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Orlando Magic (0-0) at New Orleans Pelicans (0-0), 8 p.m. (ET)

(SportsNetwork.com) - Could this be the year Anthony Davis leads the New Orleans Pelicans to the playoffs?

Optimism is at a high level for Davis, who will lead the Pelicans against the Orlando Magic Tuesday in the NBA season opener for both teams.

Davis is entering his third season and the first overall pick in the 2012 draft is anxious to get started in hopes of ending a three-year playoff drought for the organization.

"My NBA journey so far has been incomplete," Davis said. "I say 'incomplete' because I want to make the playoffs. When we do that, it still won't be complete, but that's the next step for me and my team. To be one of the teams in the league that people talk about."

Plenty in the basketball world know about Davis, especially for his defensive skills and rim protection. Davis led the Pelicans in points (20.8), rebounds (10.0), field-goal percentage (51.9), blocks (2.8) and steals (1.3) last season.

A first-time All-Star last season, Davis further polished his skills as a champion in this summer's FIBA World Cup and hopes the experience will get the Pelicans out of the Southwest Division basement.

It will be difficult for New Orleans to compete in the highly talented Western Conference, so the Pelicans should target at least 50 wins. They posted 34 in 2013-14. Dallas captured the eighth seed in the West last season with 49 wins.

The Pelicans have to stay healthy in order to make a playoff run. Point guard Jrue Holiday appeared in 34 games and posted 14.3 points and 7.9 assists. Ryan Anderson played in 22 games and averaged 19.8 points. Anderson is a deep threat from 3-point range and made 40.9 percent last season.

Tyreke Evans is a big contributor to head coach Monty Williams' scheme and scored 14.5 ppg in 72 games. It was the most games Evans has played since his rookie season of 2009-10 (72).

"We've got a good group of guys," Evans said. "It would be great to get that playoff berth and be able to play playoff basketball. But we've got to start with the regular season and take one game at a time."

The Pelicans have guards Eric Gordon, Jimmer Fredette and Austin Rivers along with forward John Salmons. Experience is not a strength right now for New Orleans, but this is a young and athletic team.

New Orleans bolstered its interior with the addition of center Omer Asik in a trade with the Houston Rockets. Asik averaged a double-double in 2012-13, posting 10.1 points and 11.7 rebounds while starting all 82 games, but saw his role diminish this past season after the Rockets signed Dwight Howard. Asik's minutes were slashed from 30 per game in his first season with the Rockets to 20.2 this past season. He made just 19 starts.

The Pelicans were 19-11 against the Eastern Conference last season and will play three of their first four games at Smoothie King Center.

Orlando has accumulated 43 wins over the previous two seasons and things are not expected to go well again in 2014-15.

The Magic were 23-59 last season, but it didn't keep the team from extending the contracts of head coach Jacque Vaughn and general manager Rob Hennigan through the 2015-16 seasons.

"Rob and Jacque have worked extremely hard in establishing a culture which embodies teamwork, hard work, hunger for success and humility," said Magic CEO Alex Martins in a statement. "With their strategic direction and leadership we feel we are headed in the right direction, which will allow us to achieve our goals of contending in a long term sustainable fashion."

Many speculate the recent downfall of the Magic is due to the blockbuster trade of superstar center Dwight Howard. The face of the franchise is probably center Nikola Vucevic and second-year guard Victor Oladipo. Oladipo, though, will miss the start of the season after suffering a facial fracture in practice. He was already bothered by a sprained left MCL.

Oladipo was a First Team All-Rookie selection last season after averaging 13.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 4.1 assists in 80 games. He finished second in the Rookie of the Year balloting, behind Philadelphia's Michael Carter-Williams.

Arron Afflalo led Orlando with 18.2 points per game and was traded to the Denver Nuggets this season. Forward Tobias Harris was second with 14.6 ppg and Vucevic tallied 14.2 with a team-high 11.0 rebounds.

"There is still a sense of growing up for us," Vaughn said. "My kids, once they started walking, they still fell down sometimes. They still got scratches on their knees and nothing was perfect the rest of their lives. That's part of growing up; continuing to push yourself and have expectations. But if you keep things relatively simple in life, you can still have some growth along the way."

Guard Maurice Harkless hopes to be one of those players who continues to grow and played in 80 games last season. Harkless said it was time for Orlando to start winning games right away.

"It starts (Tuesday). We're going to go out there and try to start the year off right," Harkless said.

The Magic, who have missed the playoffs in the last two seasons and went 6-24 against the West in 2013-14, added veteran guard Ben Gordon. Gordon spent the past two campaigns with the Charlotte Bobcats and appeared in just 19 games last season.

Orlando's top two draft picks, Aaron Gordon and Elfrid Payton, will get to showcase their skills and can add to this nucleus of young talent. Gordon started in all 38 games during his only season at the University of Arizona, averaging 12.4 points, 8.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists. In 100 career games over three years at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Payton averaged 14.3 points, 5.1 rebounds and 4.9 assists. He was selected by Philadelphia before being acquired by Orlando.

Payton is a native of Louisiana and will return to the Big Easy tonight. Ben Gordon is impressed with how Payton has handled himself so far.

"He has poise, he's gritty and he's not going to get shaken," Gordon said. "I think he's one of those guys who just sort of loses himself in the game. He's a really tough competitor."

Orlando and New Orleans split two meetings last season. The Pelicans have won six of the last games in this series.

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