The NBA Playoffs start Saturday at 3 p.m. as the Knicks take on the Celtics at Madison Square Garden.

No, the Magic are not coming out with a steel chair to wreak havoc and steal the championship. If only that were allowed. Glen Davis would clear the ring pretty quickly.

Ending the wrestling references, the three-month journey to a championship begins Saturday and there will be lots of great basketball to watch. It is going to be fun.

Since we are all basketball fans, the Playoffs are what we all cannot wait for.

Over at Crossover Chronicles, Jeff Garcia and I discussed all the first round series matchups including a discussion of Carmelo Anthony's chance to build his legacy in this year's postseason.

You can hear the rest of the preview over at Crossover Chronicles. Jeff andI break down the Western Conference here and the Eastern Conference here.

The first season of the Magic's rebuilding program is over. It featured a lot of young players getting lots of time to grow and develop in their first and second years all under (at least early on) the watchful eye of several veterans. Undoubtedly, having Jameer Nelson, Glen Davis and Arron Afflalo among others in that locker room helped Maurice Harkless, Andrew Nicholson,  Nikola Vucevic and Tobias Harris grow.

Eventually though they got in the way of playing time for the young players. Injuries and "injuries" began to take over as the Magic were happy to allow players to take as much time as they needed to get back 100 percent healthy.

Arron Afflalo and Glen Davis likely could have pushed themselves to play if that is what the Magic really wanted. Having been eliminated from the Playoffs already, there was no need to risk further injuries. Jameer Nelson missed all of April with what was at first a sprained ankle. Al Harrington and Hedo Turkoglu were pretty much healthy scratches, even when they could have been used in minor roles to help give young guys a rest.

Orlando wants these veterans around for their leadership and guidance for the young players. But playing the young guys was a priority for this team. And it will remain to be so in what is expected to be another developing year in 2014 (with an eye on a start-studded Draft class).

Tobias Harris might be saying the team's goal next year should be to make the Playoffs -- and it should be -- but the question is whether you can rely on these young players who struggled specifically on the defensive end in the final months of the season -- the Magic gave up a 107.7 defensive rating in the final 20 games. If the Magic favor young players again next year, without major improvement from multiple players, the Playoffs are just that: a goal.

Next week I will do my yearly review of "What Went Right" and "What Went Wrong" for the Magic this year. That will be our more in depth review of the season that ended last night.

Until then, while the ink is still drying on the season, we are going to reflect and look at where we have gone this season and where we are going. There is a lot that is going to happen in the Magic Kingdom this offseason including key decisions about veterans, development of the young players on this year's roster and the drafting of a top-4 pick. A lot can and will happen.

The Magic filed out of Amway Center and had their exit interviews with Rob Hennigan and Jacque Vaughn today before meeting the media. There was plenty of uncertainty in those meetings for several players.

Let's keep the focus on this season first though before we get too far ahead of ourselves.

A lot happened this season more than just 20 wins and 62 losses.  Colby Huggins of The Magic Wire put together this nice retrospective video of the season that was that, I think, tells a good story of the season:

#WEWILLREBUILD an Orlando Magic 2012-2013 season retrospective from Colby Huggins on Vimeo.

Fox Sports Florida also had two nice highlight packages in the last two games of the season highlighting a lot of the great plays this Magic team had even when the wins were not coming in droves.

Here are some other highlights from the year, after the jump!

Monday's tragic events in Boston had shown that sports is only a distraction from more important things. Fortunately sports can serve as a welcome distraction and a conduit for a lot of good.

Last night, Boston hosted its first sporting event since the bombings at Monday's Boston Marathon that injured hundreds of spectators and has killed at least three. The events were shocking, but showed the very best of America in the face of senseless evil.

There is not a whole ton we can do to help as an Orlando Magic Daily blog except provide our thoughts and our prayers and whatever support we can.

It may be the smallest thing we can do, but I wanted to provide this link to help. Our friends over at Project Spurs have a great partnership with several NBA artists. For the month of April these artists have agreed to donate the proceeds from any sale of their prints to Boston relief efforts. There are some fantastic works of art like the Kevin Garnett above by Dustin Watson.

There are also works from Joseph Applegate, Bobby Bernethy, Jesse Blanchard, Maddison Bond, Robb Harskamp,  Double Scribble and Hoop Dream Ink.

I am partial to Double Scribble's print of Tracy McGrady and he has some nice doodles of Jameer Nelson too. And his visual history of Horace Grant's goggles is fun. Unfortunately neither are available in the story (the McGrady portrait is on a T-shirt, check Double Scribble's Web site for more info).

Even just sharing these great works of art with others will undoubtedly help. It is the least we can do right now.

I would also be remiss right now if I did not mention the incredible kindness the Magic showed on Fan Appreciation Night toward a local veteran. The Magic and Chase Bank gave away a mortgage-free home to a 15-year U.S. Army veteran on Fan Appreciation Night. John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com tells his story more in full. It is really worth a read and it was a great way for the Magic and its partners through Operation Homefront to show support to and give back to our veterans.

If the season's goal was to collect the most ping pong balls in the NBA Draft Lottery -- while incidentally seeing plenty of growth in the young players amassed in the various trades in the remaking of this roster.

Mission accomplished.

Sorry if I do not seem overly excited about this prospect. It is not the fact that this is considered a weak draft at the top or that it was completely unexpected.

Orlando had a lot of work to do this year just to stay in games on a nightly basis and the team largely performed admirably. Nikola Vucevic was a revelation at center, providing consistent rebounding and a solid offensive game. Tobias Harris was acquired in a trade and proved to be a promising prospect for the future. Maurice Harkless improved seemingly daily as a 19-year-old rookie. And the veterans kept the boat steady, ensuring the Magic were approaching games the right way.

Still, you are what your record says you are. And after a 105-93 loss to the Heat at American Airlines Arena in the season finale Wednesday, the Magic's record says they are 20-62, the worst record in the league. Orlando will have a 25 percent chance of winning the May 21 NBA Draft Lottery.

Whether you wanted it or not, that statement leaves a bitter taste for what was a season of growth for many of the young players.

Certainly the effort in Miami was uncharacteristic of a team that played hard every minute even if they could not always execute with enough consistency to win every night. 

In the first big shock of the NBA Draft season, Oklahoma State point guard Marcus Smart is reportedly preparing to announce he will return to college for his sophomore season.

Smart averaged 15.4 points and 5.8 assists per game on his way to winning Big 12 Player of the Year and the Wayman Tisdale Award given to the best freshman in the country. Smart is a big point guard who many saw as very capable NBA point guard prospect. He had very good size and helped carry an Oklahoma State team into the NCAA Tournament.

Many though questioned whether he could be an efficient enough distributor and pointed to his turnover numbers as a sign that he still needed some growing. Another year in college should provide that and he should remain a top prospect for a loaded 2014 Draft.

Smart was considered as someone the Magic should consider taking with their first round pick. A lot of people saw him as someone Jameer Nelson could mentor for a year before turning over the starting point guard role to the rookie as the team begins to really dig into its rebuild.

Chad Ford of ESPN.com had Marcus Smart as the guy the Magic would pick with the No. 1 pick.

Like most prospects, you are free to disagree with that analysis. It is moot now with Smart heading back to school.

Orlando could receive the best lottery odds for the NBA Draft Lottery with a loss tonight to Miami and a Charlotte win over Cleveland. The Magic can receive no worse than the second best lottery odds which means they can receive no worse than the fifth pick in the draft.

The top prospects in this year's draft include Nerlens Noel from Kentucky, Ben McLemore of Kansas, Trey Burke of Michigan, Otto Porter of Georgetown and Victor Oladipo of Indiana.

Noel was on with Dan Patrick and the Dan Patrick Show this morning to discuss his process of returning from a torn ACL and the upcoming Draft -- as well as the Boston Marathon tragedy as Noel is from the Boston area. Noel said he is ahead of schedule on his recovery.

The NBA Draft Lottery is on May 21.

Two former Magic players who have been out of the NBA all season have found homes and will play in the Playoffs this year.

The Spurs signed Tracy McGrady for the remainder of the season after the former all star spent the season in the Chinese Basketball Association, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports. The Knicks also added Quentin Richardson, whom the Magic waived in training camp last October.

Both players will be eligible for the postseason as they have not played in the NBA at all this season and are thus not restricted by the March 1 roster deadline for the Playoffs.

With San Antonio waiving Stephen Jackson last week, the Spurs needed a small forward to fill in some of those minutes. San Antonio has had various injuries too with Manu Ginobili sitting out some time and now Boris Diaw missing time too. McGrady figures to be a big contributor for the Spurs this postseason.

He spent the year in China in the CBA where he averaged 25.0 points per game, 5.1 assists per game and 7.2 rebounds per game for the Qingdao Tigers. They failed to make the Playoffs, however McGrady was named to the league's All-Star team.

Richardson was set to be a member of the Magic this year as he had two years remaining on a $10.1 million, 4-year deal.  DeQuan Jones had a big preseason and the Magic had to make the difficult decision to waive Richardson and bight the bullet of the remaining two years and $5.4 million on his contract. Orlando will still be paying that.

Richardson did not play basketball anywhere before signing with the Knicks this year. He will be an instigator for New York as the team goes up against Boston in the first round and hopes to meet up with Miami in the Eastern Conference Finals. Richardson has a history with both Paul Pierce and LeBron James. He will not be afraid to mix things up. That appears to be what the Knicks want from him.

It is hard to tell what else he can bring.

The Magic will be happy to have these alums playing in the Playoffs this year.

With the season coming to a close, the NBA's awards season is picking up full steam.

Magic fans will be paying close attention this year even with a 20-61 record and possibly the worst record in the league. Nikola Vucevic is one of the major candidates for the Most Improved Player award. His candidacy has been picking up steam as he continues to pour in double doubles and rack up incredible statistics.

In the eight games since returning from his concussion, Vucevic is averaging 18.1 points and 15.5 rebounds per game. That includes more than five offensive rebounds per game. He has stepped his game up, recording two of his four 20-20 games in that stretch.

These performances are just part of the reasons why Vucevic is considered one of the favorites, along with Paul George and Jrue Holiday (two All Stars, mind you), for the award. For David Aldridge of NBA.com, Vucevic is the choice:

But Vucevic gets the nod for doubling his points and rebounds over his rookie season in Philadelphia. Traded south as part of the Dwight Howard-Andrew Bynum-Andre Iguodala four-team deal, Vucevic is second in the league in rebounding (11.9 rpg, behind only Howard) and is shooting 51.7 percent for the otherwise woeful Magic. Vucevic grabbed a season-high 29 boards with 20 points for the Magic against Miami in December, and has 44 double-doubles, tied for third in the league.

Vucevic is averaging 13.0 points per game and 8.3 rebounds per game. Numbers are clearly not as gaudy as his numbers of late. But considering he averaged 5.5 points and 4.8 rebounds per game in nearly half the playing time last year, Vucevic's jump this year is pretty astounding.

The Magic's home finale mirrored their season in so many ways.

There was the hot start led by surprising energy from players no one expected to do anything. There was Nikola Vucevic slipping by Carlos Boozer for an offensive rebound and put back. There was Tobias Harris splitting the double team and going in for an emphatic dunk. There was Maurice Harkless driving to the rim and finishing with authority.

Things seemed so nice.

Then reality kicked in. The Bulls adjusted. The defense tightened. The young Magic could not figure them out. As young teams are likely to do against a dialing in Chicago team. The Bulls were prepping for the Playoffs and going through their paces with deliberateness and focus.

Orlando is not at that level yet. Not in experience and not in skill.

So with the Bulls hitting five of their first seven 3-pointers, they opened up a double digit lead entering the half and expanded it out to 20 for much of the second half. Chicago, always leaning on its defense, never let Orlando make a serious run at the lead and won 102-84 in the season finale at Amway Center on Monday.

Orlando got 20 points from Tobias Harris, 17 points and 14 rebounds (seven offensive boards) from Nikola Vucevic and 16 points from Maurice Harkless. They all did their part. But the Bulls defense closed them off from getting into the lane and getting the easy baskets that gave the Magic the lead in the first quarter.

Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel reports that Jameer Nelson will not play tonight in the Magic's home finale against the Bulls. And with just one more game reamining, the sprained ankle he suffered on March 29 appears to have claimed the remainder of his season.

This is not so surprising since the Magic have devoted the latter half of this season to developing young players. If the Playoffs were still a possibility, it is likely that Arron Afflalo and Glen Davis would be working through their rehabs much quicker to try and contribute. That is obviously not the case.

So what do we make of Jameer Nelson's ninth season in the NBA?

Nelson was perhaps haunted somewhat by a three-year $25.2 million contract he signed in the offseason. After the Dwight Howard mess, the Magic opted for some continuity and kept the veteran point guard who has been part of the Magic organization for nearly a decade.

The move was motivated perhaps more by the desire to have a veteran leader on the roster and as a sign of some gratitude. Fans have shown support for Nelson for showing a desire to stay in Orlando through all the pain and issues that was the 2012 season. Those may not be great basketball reasons, but they were an important message the franchise wanted to send in one form or another.

The Magic have relied on his veteran leadership in helping young players like Maurice Harkless, Nikola Vucevic, Andrew Nicholson and Tobias Harris navigate the NBA season.