Bold Magic Predictions

[basketballRob]

We have a top-15 offense and a top-15 defense.

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26th in offense and 13th on defense.

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[RichCollab]

Fultz will be starting PG for the next 3 years.

[drsd]

I don't visit tankathon.com before March.

Well: here we are after game-79 all testing our pulls now.

My pull today: 8 and 12 (Bulls).

[eyriq]

My pull today: 2 and 12 (Bulls).

[Magic_Kingdom]

I'm pleasantly shocked the Magic have won 34 games and weren't eliminated from the play-in until there were three games left.

But this is what makes it even crazier:

Jonathan Isaac -- 68 games missed
Gary Harris -- 31 games missed
Jalen Suggs -- 29 games missed
Wendell Carter, Jr. -- 23 games missed
Markelle Fultz -- 21 games missed
Cole Anthony -- 20 games missed

It's definitely not a stretch to say this team likely would have made the playoffs if reasonably healthy.

[Max Power]

Gotta agree with Kingdom here. Had Fultz missed less time early, and Paolo hadn’t missed a couple weeks in November I think this very well could have been a playoff team. I think as constructed this is a low end playoff team next season if heath reigns. I’m thinking this is a 43 win team. Depending on off-season moves, it could be a team that grabs wins in the high 40’s.

It’s also not lost on me that all the injuries are the reason the Magic improved, forcing guys to step up and helping to forge that scrappy style of play that this team has gotten an identity from.

[Skybox]

Jordan Poole will be the leading scorer on the Magic next year and an East All-Star (along with Paolo).

[pepe1991]

if you remove corpses of Isaac , Magic had pretty normal season in terms of injuries.

If you look at best teams from East, it's pretty similar.
Bucks- 60% of season without MIddelton, Giannis 20 games off, Pat Con 20 games off
Celtics- Robert Williams 60% season off, Brogdon, Smart, Horford all in 16-20 games missed range
76ers- Embiid, Harden, Maxey all in 20 games missed range


You simply won't have 5 starters playing 80 games each any year in nba you can only hope for like 70 at best, and it's almost guaranteed that one will be hurt for longer period of time. That's nba reality.
Nuggets will only have KCP as starter with 70 games played this year. That's pretty much new normal.

[SOUL]

if you remove corpses of Isaac , Magic had pretty normal season in terms of injuries.

If you look at best teams from East, it's pretty similar.
Bucks- 60% of season without MIddelton, Giannis 20 games off, Pat Con 20 games off
Celtics- Robert Williams 60% season off, Brogdon, Smart, Horford all in 16-20 games missed range
76ers- Embiid, Harden, Maxey all in 20 games missed range


You simply won't have 5 starters playing 80 games each any year in nba you can only hope for like 70 at best, and it's almost guaranteed that one will be hurt for longer period of time. That's nba reality.
Nuggets will only have KCP as starter with 70 games played this year. That's pretty much new normal.

We were very healthy once we had people come back 2 months into season, before that we were leading the league by a wide margin for another straight year with 5-8 people out a game. Thankfully second half (besides Isaac re-injury) most people were very healthy

[pepe1991]

if you remove corpses of Isaac , Magic had pretty normal season in terms of injuries.

If you look at best teams from East, it's pretty similar.
Bucks- 60% of season without MIddelton, Giannis 20 games off, Pat Con 20 games off
Celtics- Robert Williams 60% season off, Brogdon, Smart, Horford all in 16-20 games missed range
76ers- Embiid, Harden, Maxey all in 20 games missed range


You simply won't have 5 starters playing 80 games each any year in nba you can only hope for like 70 at best, and it's almost guaranteed that one will be hurt for longer period of time. That's nba reality.
Nuggets will only have KCP as starter with 70 games played this year. That's pretty much new normal.

We were very healthy once we had people come back 2 months into season, before that we were leading the league by a wide margin for another straight year with 5-8 people out a game. Thankfully second half (besides Isaac re-injury) most people were very healthy

I 100% refuse to count Isaac as player any more
Guy showed up 43 times in last 310 games.

[Skybox]

if you remove corpses of Isaac , Magic had pretty normal season in terms of injuries.

If you look at best teams from East, it's pretty similar.
Bucks- 60% of season without MIddelton, Giannis 20 games off, Pat Con 20 games off
Celtics- Robert Williams 60% season off, Brogdon, Smart, Horford all in 16-20 games missed range
76ers- Embiid, Harden, Maxey all in 20 games missed range


You simply won't have 5 starters playing 80 games each any year in nba you can only hope for like 70 at best, and it's almost guaranteed that one will be hurt for longer period of time. That's nba reality.
Nuggets will only have KCP as starter with 70 games played this year. That's pretty much new normal.

True…this season felt exceptionally healthy because ORL has had such terrible injury luck previously

[SOUL]

I mean we were still very injured. Amazing how few games the Kings missed though.

NBA Games Missed Due to Injury and Injury Metrics March 30, 2023. NBA Injury Data Summary: The Miami Heat (271 games missed by injured players) and Orlando Magic (269) have been the most injured teams in the NBA. The Sacramento Kings (59) and New York Knicks (84) have been the healthiest.

[Audi]

I mean we were still very injured. Amazing how few games the Kings missed though.

NBA Games Missed Due to Injury and Injury Metrics March 30, 2023. NBA Injury Data Summary: The Miami Heat (271 games missed by injured players) and Orlando Magic (269) have been the most injured teams in the NBA. The Sacramento Kings (59) and New York Knicks (84) have been the healthiest.

Something in the water in FL?

[jezzerinho]

if you remove corpses of Isaac , Magic had pretty normal season in terms of injuries.

If you look at best teams from East, it's pretty similar.
Bucks- 60% of season without MIddelton, Giannis 20 games off, Pat Con 20 games off
Celtics- Robert Williams 60% season off, Brogdon, Smart, Horford all in 16-20 games missed range
76ers- Embiid, Harden, Maxey all in 20 games missed range


You simply won't have 5 starters playing 80 games each any year in nba you can only hope for like 70 at best, and it's almost guaranteed that one will be hurt for longer period of time. That's nba reality.
Nuggets will only have KCP as starter with 70 games played this year. That's pretty much new normal.

True…this season felt exceptionally healthy because ORL has had such terrible injury luck previously

Our problem was really having no guards early on. All our injuries came in the same spot - Suggs, Fultz, Harris..

We were rolling out K Harris and Ross.


Were Paolo, Okeke and of course Isaac all put at one time too? Rings a bell...


Then there was a period when we had like 8 or 9 warm bodies total...

[pepe1991]

if you remove corpses of Isaac , Magic had pretty normal season in terms of injuries.

If you look at best teams from East, it's pretty similar.
Bucks- 60% of season without MIddelton, Giannis 20 games off, Pat Con 20 games off
Celtics- Robert Williams 60% season off, Brogdon, Smart, Horford all in 16-20 games missed range
76ers- Embiid, Harden, Maxey all in 20 games missed range


You simply won't have 5 starters playing 80 games each any year in nba you can only hope for like 70 at best, and it's almost guaranteed that one will be hurt for longer period of time. That's nba reality.
Nuggets will only have KCP as starter with 70 games played this year. That's pretty much new normal.

True…this season felt exceptionally healthy because ORL has had such terrible injury luck previously

Our problem was really having no guards early on. All our injuries came in the same spot - Suggs, Fultz, Harris..

We were rolling out K Harris and Ross.


Were Paolo, Okeke and of course Isaac all put at one time too? Rings a bell...


Then there was a period when we had like 8 or 9 warm bodies total...

yep, first 25 games were brutal.

[Rainwater]

Taking away the fact that all teams face injuries, although some may say the magic more than others, I just don't agree with the assumption that the magic would have won more games in the earlier part of the season if healthy. The schedule in the early part of the season was difficult and many of the teams they lost to in the early part of the season beat them again later in the season when healthy. Also add the fact they were young, inexperienced, and hadn't played many games together I really don't know if its a forgone conclusion this was a playoff team.

[SOUL]

Taking away the fact that all teams face injuries, although some may say the magic more than others, I just don't agree with the assumption that the magic would have won more games in the earlier part of the season if healthy. The schedule in the early part of the season was difficult and many of the teams they lost to in the early part of the season beat them again later in the season when healthy. Also add the fact they were young, experienced, and hadn't played many games together I really don't know if its a forgone conclusion this was a playoff team.

Even 4 wins there isn't insignificant. I think they're in the play in race regardless, maybe not guaranteed, but closer to where Toronto or Chicago is. And maybe we make a move during trade deadline if things stabilized earlier.

I mean, having a rotating door of injuries and having like 60%-70% of your regular rotation unavailable for you most games is tough for any team. We definitely would've won more. Even if we were like, 9-16 or something instead.

[Rainwater]

Taking away the fact that all teams face injuries, although some may say the magic more than others, I just don't agree with the assumption that the magic would have won more games in the earlier part of the season if healthy. The schedule in the early part of the season was difficult and many of the teams they lost to in the early part of the season beat them again later in the season when healthy. Also add the fact they were young, experienced, and hadn't played many games together I really don't know if its a forgone conclusion this was a playoff team.

Even 4 wins there isn't insignificant. I think they're in the play in race regardless, maybe not guaranteed, but closer to where Toronto or Chicago is. And maybe we make a move during trade deadline if things stabilized earlier.

I mean, having a rotating door of injuries and having like 60%-70% of your regular rotation unavailable for you most games is tough for any team. We definitely would've won more. Even if we were like, 9-16 or something instead.

Yeah, I could see a 4 game increase for a shot at the play ins but I don't know about an automatic playoff spot. The early part of the schedule was hard. They played Cleveland twice, phily twice, ATL twice, Ind twice before the Haliburton injury, Brooklyn before the Durant trade, Mil, a healthy Minnn team, and Sac; these were not automatic wins even if healthy. I just wouldn't put all the blame on injuries. I just believe the season played out as it should have.