The NBA season hasn’t started yet, but it’s already easy to think about what lies ahead.

The Magic’s players have spoken of their ambitions to gain home advantage and surprise the league again after finishing fifth last year. They are already thinking about the play-offs, even in October.

April is still far away. And before then there will be several marks. If the Magic wants to achieve these goals, there is a way station along the way that will tell where the Magic is.

Voting for All-Stars is also still a long way off. The All-Star teams won’t be announced until January. And the Magic’s schedule in the first half of the season could be very difficult, including being part of the toughest bracket in the Eastern Conference for the NBA Cup.

If Orlando is going to become a team with home field advantage, it will undoubtedly happen as their two young stars grow into true All-Stars.

Paolo Banchero is already there, trying to become a perennial All-Star and someone who spends every February wherever the league hosts its All-Star weekend. Franz Wagner is trying to get there and his presence as a second All-Star for the Magic is likely because the Magic are a great team.

That’s the chicken-and-egg problem. Is a player an All-Star because his team is good or is a team good because he has good players?

The answer is of course: yes.

Orlando needs Banchero to take another step and grow as a playmaker, creator and goal scorer. And the team needs Wagner to improve his scoring and shooting to reach a new level in the NBA hierarchy.

But ultimately, how these two players are viewed in the larger NBA story depends on how they impact their team in the standings. What matters is how they help Orlando climb the rankings.

Unless a team has really popular players, the only way a team will be rewarded with two All-Stars is by being at the top of the standings. That’s what the coaches will always recognize first.

That’s where the Magic’s two star players stand when it comes to their preseason chances to make the All-Star team.

The question then is whether the Magic will be good enough to make Wagner more seriously considered for the honor and whether Banchero will take the big step toward becoming a perennial All-Star whose spot on the team is assured every season.