"Magic are poised for a bunch of years at the upper end of mediocrity." I thought this was interesting.
Blazer's Edge game preview"Blazer’s Edge Reader Questions
ralphzillo:
Is Orlando a good model for the Blazers rebuilding path? They made decent draft choices and some trades to fill out the roster. Now they are in the playoff hunt again after a fairly short (3-5 seasons) time in the cellar.
It depends on what your goals are. Do you want to be a playoff team? Or do you want to contend for a title? If you are happy with the former, the Magic are a prime example, likely in position to be a reasonably solid playoff team for a long time. They have all of their first-round picks going forward and a nice but not elite group of players with Paolo Banchero being the standout. To illustrate their situation, they have three players in The Ringer’s top 100 (same as the Blazers). The biggest problem is that none of them are in the top 30 (same as the Blazers), although if they redid the rankings today Banchero would probably sneak in there. Let’s assume Banchero keeps developing and becomes a superstar. As Blazers fans well know, one superstar is generally not enough to become a true contender. Will Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs get them to the top? Seems unlikely. So where are the players going to come from that gets them to the promised land? While Orlando has its future first-round draft picks, the Magic don’t have anyone else’s except for one from the Nuggets. They are either going to need to get really lucky with a late first-rounder or they are going to need to package a whole bunch of them in a trade and... get really lucky. You never know but the Magic are poised for a bunch of years at the upper end of mediocrity. I doubt that’s a model that Cronin is interested in."