The common thread in the Orlando Magic space is that last year’s experience playing meaningful basketball will have them sharpened to do battle to finish out the current season.  Not only Game 7 in the First Round of the NBA Playoffs last year but battling for position in the East to finish the regular season has demonstrated the intensity that comes in that environment.

This is an opinion held by credible minds from veteran Magic media members such as Philip Rossman-Reich of Orlando Magic Daily and the Locked On Magic Podcast to head coach Jamhal Mosley himself. Caleb Houstan and Anthony Black are both a year older and more experienced. That even applies to stars Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, who are 22 and 23-year-old “veterans”. It has obvious merit, but it is hardly the only thing the Magic have working for them.

But experience alone doesn’t account for other material advantages the Magic are currently enjoying. One example is Wagner’s health. Despite all the games Wagner has missed this season, he is currently healthier than he was last year at this time when he was out in a loss for Orlando’s 79th game to the Houston Rockets. Wagner was a fully active participant in the crucial 119-112 win over the Atlanta Hawks in their penultimate home game of the regular season, which got them their 39th win.

It’s also hard to find a player not named Paolo Banchero last year was as hot as Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was heading into game 79 Tuesday night. His 15-point performance against Atlanta was his third in as many games in April with double digits while putting up eight such performances in the month of March. Pope is also shooting 50% from three-point land since March 1st as a key part of the Magic’s campaign to clinch a home game for the play-in.

That being said, should the Magic return to the playoffs and Pope continues shooting the lights out while younger players demonstrate improvement, they may find themselves giving competition to a Cleveland Cavaliers or Boston Celtics team in the first round of the playoffs. If they manage to get into the postseason as they did last year with all the additional adversity, that could bring a sense of hope in the 2025-26 season.

That being said, they must first beat Boston on Wednesday, the Indiana Pacers on Friday on the road, or the Hawks on Sunday to host a play-in game as the seventh seed in the East.