ORLANDO, Fla. — The Orlando Magic opened training camp Tuesday to prepare for the 2026-27 NBA season, a day after they told members of the media that they are entering the upcoming season with a new mindset.

President of Basketball Operations Jeff Weltman reaffirmed what he had said all offseason — that he wanted to keep this core together and believes in this team when the players are healthy.

To a man, the players expressed the same sentiment, saying the end to last season left them upset after they blew a 3-1 series lead in the first round against the top-seeded Detroit Pistons, including giving up a 24-point lead and scoring only 19 points in the second half in what could have been a series-clinching victory at home.

“We went into this season, this offseason, with a real bitter taste in our mouth,” Weltman said. “Obviously, we felt like we had a playoff series in hand, up 3-1, suffered an injury (to forward Franz Wagner) and lost a couple really tough games. And so, I think that’s been a great motivator for our team this summer.” 

Even Wagner, who missed the last three games of the Detroit series with a strained right calf, said the team has a sense of urgency.

“We want that pressure, and we all have great goals, individually and as a team, and we have such a great opportunity to achieve those,” Wagner said. “But yeah, we should have a high level of urgency and should have that regardless of what other people outside of this building think. I think we have great expectations in here.”

Guard Jalen Suggs said the Magic’s ouster in the playoffs was the hardest thing he has had to get over in his career — and he has had a few significant injuries since joining the NBA.

The Magic brought in a new head coach, and although he is a first-year head coach in the NBA, the players all said that Sean Sweeney and his staff already are proving that they are very detail-oriented. Sweeney checked in with the players throughout the summer — daily, weekly, monthly — to ensure that everyone was on the same page.

Sweeney, a big boxing fan, said the team and all the players and coaches have to believe in themselves.

“When you’re a player in this game, you’ve got to have belief in yourself at a level that allows you to compete when things are vulnerable, when everybody’s watching you, and then, you know, the competition aspect, it’s there,” Sweeney said. “You know, boxing is mano-a-mano, you’ve got to compete at a high level, and to do so, you need great fundamentals; you need great habits, just like you need in this sport, just like you need in basketball.”

Forward Paolo Banchero said he believes that approach is what the Magic need.

“From Day 1, his communication has just been high level with me and the rest of the team,” Banchero said, referencing Sweeney. “And he’s just super detailed in the way he approaches everything — the way he approaches the game, the way he approaches film, the way he approaches his practice. You can just tell (that) everything he does is very detailed. So, I think the players all see that, and we appreciate that, and we gravitate toward that energy.”

The Magic made similar, less emphatic statements after losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the 2024 playoffs, but they have lost in the first round for three years in a row.

They will need to keep that commitment and attention to detail strong this season to break that streak because the Eastern Conference has gotten much stronger this season, with the addition of Lebron James to the All-Star cast of the Philadelphia 76ers, the return of forward Kawhi Leonard to the rising Toronto Raptors several years after he led them to their only national championship, the Miami Heat’s addition of multiple-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, and some high-level draft picks by the Washington Wizards and Chicago Bulls.

The Magic can start to lay that foundation in training camp, beginning Tuesday at the AdventHealth Training Center. Their first preseason game will be Oct. 7 in Memphis against the Grizzlies, and their regular season begins Oct. 21 at home against the Atlanta Hawks, who swept them last season.