Fournier's playing with defensively. He's been better on the defensive end in these first five games than any point in his career really.

Vucevic is taking (and making) threes
This is HUGE. Vucevic went from basically never taking threes, just 7% of his shots last year, to now taking threes on 29% of his shots. The reality of the situation is that he doesn't even have to make them at a high clip for it to completely overhaul the offense. Just the threat of shooting drags opposing centers a few extra steps out of the paint, opening driving lanes for the rest of the team and blow by opportunities for Vooch himself when guys closeout too hard. Luckily for us, Vuc is hitting at his threes at a .455 clip too.

Gordon has significantly improved his shooting
Aaron Gordon obviously isn't going to shoot .727 from three for the whole season, but the days of him being a sub 30% shooter from deep appear to be long over. His shot looks remarkably different than it did his first three years. His jumper was very mechanical early in his career and now looks smooth as silk. Rebounding is up, assists are up. He's not really defending at a super high level, but he's been such molten lava offensively that it hasn't mattered.

Augustin is on fire
There's no sugar coating it. DJ was one of the worst players in the NBA last season. He was a horrendously bad defensive player, but more disappointing than that was his .377/.347/.814 slash line, all three below his career averages. Much like Gordon (and Vucevic and Fournier), he's not going to shoot this well all year, but if he can shoot .420/.400/.840, he'll be a reasonable backup PG.

[Max Power]

I’m enjoying the ride with the team. Playoffs are a long way off but right now the Magic are showing the kind of potential they have. Gordon appears to be breaking his glass ceiling, Vucevic is bouncing back from last year, Fournier is scoring well and we appear to have a leader in Jonathan Simmons, who’s been our best acquisition in a while. If they keep it up we’ll all be proud Magic fans come April.


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[OrlandoDream]

You know its a good sign of things to come this season when 2 weeks in there is not a single topic discussion in the first page about "our draft stock" and "Top 3-5 players in next years draft."

[Last Guardian]

I think that we have really improved, but I do expect some bad stretches and to finish with around a .500 record. But its a good start and eventually Isaac is going to take his game to the next level like AG is doing now, and then we might be very good.

[Skin]

The improvement and player development are going better than expected and I expected A LOT. So I'm feeling great about this season even though I know we're not a contender. I feel like playoff expectations are realistic for once in a long time.

My emotions don't ride the highs and lows of every game. I'm thrilled when we win, but still taking it with caution. I'm bummed when we lose, but no longer feel the hopelessness that we are stuck in status quo.

Love the scrappy play that is starting to become infectious. We just need to learn how be more physical and I think that will take the whole season. Charlotte played bully and we didn't match them. Hopefully, we use that game as a learning experience.

[Max Power]

+ 1 here Skin. The Magic have almost everything they need to be a good team, but they need a guy to be nasty in the paint. An enforcer type of guy. Biyombo has the potential to be like this, but he needs to spend some time with Charles Oakley. If there was a legit Horace Grant type of guy we could acquire, I’d be all in.


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