No one gave the Orlando Magic a chance in 1999.
Preseason predictions had them winning 20-some-odd games. The team’s goals were clear — cobble together a roster that would be disposable in a year to clear cap room for big free agents. There was nothing the team could do.
It was literally the plot from the movie Major League (minus the angle of moving the team . . . maybe). The Magic were playing their year for the future. The results did not matter.
That is not how Doc Rivers was going to have it.