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Magic Confident They Will Make Playoffs This Season

Josh Cohen
Digital News Manager

By John Denton
Oct. 25, 2016

ORLANDO – If an Orlando Magic team remarkably revamped over a busy summer is going to make the strides that it wants and ends this season in the playoffs, they are going to have to defy the expectations set by the rest of the basketball world.

To a man, the Magic’s front office, coaching staff and players have embraced the belief that the franchise is ready to end a four-year postseason drought and get back to the playoffs. Those playoffs-or-bust thoughts were boosted by Orlando landing head coach Frank Vogel in May and re-tooling the roster with veterans Serge Ibaka, Bismack Biyombo, Jeff Green and D.J. Augustin added to a blossoming core of Nikola Vucevic, Evan Fournier, Aaron Gordon, Elfrid Payton and Mario Hezonja.

Despite having their deepest, most talented and experienced roster in years, the Magic’s makeover has failed to impress analysts and computer models attempting to project the 2017 playoffs. Whether it’s because of the extensive amount of time needed to develop chemistry or the questions about the offense, the Magic have been almost universally picked to finish on the outside looking in come playoff time.

ESPN’s Real Plus-Minus (RPM) projections have the Magic at 10th in the Eastern Conference and with an average of just 36.8 wins. Meanwhile, Sports Illustrated listed the Magic 13th in the 15-team Eastern Conference.

Way, way off base, said many of the Magic’s players on Tuesday – the eve of Wednesday night’s season-opener against the Miami Heat at the Amway Center.

``We have a lot of work to do and a lot of building to do, but we’ll be in the playoffs,’’ said starting small forward Aaron Gordon. ``No doubt.’’

Added standout shooting guard Evan Fournier, who believed enough in the Magic to sign a long-term contract with the team in July: ``We had stretches (in the preseason) where we played really good basketball and stretches where we played awful basketball as well. It’s going to take time and it’s not going to just happen overnight. But we have the keys to be very, very good.’’

The Magic made a 10-win improvement last season, but their 35 wins still left them far behind the 44 victories that Detroit had in nabbing the East’s No. 8 seed. It just might take another 10-victory improvement this season for Orlando to play past the midpoint of April.

Watch Film Room Study of Evan Fournier

It’s the job of Vogel – Orlando’s coach since May – to make the Magic tougher defensively, more efficient offensively and quickly cohesive if they are going to defy the so-called experts. Vogel knows a thing or two about developing teams capable of handling the rigors of a long season after leading the Pacers on five trips to the playoffs in his 5 ½ seasons in Indiana.

Vogel knows that following a disjointed 2-5 preseason, when Orlando was forced to weather various injuries and stretches of ugly basketball, that his team is still very much a work in progress. On Tuesday, he admitted as much, saying: ``It’s going to be an 82-game process.’’

But Vogel also thinks the Magic are something of an unknown across the NBA because no one has ever seen this particular group go through a regular season together. The coach is confident that because the Magic have so much defensive potential and depth at every position, they have a shot at getting better as the season progresses and ultimately becoming one of the surprise teams in the East.

``I feel like every team that we had in Indiana, they either picked us to not make the playoffs or be an eighth or seventh seed,’’ Vogel said. ``But we always played a lot better than that.

``I think the teams that have uncertainty like this one (in Orlando), that’s why those kinds of projections come out,’’ Vogel added, referring to the Magic’s being picked to finish out of the playoffs. ``But, to be honest with you, I don’t pay any attention to them.’’

What Vogel has paid close attention to is how to mesh a team that is still learning how to play together. Orlando traded for Ibaka on draft night and signed Biyombo in free agency, and the coach has had to come up with creative ways to get the two of them and fellow center Nikola Vucevic on the floor enough and utilize their strengths. Having two elite-level shot-blockers like Biyombo and Ibaka and an offensive force like Vucevic give the Magic a chance to have one of the league’s best frontlines this season. Vogel has high expectations from that group, and he said that they can set the tone right away whether they have completely learned how to play together or not.

``I think we can be very versatile with what we can do with our bigs, but we’ve still got some inexperience that we’re going to have to get through to become one of the best defensive teams in the league,’’ Vogel said. ``I hope (playing physical) takes place immediately, but it hasn’t always taken place so far in the preseason. There have been times when I’ve been disappointed in that. (Being a physical team) is probably not something that happens overnight, but we’re going to be working toward being that kind of team.’’

Orlando will be without Biyombo – its prized free-agent acquisition – tonight against Miami and 7-footer Hassan Whiteside because of a carryover suspension from last spring’s NBA playoffs. Formerly a member of the Toronto Raptors, Biyombo was whistled for four flagrant fouls in the playoffs, meaning he was due a one-game suspension by the NBA. Biyombo and his agent tried getting the NBA to overturn the fourth flagrant foul – his elbow hit Kevin Love in the chin as he went up for a layup and there was no foul call from the three officials in the game – to no avail, meaning he will be out on Wednesday night.

The 7-foot, 265-pound Whiteside, who signed a massive free-agent deal with Miami in the offseason, battered the Magic for 16 points, 12.3 rebounds and 3.5 blocks while shooting 59 percent from the floor in four games last season. On Wednesday, Orlando will try and combat his length and strength inside with Vucevic playing big minutes and Ibaka sliding over from power forward to center for stretches.

Watch Film Room Study of Aaron Gordon

``That’s a big blow because Biz’s is a big part of what we’re trying to accomplish this season,’’ said Vucevic, Orlando’s leading scorer and rebounder each of the past two seasons. ``He’s a great team player and he does a lot of things on the floor that people aren’t going to see or aren’t going to show up in the box score. He sets great screens, he runs the floor, hustles and makes the extra plays and he doesn’t step outside of his game. And, obviously, he’s a great defensive player. Those are things that are going to help us win games this season.’’

The Magic won’t be the only new-look team on the Amway Center parquet floor on Wednesday night as the Heat will be playing without Dwyane Wade at guard for the first time since the end of the 2002 season. Factor in Chris Bosh’s debilitating battle with blood clots and LeBron James’ defection from Miami two seasons ago and the Heat will look dramatically different than the one the Magic have grown to despise through the years. At least that’s the way that Fournier feels about the rivalry with the hated Heat.

``Honestly, I think playing against Miami in the first game is special because we don’t like them and they don’t like us and it’s no secret,’’ said Fournier, whose Magic suffered a 30-point defeat against the Heat last week in preseason action. ``It’s the Florida rivalry and it’s always great to play against them. There’s going to be a lot of Heat fans (at the Amway Center) and I look forward to (the challenge). It’s always fun to play the Heat.’’

Vucevic said he has tried to avoid looking at any of the projections for the season, instead keeping his focus on the arduous job of building that the Magic must go through. After seeing Orlando miss the playoffs each of the past four seasons, the Magic’s longest-tenured player is desperate to help the team play meaningful games well into April. He knows that defying the expectations of others and reaching the playoffs will be a season-long chore, but he feels the Magic have the talent and experience to stun the basketball world.

``I think when we play in practice and in some of the games, we see flashes of what we can do,’’ Vucevic said. ``It’s just about us getting comfortable with each other and doing things consistently. It takes time and it’s going to take work and be patient. But at the same time we can’t let too much time go by and (blame it on), `Ahhhh, it’s our chemistry’ or `we have so many new guys.’ We have to accept the challenge and fight through the early chemistry things. We have to fight through it and make sure that we don’t dig ourselves a hole, losing too many games in a row.

``So it will be important to come out (on Wednesday) and show people what we can do,’’ the 7-foot center added. ``I think that first impression is important so that people will know what to expect when they play against us.’’

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