Paolo Banchero took note of where he was last Tuesday and what the Orlando Magic had done.
A win over the Charlotte Hornets is not a cause for celebration or a cause to pause and pat oneself on the back. The Hornets have long lost this season and been out of the playoff picture. The Magic were expected to win this game.
But last year, the Magic had the same situation in Charlotte. They were sitting pretty, tied for fourth in a tight Eastern Conference race. The world was theirs to control, even with a tough schedule ahead.
They dropped that game and could not find a reason why. They slipped in the final week and needed a win on the season's final day to clinch their playoff spot. In the offseason, Magic players pointed to this loss as the lesson they needed to learn and grow up from.
This loss cost them a Game 7 at the Kia Center. And knowing how good they were at home and what those playoff games were like, they viewed this as a missed opportunity in hindsight.
Winning that game last week was at least a small sign that the team has grown from last year, even if the Magic will not achieve their preseason goals. The Magic can still find small ways they have grown year over year as they prepare for the postseason.
The Magic will not reach their preseason goals this year. Injuries and inconsistency have eaten up this season. The entire team will spend the offseason thinking about what went wrong. Orlando has been eliminated from the homecourt advantage goal they hoped to achieve. They are a loss away from being relegated to the Play-In Tournament.
But with Saturday's win over the Sacramento Kings, the Orlando Magic punched their ticket to the postseason. Despite all the frustration, the Magic will have a chance to be in the playoffs. They are still fighting for homecourt advantage in the 7/8 game and the division title with the Atlanta Hawks.
This season has not been what the Magic want to be. But they are a postseason team once again. And even in a lost season, playoff experience is critical to this team's success.
But their work is not done yet.
"That's what you work for all season," Banchero said after Saturday's win over the Kings. "We've dealt with a lot of injuries and stuff throughout the year. Just the fact we're able to be in the postseason, no one is taking it for granted. Everyone is excited. We want to finish these seven games out strong and put ourselves in the best position heading into the postseason."
Orlando still has work to do to try to wrap-up the division. The Magic are in a neck-and-neck race that seems likely to come down to their two final meetings in the last week of the season. Orlando does not have the time to sit back and celebrate much of anything.
The team still has greater ambitions.
Still developing the team
The Orlando Magic need to take a step back and remember their bigger picture.
They are still one of the youngest teams in the league, with only one season of playoffs under their belt. Every opportunity they get to play in meaningful games is still vital for their development, even if the team is expected to do more.
Putting it plainly, even with all the injuries the team has faced, missing the playoffs would make the season a complete failure. There is nothing gained from sitting out other than embarrassment and pain.
But even a first-round loss to a heavily favored Cleveland Cavaliers or Boston Celtics team would have value. It would allow the Magic to go through the ringer of playoff prep and cement their process and preparation for those big games.
Those are the teams, after all, the Magic will have to beat in the later rounds as they continue to develop.
More importantly, the playoffs expose the weaknesses not only on the roster but in their two key stars. Both Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner will get the kitchen sink thrown at them. It is a preview of the kind of defenses they will face for the rest of their career. And points them where they need to grow.
Banchero looked like a genuine superstar with his 27.0 points per game showing in the playoff series last year. Matching that level of production would be another notch that Banchero is not some "empty stats" superstar, but someone who thrives in playoff pressure.
Of course, one of the enduring storylines out of last year's playoffs was Wagner's frustrating Game 7 showing. He has put much of that behind him. But another playoff run and a solid series would make that look more like rookie nerves than anything the Magic must be concerned about.
Other players will get that exposure too. The playoffs teach players what they need to improve throughout the roster.
While the Magic's weaknesses should be apparent—and should have been apparent even after their seven-game series loss to the Cavs last year—it will further reveal what direction the Magic need to go in the offseason.
The do-or-die experience
More than this, the Orlando Magic's biggest failure last year was losing that do-or-die game on the road in Cleveland. Orlando got put in a Game 7 situation and ran out of steam.
There is no copying that kind of do-or-die pressure. And there is nothing like success in those kinds of games.
The Orlando Magic's season-ending win over the Milwaukee Bucks had a lot of stakes and gave the team a lot of confidence. But it was not a true win and go home.
For young teams, the Play-In Tournament is supposed to be the testing ground. That is supposed to be their first exposure to playoff pressure and playoff success.
Orlando essentially skipped that step. Nobody is complaining about it. But the Magic can still gain that experience too from the Play-In Tournament.
Needing to win a 7/8 game or even the elimination game for the 8-seed would be a kind of redemption for the Game 7 loss. It would prove the Magic can win when all the stakes are on the line—whether that comes at home or away.
Many teams on the rise can use success in those kinds of games as a launching pad of confidence. The Magic may have been one of those teams after Game 6 if not for their injuries. But another sign of their ability to win must-win games against quality opponents—which they will also get with two more games against the Atlanta Hawks—is vital to a team's development.
It does not replace being in a playoff series, but the Magic must make the most of what they have left and the opportunities in front of them.
Orlando already knows and can feel how much its playoff experience has boosted the team through all of this adversity.
"The fact that we have been through it a little bit. We have seen a little bit of the highs of it, winning home games in the playoffs, losing on the road, understanding the importance of having home advantage," Wendell Carter said after shootaround Monday. "It all plays a part of it. It helps us out mostly mentally more than anything. Just understanding how something as much as one or two games can change how a season goes."
The Magic still have a lot of work ahead of them. They must finish the season strong, of course. They must get into the Play-In. They must win and make the playoffs.
This is not the season they wanted by any stretch of the imagination. But they can still make something of it. Experience matters for momentum and understanding. This is still a young team growing and learning. Another playoff appearance is vital.
There is still so much the Magic can get from going through the entire process, even if there is little hope of getting out of the first round.