My quick maths tells me the Magic are the third most improved team in the NBA.

[Petre1978]

I was taking a quick look at win totals last year (end of year totals) compared to win totals thus far this season.
I am including the win tonight.
I may be off a game for some other teams playing tonight.

But it looks like the Magic are the third most improved team in the NBA this season.
And that with being riddled with injuries in the beginning of the season, and slimming down the roster via trades.

This is a sign of more good things to come.

Here are the most improved teams thus far, noting their games above last seasons total.

Kings + 16

Thunder + 14

Magic + 11

Pacers + 8

[pepe1991]

Wins are this year spread different than last year(s) in general.

There will be no 60 wins team this year for first time since 1979. ( not counting lockdowns, lockouts, shorter seasons).


There is lot more of middle ground parity between non contenders and there aren't many tankers this year.

But also there is lot of loud menagment and contenders who don't give a s*** about their draft position as long as they avoid playin.

MVP race is race between two players who are on pace to miss 15-20 games each.
Scoring title will be won by player who just reached mandatory minimum to win it.
DPOY race is race nobody even talks nor cares about.

But on bigger scale nothing structual changed, nba title favorites are: Bucks, Celtics, Suns, Warriors and Nuggets. Minus nets, that's identical bunch from start of a season.


Magic ,Pacers and Thunder win jump is more product of no blatant tanking that we saw last year, playing NBA- level rotations more, good drafting and individual growth. But there is also important to figure that last year having 5th worst record was "achived" by winning 25 games. Where this year 5th worst record has +10 games won than last year, and that piggy banks my point of level of parity of non contenders being more noticable (and also amount of tankers being lower than usual, witch is indicator of not so strong draft).

[jezzerinho]

Wins are this year spread different than last year(s) in general.

There will be no 60 wins team this year for first time since 1979. ( not counting lockdowns, lockouts, shorter seasons).


There is lot more of middle ground parity between non contenders and there aren't many tankers this year.

But also there is lot of loud menagment and contenders who don't give a s*** about their draft position as long as they avoid playin.

MVP race is race between two players who are on pace to miss 15-20 games each.
Scoring title will be won by player who just reached mandatory minimum to win it.
DPOY race is race nobody even talks nor cares about.

But on bigger scale nothing structual changed, nba title favorites are: Bucks, Celtics, Suns, Warriors and Nuggets. Minus nets, that's identical bunch from start of a season.


Magic ,Pacers and Thunder win jump is more product of no blatant tanking that we saw last year, playing NBA- level rotations more, good drafting and individual growth. But there is also important to figure that last year having 5th worst record was "achived" by winning 25 games. Where this year 5th worst record has +10 games won than last year, and that piggy banks my point of level of parity of non contenders being more noticable (and also amount of tankers being lower than usual, witch is indicator of not so strong draft).

That all indicates that the Magic's jump in wins is more impressive than if it had happened last year. Fewer tanking teams means fewer gifted games. And while there are not so many great teams, the good teams are all trying hard , as they all have play-in/playoff aspirations.

All in all a great result. Plus we know that

1) we don't have enough shooting
2) Bol, Moe and Schofield are not gonna cut it.
3) Harris should be moved
4) Fultz can't run pnr
5) PF/center depth is questionable

So the consolidation moves should be relatively clear.

This is not an OKC situation, where the hierarchy of players isn't clear yet and Chet is out. They should probably not look to consolidate yet. We absolutely should.

[eyriq]

I love everything about this analysis. Doing this on the back of Franz and Paolo is the perfect scenario

[Knightro]

The Magic are 28-24 since December 5th. That's a 44-win pace over a full season. 44 wins could very well end up being the 6th seed this season.

Can they do that over a whole season? If they can, how do they get to the next level beyond that?

It's not *that* difficult to go from bad to average. It's not *that* difficult to go from average to good.

It's really difficult to go from good to great.

[eyriq]

The Magic are 28-24 since December 5th. That's a 44-win pace over a full season. 44 wins could very well end up being the 6th seed this season.

Can they do that over a whole season? If they can, how do they get to the next level beyond that?

It's not *that* difficult to go from bad to average. It's not *that* difficult to go from average to good.

It's really difficult to go from good to great.

It's going to have to come from the organic development of Franz and Paolo and savvy personnel decisions for role players. I think WCJ is near to what he is, as is Fultz, with some upside potential. Cole has more upside but slightly less value, while Suggs is our wildcard still. Not to mention the two lottery picks. I think we need another year of development and patience, while also adding a vet like FVV.

[YosemiteSam]

The Magic are 28-24 since December 5th. That's a 44-win pace over a full season. 44 wins could very well end up being the 6th seed this season.

Can they do that over a whole season? If they can, how do they get to the next level beyond that?

It's not *that* difficult to go from bad to average. It's not *that* difficult to go from average to good.

It's really difficult to go from good to great.

To me there are two things required to get to great. And you need both.

1. Finding a very good to great player where no one expects to find them. For example, drafting someone like Desmond Bane at the end of the first round, or finding a player like Jokic or Khris Middleton in the second round. These are difference-making players at places no one expects.
2. Clearly winning a trade based upon either desperation from another team or a really bad choice. Examples of this are the Jason Tatum-Markelle Fultz draft trade or what Cleveland did in getting Mitchell for basically scraps so they didn’t gut their team.

Otherwise, relying on non-number one lottery picks or people available in free agency are just small adjustments that won’t move the needle beyond going from low average to high average

One other thing that might make a huge difference is a talent making a late leap that we had given up hope on. For us that is Suggs somehow finding a shot and combining that with his other skills to fulfill his promise when we drafted him. I wouldn’t expect it but if it happened that is how a team could make a leap.

[pepe1991]

There are lot of lessions to be learned by watching other teams.

Knighro nailed it that it's not that hard to go from bad to okey.

Nets traded Durant and Irving and have 30% of salary rotting in Ben Simmons, yet they still held their spot in standings (and are what? 10-10 or 9-12 or something like that after trades)

Raptors show that if you don't grow, you revert and decline so holding onto same roster for ages in current nba makes no sense if you aren't apsolute top tear contender.

Wolves show that selling farm for defensive specialist is disaster.

Okc shows that you don't have to build your rebuilding roster from 15 top 5 selected picks to be good.

Memphis show that selection of right mid first round picks can be pivotal for sucess.

Kings show that you need to take on a chin bad PR from "bad trade" if you 100% belive that you are doing right thing ( apsolute nightmare of trade, PR vise was their Haliburton- Sabonis move ,but Sabonis proved that he is elite player and will lead them to first playoffs since 2006. As team with home court adventage.

[drsd]

The Magic are 28-24 since December 5th. That's a 44-win pace over a full season. 44 wins could very well end up being the 6th seed this season.

Can they do that over a whole season? If they can, how do they get to the next level beyond that?

If the Magic does not win 41 games next year, it is a failure of a season. But this analysis makes me wonder: with some structural improvements to the roster, added to internal growth, is a 50 win season possible next year?