In 2016, the Orlando Magic seemed to be one of the better young teams with a rising star in Victor Oladipo and very strong players in Tobias Harris and Nikola Vucevic. Then they added promising young players in Elfrid Payton and Aaron Gordon, entering their sophomore years, with rookie Mario Hezonja starting to find his way.
This team seemed primed to be one of the future contending teams of the Eastern Conference. The Magic, after years of rebuilding, got off to a 19-13 start into January.