It has been five seasons since the Orlando Magic last made an appearance in the playoffs.
However, head coach Frank Vogel believes that the Magic could finally break through this upcoming campaign, according to John Denton of Magic.com.
“It can be (a playoff team), but we’ve got a lot to do and we’ve got our work cut out for us. We’ve got to have a lot of improvement from within. That’s what a lot of this season is going to be about because that’s the way we’re set up as an organization right now. We won 29 games last year, so it can’t be small improvements if we expect to make the playoffs. We’ve got to have some dramatic improvements.’’
In the team's first season under Vogel, the team finished with a 29-53 record, which was the third-worst record in the Eastern Conference. In fact, since the departure of Dwight Howard, the Magic have not topped more than 35 wins over their playoff drought while finishing no higher than fifth place in the Southeast division.
That said, the front office has worked diligently this offseason to bring in some veteran players to help push the team forward in the right direction with the addition of forwards Marreese Speights and Jonathon Simmons, and guards Shelvin Mack and Arron Afflalo. They also possess some promising young talent in Aaron Gordon and Elfrid Payton.
What could also help the Magic out tremendously is that several of the conference's top superstars have been moved to the West such as Paul George, Jimmy Butler, and Paul Millsap. All of this has the potential to open up the door to teams like Orlando making a significant leap forward next season.
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