The Orlando Magic have still yet to regain the form that made them a perennial contender at the top of the decade, during Dwight Howard's brief time as a perennial MVP candidate. Still, after making the playoffs for the first since 2012, Howard's last season in Orlando, the Magic seem to finally be trending in the right direction.
The biggest reason why? First-year head man Steve Clifford, who's been mostly left on the outside looking in at Coach of the Year discussions but has made a huge difference during his debut season with Orlando nonetheless. Asked how much progress his team has made under Clifford since training camp, Evan Fournier put its major improvements in succinct terms.
“It’s like day and night, really,” he told The Athletic's Josh Robbins.
The Magic were quietly one of the best teams in basketball over the latter stages of the regular season.
Only the Houston Rockets and Portland Trail Blazers notched more wins after the trade deadline than their 19 victories, and Orlando's stellar +8.1 net rating over the same timeframe ranked third overall behind that of the Rockets and Utah Jazz, per NBA.com/stats. The success of Clifford's team didn't stem from domination on one side of the ball, either. The Magic were fifth in offensive rating and first in defensive rating after the deadline, one of three teams in basketball to rank top-five in both categories.
Does that mean they'll beat the heavily-favored Toronto Raptors in the first round of the playoffs? No way. But under Clifford, it's become abundantly clear that Orlando will almost always put up a worthwhile fight at the very least.
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