To little surprise, the Magic were left largely out of the running for many of the NBA awards passed out this year. Being the team with the worst record in the league, it was going to be pretty clear that the Magic would be largely ignored. These awards tend to go to players on teams with, say, winning records.

The winners were not surprises either. LeBron James was a near unanimous winner of the MVP award. Damian Lillard won Rookie of the Year. J.R. Smith was the league's Sixth Man of the Year, edging out Jamal Crawford. And Paul George won the league's Most Improved Player of the Year Award.

Except for Nikola Vucevic in the Most Improved Player race, the Magic had little hope of getting recognition in the awards races. And it turned out that would be the case.

Vucevic and Arron Afflalo were the only players to receive any votes in the NBA's awards season voting. J.J. Redick also received votes for Sixth Man of the Year.

Vucevic finished fourth in the race for Most Improved Player behind George, Greivis Vasquez and Larry Sanders. Vucevic took advantage of increased playing time this year in scoring 13.1 points and 11.9 rebounds per game, amassing the third most double doubles in the league this season including three 20/20 games and the franchise-best 29 rebounds against Miami.

Afflalo, surprisingly finished 21st in the Most Improved voting.

However, the shocker was that neither Maurice Harkless nor Andrew Nicholson were among those voted on for Rookie of the Year. Harkless came on strong at the end of the year after struggling to find his way at the beginning of the season. Perhaps he did not have the yearlong consistency of John Jenkins, who finished with the least amount of votes. However, it still seemed like Harkless should have gotten at least one vote.

Better luck next year when Harkless tries to get to All-Star Weekend for the Rising Stars Challenge, a competition that Nicholson participated in with Vucevic this year in Houston.

Of course, it is tough to break into voting awards when your team is at the bottom of the standings. Whatever improvement or success Orlando might have had went largely unnoticed to the national media it would seem.

Over the next few weeks Orlando Magic Daily will be taking a look at the things that went right and wrong this season as Orlando ended its season with its first Lottery season in six years.

Hedo Turkoglu has had an incredible 13-year run in the NBA. Much of that has been with the Orlando Magic. He won Most Improved Player of the Year in Orlando. He raised his family in Orlando. He helped guide the Magic to the NBA Finals with strong performances and a legendary postseason.

All that seems so long ago. Turkoglu has largely disappointed -- whether he was in Toronto, Phoenix or back in Orlando -- following that Finals run in 2009. No season probably disappointed as much as this past one and it likely spelled the end for Turkoglu's career in the NBA. His second chance in Orlando might very well prove to be his last.

The pain for Turkoglu started on opening night when he broke his hand in the third quarter. Turkoglu was 3 for 4 from the floor with six points and two steals in 16 minutes. He came into camp in the best shape in a while and seemed poised to bounce back from his rough seasons and be a leader for a young Magic squad.

Orlando hoped he would so he could increaes his trade value at the very least and help the team get some value in return for him. The organization wanted him to contribute to the team in some tangible way for sure.

The early season injury completely tore away that dream. Though Turkoglu came back, he was never quite right. The conditioning he had from the begininng of the season and in training camp was gone and it was tough for him to get back into shape.

Then the bad news really came. Things got worse for Turkoglu and for the Magic.

Earlier, I linked to a consensus mock draft big board as we begin the countdown to the NBA Draft Lottery. The Magic know only that they will have one of the top four picks. With the best odds at winning the lottery, Orlando should begin running the scenarios of what it would like to see happen should they end up with any of the top-4 picks. 

According to Joe Kotoch of SheridanHoops.com, the best scenario ends with the Magic selecting Kansas sharpshooter Ben McLemore, and possibly trading the No. 1 pick to whoever wants Nerlens Noel most (h/t Evan Dunlap of Orlando Pinstriped Post):

The big news here is this: Sources around the NBA have told SheridanHoops that if the Orlando Magic or New Orleans Hornets win the lottery, they both would be strongly inclined to trade the pick to whichever fellow lottery team wants to pay the most for the right to draft Nerlens Noel.

The caveat for Orlando is that it does not want to lose out on Ben McLemore of Kansas, whom it covets the most, or Trey Burke/Victor Oladipo as a fallback. And it’s not that the Magic don’t like Noel. Rather, they don’t need him, already in possession of a top-tier NBA center on a rookie contract in two-year veteran Nikola Vucevic. Same with the Hornets and Anthony Davis.

To recap, if the Magic were to win the No. 1 pick, they would seek to trade it to whichever team wants Nerlens Noel the most, so long as the Magic trade back high enough to take Ben McLemore or get Trey Burke or Victor Oladipo. If this report is true, then it seems the Magic are looking to Draft a guard, seemingly satisfied with the frontcourt depth with Nikola Vucevic, Andrew Nicholson, Glen Davis and Tobias Harris on the roster.

That certainly makes sense. My opinion, as I stated on the ELOOnline podcast last week, is the Magic are not yet in the position to draft need and need to continue collecting assets and talent. I happen to have Ben McLemore as the top player in the Draft. If the Magic get the No. 1 pick, I doubt they will find a deal that allows them to keep within McLemore's range and they should probably just take McLemore with the top pick overall.

Perhaps this is a bit of a smokescreen and the guy the Magic are really after is one of those "fallback" players. Magic fans really like the idea of bringing Trey Burke in to apprentice under Jameer Nelson for a year before becoming the starting point guard.

There is a long way to go before these scenarios come into play. It appears this is just food for thought to pass the time.

We are in May which means the march to Secaucus is on ahead of the May 21 NBA Draft Lottery. That will air on ESPN at 8 p.m., so mark your calendars.

Beginning later on this month, the Magic and other teams around the league should begin bringing in draft prospects for interviews and individual workouts. There is also the NBA Combine in Chicago where teams around the league will get a close look at the top players in this year's Draft and continue doing their homework.

Likely the Magic are still breaking down and discussing the pros and cons of players all over the Draft and finishing up their evaluations of the top prospects. It is hard to do much projecting until we know where the Magic are picking. All we know is that the Magic are getting one of the top four picks in this year's Draft.

Not a lot has changed, but with less than two months before the NBA Draft, it would be good to keep track of who the Magic might take.

Our friends over at Hoops Manifesto have compiled a "Consensus" Mock Draft Big Board using the mock drafts and big boards released by several Draft sites. The top four are: Nerlens Noel, Ben McLemore, Anthony Bennett and Otto Porter.

Noel has been the biggest riser since the NCAA Tournament. He has been out since February with a torn ACL, but nobody among the top picks were able to separate themselves. Noel is considered by many to have the most talent and highest upside in this Draft. He also is an absolute force defensively.

The big news in the NBA this week was Jason Collins coming out as the first actively gay male athlete in professional team sports in the United States. The announcement was met with generally positive comments and support from the NBA and players around the league.

Collins has taken this unprecedented step at a time when homosexuality is widely accepted in American society and the push for marriage equality is gaining steam -- even Paul Ryan, the super conservative Wisconsin senator who was Mitt Romney's running mate in the previous Presidential election, came out this week in support of adoption for gay couples.

It is a major change in the last decade and a sign of progress of acceptance and tolerance within this country. Certainly, a decade ago the mood would have been different.

That was the atmosphere that John Amaechi was playing in when he was a member of the Magic from 2000-01 (two seasons). Amaechi, in his book Man in the Middle, in which he described being a closeted gay man in an NBA locker room, suspected that his career abruptly ended in Utah because of homophobic feelings within the organization.

When Amaechi came out as gay in 2007, the reaction was one of near shock. It was still a completely foreign concept in sports. The mood had changed however, as Tim Hardaway was reviled for homophobic comments he made on a local radio station in Miami. Hardaway, to his credit, has reformed his views and is more accepting now, admitting his ignorance in his past.

Amaechi has been making the radio rounds, providing his usually perceptive and witty commentary on the issue and current events. He was on with Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel on his Open Mike show on 740 The Game on Wednesday to talk about Collins and his experience.

There, Amaechi revealed he suspected Magic teammates knew he was gay and they "took care of" him. It seems even a decade ago, locker rooms were more understanding than originally suspected.

I just thought I would lose my job. My teammates knew. We didn't talk about, but they knew. ... My teammates took care of me.

Over the next few weeks Orlando Magic Daily will be taking a look at the things that went right and wrong this season as Orlando ended its season with its first Lottery season in six years.

Except for a few shining examples, the Magic's drafting history is not so stellar.

We remember, Shaquille O'Neal, Dwight Howard and Mike Miller. Nick Anderson and Dennis Scott were great picks in the early years. Between them though you have an organization that has constantly swung and missed on young players.

During the Tracy McGrady years, the Magic were unable to stock up on cheap, young talent to try and stem the tide when Grant Hill was hurt. Often the players Orlando drafted in this era were not able to contribute.

It is not easy to find great draft picks in the middle of the draft, but John Gabriel certainly could have and should have done better than the combination of Keyon Dooling (traded to the Clippers on draft night), Courtney Alexander, Steven Hunter, Jeryl Sasser, Curtis Borchardt (traded to the Jazz for Ryan Humphrey on draft night) and Reece Gaines.

All of those players either never contributed or struggled to contribute to the Magic during an important time in Magic history.

Under Otis Smith, the Magic seemed more interested in dealing their draft picks for veteran players to stay in the championship hunt. Only J.J. Redick and Courtney Lee contributed to the team in the drafts after Howard.

Then came Rob Hennigan and this year's Draft. Orlando picked up Andrew Nicholson and Kyle O'Quinn in their first two picks, two players with experience from the college game and pretty refined games entering the league already. Then Hennigan acquired rookie Maurice Harkless, Philadelphia's first round draft pick. He also picked up second-year player Nikola Vucevic. Later in the season he grabbed second-year forward Tobias Harris.

For once, the Magic mined young talent and struck gold.

Over the next few weeks Orlando Magic Daily will be taking a look at the things that went right and wrong this season as Orlando ended its season with its first Lottery season in six years.

They hit on game number one and did not seem to relent. The Magic had no choice but to roll with the punches and stay positive as they derailed any chance for consistency and success this season.

In the third quarter of the season opener against Denver, Hedo Turkoglu went up for a layup and a player hit his hand. It was broken and Turkoglu would be out until late December. As Adam Papageorgiou pointed out on the ELOOnline Podcast Magic Season Review, Turkoglu came to camp in shape and ready to contribute in a major way after a disappointing season and a half with the Magic (PED suspension aside . . .).

Instead, he played in just 11 games and never found his rhythm, scoring 32 total points and shooting 1 for 24 from beyond the arc.

Unfortunately, Turkoglu was just the beginning of the hit parade that became the Magic's season.

No hit was harder than Glen Davis going down with a shoulder injury on December 19. At that point, Orlando was 12-13 and could at least think about entertaining the idea of a run into the Playoffs -- just to shut some critics up. Davis averaged  15.1 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, taking full advantage of his larger role within the Magic's offense and taking his leaderhsip role very seriously.

The season fell apart from there as Orlando would win only eight of the final 57 games of the season.

Amway Center continues to impress as a building and arena experience even three years into its existence.

Stadium Journey Magazine has once again ranked Amway Center among the top arena experiences in the league, coming in third place in this year's poll of NBA stadiums. The Amway Center ranked second in last year's poll behind only the Staples Center in Los Angeles for Lakers game.

This year's poll has Amway Center third behind AT&T Center in San Antonio and Staples Center (Lakers) in Los Angeles.

If having a gorgeous place to watch a game is why you come to the place, then it is outstanding. It is very upscale, even if you are in the cheap seats. The employees there are among the friendliest stadium workers in the business. They really go out of their way. They have something for everyone, including a play area for the little kids. Even outside the arena, walking in and going up the escalators to your seats is impressive. The streets are clean and the arena is lit up in Magic Blue lights. The lobby looks like something you'd find in an airport. For "WOW" it is hard to beat.

The poll takes into account the overall stadium experience including the price of concessions, in-stadium atmosphere, the neighborhood the stadium is located and "return on investment."

Paul Swaney of Stadium Journey Magazine said the reason the Amway Center dropped from second to third in the league was because of the in-game atmosphere at the stadium, something he attributed to the team's overall record and performance.

The Magic were not a strong team this season, but still did decently in attendance. They ranked 16th in the league in attendance this year according to Basketball-Reference, averaging 17,596 in attendance per game.

The criticisms of the Amway Center crowd experience still exist. Fans are still often late to return to their seats after halftime and the crowd can be disinterested at times. However, when the game gets tight or when it is a big game, Magic fans are as good as any others in the league. The team's poor record certainly affects interest on the court.

It will be interesting to see how the atmosphere might change when the Magic complete the entertainment district they have planned for the property across the street from Amway Center. That is still in its planning phases and is at least three years away from being realized. By then, hopefully the novelty of Amway Center has not worn off and the stadium is still delighting fans.

Mark Jackson was faced witha difficult dilemma entering his team's second matchup with Denver in the Playoffs. With David Lee out for the Postseason thanks to a torn hip flexor, Jackson asked his assistant coaches to talk him out of starting point guard Jarrett Jack alongside Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry.

They gave him the go-ahead and the rest was history. Golden State evened up its series behind a 64 percent shooting night, one of the great offensive performances in Playoff history. The move worked perfectly and seems to continue to work as Golden State's offense continued to efficiently hum along in Game Three on Friday night.

The Rockets were faced with a similar decision and opted to sit power forward Greg Smith for Game Two and commit to a small lineup by starting Patrick Beverly. It worked to some degree as Houston turned a 29-point Game One loss into a two-point Game Two loss.

Even the Celtics, looking for an offensive spark, opted to slide Jason Terry into the lineup and take out power forward Brandon Bass. That plan did not work as well as the other two, but the general idea was there. These teams wanted to spread the floor more and create defensive issues by putting as many shooters on the floor as possible -- sometimes defensive consequences be damned.

The power forward position has changed dramatically in the last decade. Perhaps it started with Mike D'Antoni putting Shawn Marion at power forward. The revolution in the NBA into positionless basketball largely happened in Orlando the last five years.

The 3-pointer is one of the most important shots in basketball. Offense are now completely built around it. The power forward is more or less dead. And the Magic might very well have started it. However, now the team is in transition and the franchise's relationship with the 3-pointer has completely changed.

The Magic signed Rashard Lewis to a max contract and change the NBA in four years. Stan Van Gundy, Orlando's recently hired coach, did something drastic in putting him at power forward instead of his traditional small forward. Van Gundy's idea was to spread the flor with 3-point shooters and let it fly with Dwight Howard drawing the defense into the paint.

Washington Wizards center Jason Collins came out as the first active openly gay player in American team sports Monday in an article in Sports Illustrated, a landmark moment in the gay rights movement and for acceptance in American culture.

I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay.

I didn't set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I'm happy to start the conversation. I wish I wasn't the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, "I'm different." If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I'm raising my hand.

Collins is a 12-year pro who has bounced around the league but has always been a model of professionalism and grit. He never cared about stats and was more likely to foul than score. He led the league in personal fouls and was often the guy teams sent in to foul hard and set screens. It was not a glamorous role. But as Collins writes, he did not care.

In his 12-year career, Collins has gone to the Playoffs nine times, including a turn as the "Dwight stopper" in the 2011 Playoffs. OK, so maybe Howard still averaged 27.0 points per game and 15.5 rebounds per game. However, Atlanta's willingness to defend Howard one on one using Collins stymied Orlando's outside shooting in Atlanta's six-game series win.

Collins should be remembered for that kind of grit and determination. In a perfect world, he would.