OrlChamps2030 wrote:Skin wrote:What the Magic did this year was literally the EASIEST thing any team in the NBA can do. Getting knocked out of the playoffs in the first round in 5 games is EASY. Competing for the playoffs in the EAST against the likes of terrible teams like Brooklyn, Detroit, Charlotte is EASY. Especially during a period when bad teams are tanking and good teams are resting players for the playoffs. I don't know what's so great about this season. Not like we got there on the heels of our young budding talent (Fultz, Isaac, Bamba). We got there because of Vucevic, Augustine, Ross and Fournier. Majority of this forum is looking for replacements over all of those 4!
Gordon didn't take a big step forward as hoped. Clifford's goal for him was 1st team All-NBA Defense. He's still a good player, but people are often including the phrase "he's a declining contract" as one of his best attributes. Jeez.
In order for our future to be bright, we need to get lucky in the draft, push for a youth movement and hope coach can develop them and eventually win with them. Kemba Walker is not coming here. Bradley Beal is not being traded for. A Nik Vucevic centered offense is not going to get us out of Round 1. He's way too soft. Locking him up with our cap space for the next 4 years is gonna spell doom. Better to look for young budding players on the verge of breaking out.
Brutal truth.
More than half the teams in the league make the playoffs, sneaking into the postseason to get your cheeks clapped in 5 is hardly something to beat your chest over.
Making it to 40 wins and getting smashed in the first round is the easy part, getting to 50 wins and advancing to the second round is the hard part
But it's progress... or does everyone think you hit that 50 win mark and playoff success is just something that a team that won 25 games last season just falls into without adding a superstar type player. crawl - walk - run.
No one is beating their chest and screaming from the mountain tops that we are now a force to be wreckin with... but you still have to stop and smell the daisies along the way. It was the Raptors... horrible matchup from the beginning. but we can say..."Good step forward guys... let's keep on going"