The Magic made it pretty clear -- particularly at the end of the season -- they were going to go young and play their rookies and young players to speed along their development. Orlando was not expecting any of its rookies to win the Rookie of the Year. Maurice Harkless, Andrew Nicholson, Kyle O'Quinn and DeQuan Jones were bringing brought along slowly.

They all still had great seasons. Harkless and Nicholson seemed to have good enough seasons to gain All-Rookie team consideration.

Nope. Not so much.

The NBA announced its All-Rookie teams Tuesday and the Magic's rookies were left off. NBA Rookie of the Year and Portland guard Damian Lillard headlined the first team and the lone unanimous selection along with Washington's Bradley Beal, New Orleans' Anthony Davis (the top overall pick), Cleveland's Dion Waiters and Golden State's Harrison Barnes. The second team is Detroit's Andre Drummond, Toronto's Jonas Valanciunas, Charlotte's Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Detroit's Kyle Singler and Cleveland's Tyler Zeller.

The All-Rookie teams are voted on by the coaches and are selected regardless of position.

Maurice Harkless, for what it is worth, was the first player left off the second team. He actually tied Zeller with 15 points and apparently lost because he received only one first place vote to Zeller's three. Hopefully it keeps him hungry.

The season has wound down and the season recaps and highlights are coming out. I already did a collection of the year's highlights for the Magic in a full season recap shortly after the season ended.

Now the NBA is back at it with some of the lighter moments from the NBA season.

Yes, the Magic make a few appearances. Nothing too embarrassing though. Just the PB&J incident, Kyle O'Quinn hitting a Nets player in the head while trying to save a ball from going out of bounds and Glen Davis diving head first into the stands against the Cavaliers (a win, by the way).

Enjoy:

Since we are talking frivolities, the NBA released its nominees for its Social Media Awards. No, there were not any Magic players included in the list. But it has me thinking, what were the social media moments of the Magic's season?

My memory probably is not as good as yours, so I am crowdsourcing for nominees for the Magic Social Media Awards.

The categories and suggested nominees come after the jump:

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.

When looking at the Magic roster at the beginning of the season, you could assume offense was going to be a problem. The roster did not have a single player who had been a first option offensively before this season. The key players were all nice role players, but hardly anyone you wanted to give the ball to and create offense.

There was no consistent low post threat, no consistent and proven dribble penetrator. There were certainly guys who could do it for short stretches, but no one who had sustained carrying a team for an 82-game season. Asking Jameer Nelson, Glen Davis and Hedo Turkoglu to carry the load was going to be asking a lot.

Still, someone was going to step up and into that role. Someone was going to have to drive this team's offense and help the team push forward, creating for himself and others. Even if it was a different person each game, someone was going to be the lead guy.

The problem of scoring was made more difficult though because the Magic simply could not get to the free throw line. The Magic finished last in the league with 1,359 free throw attempts this season. That turned out to be the fewest free throw attempts in an 82-game season. The team's 16.6 free throw attempts per game were the fewest in league history.

It was not that the Magic did not shoot the ball well from the line. When they got to the line, they made them at 75.5 percent (15th in the league). Orlando even finished 29th in the league in free throws made, impressive considering how few free throws the team shot.

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.

The No. 6 has hung in the Orlando Arena and Amway Center rafters since 1990. It has always been a symbol for a passionate fan base in a small, but growing, town. There was a jersey retirement ceremony that second season after fans stuck by their new pro franchise through the hiccups and growing pains of an expansion year.

As many fan bases would, the interest has come and gone in the last 24 years with the team's success. When things are great, the O-Rena (or whatever the name on the building is) is rocking. Magic fans are some of the best in the league when the arena is full and engaged. That has not always been the case in the Amway Center.

This is not about in-game atmosphere though or the possibly late-arriving crowd that has plagued Orlando some since moving to the Amway Center.

This is not even about attendance -- which the Magic finished 16th in the league averaging 17,596 fans per game. That was expected to drop with the team expected to lose a lot of games. Orlando went 20-62, the league's worst record, and 12-29 at home.

This is about something deeper. Something that truly went right for the Magic this season. Despite, the league's worst record, Magic fans stuck by their team and remained optimistic. There was frustration from the losing, but there was also an unbridled sense that the team was on the right path. Fans loved the effort from the young players and saw the best in their potential moving forward.

Orlando will certainly cash in on some of it. But that is something for the future, not for this year.

The great thing about running this blog is the opportunity to interact with fans and disucss the Magic. It is really fun to hear what fans are thinking. And over and over again in my conversations the last year with Magic fans there is a hunger to return to winning but an understanding of where the Magic are in the process and the steps ahead.

Earlier this week, the NBA Draft's early entry deadline passed and the Draft Class for the 2013 draft was set in stone.

The Magic are patiently waiting their actual Draft position in two weeks at the NBA Draft Lottery on May 21. Next week, they will surely be one of the more active teams evaluating prospects and beginning the interview process at the NBA Draft Combine late next week in Chicago.

This, of course, is the end of the homework assignment and not the beginning. The Magic are (hopefully) wrapping up their evaluations and beginning to narrow down their list and the scenarios for review when it becomes Draft night.

Presumptively, Nerlens Noel is the No. 1 pick. In Chad Ford's latest mock draft, he has the Magic taking Noel as do many other Mock Drafts. Here is a run down of the Mock Drafts and Big Boards out there and who they have the Magic taking with the No. 1 pick:

Except for limited instances, it seems just about everyone believe sthe Magic will take Noel, the supposed "best player on the board." Sheridan Hoops reported however that the Magic might only take Noel to try and package him and move down to select Ben McLemore or, if he is off the board, Trey Burke.

Of course, Orlando may not have been in this situation had Oklahoma State's Marcus Smart decided to remain in the Draft.

The NBA Playoffs have moved to the conference semifinals and the real contenders for the championship have emerged. These are the teams that have the formula locked down that have the pieces to the puzzle figured out. Whether that gets them to the ultimate goal of winning a championship is something to be determined in the next month and a half.

There are certain things that each of these teams have in common. Certain types of role players that become necessary to winning a title.

The obvious thing that each of these teams have, with some exception, is a superstar player. The Heat have LeBron James. The Spurs have Tony Parker. The Warriors have Stephen Curry. And the Thunder have Kevin Durant.

These are all players that can change the game just by their very presence on the court. Orlando had that in Dwight Howard. And having one of these players makes life all the easier as Howard made even teams of also-rans relevant in the Playoff race.

Orlando is banking on the Draft at the moment to get that kind of a player. More specifically, the 2014 Draft since it does not seem that there is that franchise-altering player in this year's draft.

That does not mean the Magic should not be looking for or have found the pieces that will fit the final puzzle and vision Rob Hennigan sees.

Already, Orlando has some intriguing young players that could easily become part of the Magic's long-term plans if they continue on their upward trajectory.

So what are these secondary pieces, so to speak, the Magic could amass as they wait for their next superstar to really kickstart the drive back to a championship? When you look at the teams that are still left in the eyar there are several similarities.

Yesterday, the Pacers and Knicks played Game Two of their first round series, putting a very clear spotlight on a special anniversary. Nearly 20 years ago on May 7, Reggie Miller completed one of the most incredible late-game scoring performances in scoring eight points in about nine seconds for Indiana's surprising Game One victory.

That was just the first game of NBC's double header that afternoon. And while no opera was sung -- or ESPN 30 for 30 documentary -- was made about the second game, it was just as exciting.

Eighteen years ago yesterday -- May 7, 1995 -- the Magic played their first game in the second round of the Playoffs against Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. The young and plucky Magic were going up against the resurgent Bulls and the greatest player in NBA history, fresh off his baseball sabbatical.

Enter Nick Anderson:

In Susan Slusser's recap of the game for the Orlando Sentinel she wrote that the Bulls should not have been surprised by the Magic's late-game steal. Orlando after all pulled off a similar escape at the end of the regular season when Nick Anderson tipped a pass to Anfernee Hardaway.

It was very beautiful. Penny was off to the races, and I've seen that before. I knew he'd either get fouled or we'd score. And he dished it to Ho Grant, who took it home

Has it really been 18 years since this magical game happened, perhaps the most memorable Magic win in team history?  Orlando went on to win the series in six, defeat that team from Indiana and move on to the NBA Finals.

More videos after the jump!

For those wondering where Anfernee Hardaway has been since retiring from the NBA, he has been back in his hometown of Memphis. Aside from the stray local commercial (he owns a franchise in a local pizza restaurant, I believe) and the stray TNT appearance alongside former teammates Dennis Scott and Shaquille O'Neal, we do not see much of Penny Hardaway.

He has been quite active in basketball however, even away from his second home of Orlando.

Hardaway bought a piece of the Memphis Grizzlies under new principal owner Robert Pera's group. But the big work Hardaway has done has been in the community he grew up in.

Yes, the stories are true. Hardaway is indeed a middle school basketball coach, coaching the very team that he played on when he was growing up in Memphis. There is more to the story though. And that part of the story is developed in CNN writer Wayne B. Drash's book On These Courts.

The book chronicles Hardaway's return to Memphis and his middle school, Lester Middle School, to coach at the request of his friend Desmond Merriweather. The assistant coaching gig became permanent however when Merriweather was diagnosed with colon cancer. The story, originally published on CNN, drew lots of attention and was expanded for this book.

Shannon J. Owens of the Orlando Sentinel caught up with Hardaway with his book officially hitting book stores this week. Here he explains what he hopes readers get from this story:

First of all, they gave Desmond 24 hours to live when he first got diagnosed at the hospital and he’s still living. The first thing is to just have faith that God can make anything possible. That’s the first thing I want people to understand. The second thing is, no matter who you are and where you are in life is, God can always send a blessing and I’ve been a blessing to that neighborhood and to that school to inspire those kids to want to do more, be better people, be better students, to be better basketball players and do something positive in life.

Hardaway is steeped deeply in Magic lore, but the memory of him as one of the best players in the league throughout the mid-90s has largely been forgotten. Hardaway though is not out and about trying to reclaim that former glory. He said he was enjoying retired life of playing golf and traveling.

Kyle O'Quinn immediately became a fan favorite back in summer league. He went toe to toe with top-10 pick Andre Drummond and declared, I don't care when you got picked. O'Quinn set the tone as a player who was going to work hard and grind in the lown post. The kind of player every team needs at some point.

His stat line of 4.1 points and 3.7 rebounds per game in limited minutes were modest. He had a double double against the Knicks in a return to his native New York and then another against the Bobcats a few weeks later. It was great to see O'Quinn take advantage of the opportunity when it was presented to him.

Unfortunately, the life of a second round pick is done on a year-to-year basis. As good as O'Quinn was, his future with the Magic is dependent on a lot of things -- free agent acquisitions, draft picks, training camp work out.

O'Quinn will certainly be with the team in training camp in October. He seems likely to play in Summer League again for the Magic too.

O'Quinn embraced the Magic's youth movement and the opportunity to improve in low-stakes games. O'Quinn told Bob Molinaro of The Virginian-Pilot that the learning was the key for him during his rookie season:

We could do nothing but grow. It was one of those years where you couldn't do too much wrong. I'm not saying we enjoyed losing, but every day you learned something.

That was indeed the point of the season for the Magic at this stage of the team's rebuilding. O'Quinn did not play much at the beginning of the season as he learned the finers points of the NBA game. But he showed that grit and a feathery touch from the perimeter as the season went on. The Magic surely want to see how he develops and continues to grow.

Magic fans certainly appreciated O'Quinn's efforts. He won the team's Aleve Hustle Player of the Year award, as voted on by the fans.

O'Quinn will have a lot of work to do this summer to continue his development and improvement. Just like every other Magic player. It will be interesting to see how he comes into Summer League and what improvements he has made.

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.