TL;DR

I’m curious, did any fans of other teams see the Magic’s season opening up like this?

I follow the NBA in general and I was not shocked at all when SAC and OKC broke out in the last couple seasons. I’m watching this Portland squad and I see where they’re headed assuming health and growth. I’ve been following San Antonio since the Murray trade and have been keeping tabs on what’s brewing there (pre-Wemby). Candidly did not expect the Jazz to open up like they did last season and while I didn’t see the Pacers coming out as hot as they have this season, their offensive firepower potential has been sitting there on paper for everyone to see.

It kinda surprises me that someone so ingrained in the NBA (particularly the Eastern Conference) would be so blindsided by a team that’s had a relatively static and consistent roster since our rebuild? Iirc, the Magic currently have the most draftees on a roster right now, I believe at 8. Our FO is notorious for not making big trades or going after big FAs so the personnel changes have been far and few between. Not like the Jazz who suddenly got a hodgepodge of misfit guys and nobody was sure how they’d gel.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

As a Magic fan I had been waiting in heavy anticipation for yesterday’s new episode of the Hoop Collective. I knew the Magic would finally be getting some well-deserved air time and I was curious how they’d frame our recent run and some of the noise we’ve been making (I know, I know, it’s truly a small sample size).

By in large, I thought they had some very respectable takes and treated us as legit. This may sound obvious, but large-market fans have to understand that there are running inside jokes inside small-market fanbases about how the national media frames their success. For example, if the Magic won the championship we joke the next day newspaper headline would read: “The Magic don’t lose in the last game of the season.” It’s really refreshing to hear national media giving us credibility.

Suffice it to say- we’re fucking pumped in Orlando and we’ve been thirsting for this validation for so long. Other franchises can certainly relate, we’ve been relegated to NBA purgatory since the Dwightmare began in 2012- 10 years of this shit. Please have a little patience with us as we process this recent success- we’re remembering the taste, it’s been so long. Sorry if we’re annoying.

Like a god damn masochist I’ve passionately followed our teams through the recent dark ages and after watching almost every single game last season and the season before, to me and anyone else following that extensively- this early season success was completely expected. I ran a poll months ago in our subreddit asking where we thought the Magic would land at the end of the season and a slight plurality agreed on a proper actual playoff seed over a playin candidate. I personally think we’re absolutely capable of locking down a top 4 seed in the East and I don’t even think that’s a hot take right now. Maybe I’m delusional.

All this to say, I find it a little surprising that Bontemps (whose job is to know the NBA up and down) would loosely speak for, what I presume, is the national media at large and claim “Nobody saw this coming…”

Certainly 1 or 2 people outside of the Magic fanbase saw this coming?