Los Orlando Magic They left a good taste in the mouth in the 2023-24 season of the NBA. A year after recruiting Paul Banker With the first overall pick in the Draft, the Florida team advanced to the Playoffs and fiercely competed against the Cleveland Cavaliers in a series that they lost in seven games.
Banchero, the 2022-23 Rookie of the Year, appeared on ESPN’s First Take and stated that His team will be worthy of competing for the top of the Eastern Conference in the next campaign.
“I feel like we are there, we are up to all of them. (the elite teams in the East),” Banchero said. “I remember last year, we started as one of the top two or three and everyone thought it was a fluke.”
Paolo Banchero on @FirstTake: “We’re tryna make some noise. I think we should easily be a top four, top three team and have a chance to win the East”. Banchero added that the team feels like “we’re right there” and that they individually got better this offseason pic.twitter.com/E64gWdw33r
— Fawzan Amer (@FawzanAmer_) August 16, 2024
Orlando won 14 of the first 20 games last season and that projected them to win the Southeast division. During that span, the basketball player of Italian descent averaged 19.5 points, 6.9 rebounds and 4.9 assists to help the Magic succeed.
“Everyone thought we were going to be a play-in team and that we would be left out of the East,” said Orlando’s number 5.We finished strong and got fifth place, we had the opportunity to get second at the end of the season.”.
The Magic finished with a record of 47-35, just three wins away from the New York Knickswho occupied second place at the end of the regular season.
YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN: Bronny James’ rating in NBA 2K25
Orlando has improved in every aspect
For Bankers, both he and the other members of the team have improved during the offseason. Additionally, free-agent acquisitions like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope will help Orlando be more competitive than last year. Plus, they added a forward who can guard multiple positions in Tristan Da Silva in the draft.
“We have improved this year. I have improved“We’ve all improved. We have some new pieces that are going to help us a lot. We want to make some noise. We should easily be in the top four, top three, and have a chance to win the East.”
Follow the AS Newspaper channel on WhatsAppwhere you will find all things sport in one place: the latest news of the day, the agenda with the latest news on the most important sporting events, the most outstanding images, the opinion of the best AS journalists, reports, videos, and a bit of humour from time to time.
