The Orlando Magic are a team that is struggling and quickly falling out of the Playoff race. One chart from NBA Math shows one of the reasons why.
The Orlando Magic are a mess right now. The team is on the West Coast for its longest road trip of the season and it got off to an inauspicious start — an 111-95 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. And the Playoffs seem to be slipping away.
The Magic are 16-23 and now 3.5 games out of the final Playoff spot. They are closer to the Playoffs than the next team behind them in the standings. But they are only four games ahead of the Philadelphia 76ers.
That is a sign the Magic’s Playoff hopes are precarious right now. The team is on the edge of losing pace with the Playoff leaders and getting lumped into the group of teams sinking into the Eastern Conference’s basement.
Orlando’s statistics have looked bad all year. The constant blowouts, inconsistent offense and (now) anemic defense have led many to dismiss the team out of hand in many ways. Or, at least, the team is who many thought it would be — a talented team that is on a roster that does not fit and likely is not going to make the Playoffs.
It is hard to say the Magic have had a good season even to the most optimistic among Magic fans. It is hard to point to players who have performed at or above expectations.
The Web site NBAMath.com has been putting out fun charts on its Twitter account all season using Total Points Added to compare players simply. They released a chart analyzing the Magic’s TPA this weekend. And it does a lot to explain the Magic:
Here's the Orlando Magic TPA breakdown: pic.twitter.com/iIkFJNpG8F
— NBA Math (@NBA_Math) January 8, 2017
As anyone can see, being in the upper right is a good thing and the Magic do not have a lot of players ranking there.
This would suggest Serge Ibaka is the Magic’s best overall player. And it is hard to argue with that. Ibaka has the highest Total Points Added for the Magic, according to NBA Math. Serge Ibaka is averaging a career-high 15.6 points per game and almost all of his statistics have rebounded.
But Ibaka is 91st overall. A sign of the Magic’s difficulties.
Then again, the Magic expected to be a fairly balanced team. They would rely on the entire team working together to win. That is life without a primary scorer. The Magic always were going to need several players playing better than they did last year and a few above expectations.
It is safe to say Ibaka has met expectations. And just about everyone else has played about average with a few outliers.
What is more concerning with these numbers is only three players have a positive TPA — Ibaka, Nikola Vucevic and Elfrid Payton. And, as anyone can observe and see on the chart, Vucevic has surprisingly been stellar defensively but poor on the offensive end.
And, somewhat as expected, Evan Fournier has been strong offensively and poor defensively. That is a recurring theme for the Magic as the team’s perimeter defense especially has struggled.
The worst player? It is that guy on the far left of the chart — Jeff Green.
For whatever intangible value Jeff Green provides the Magic, it is certainly hard to quantify. And that is something the Magic cannot afford from such an important player in the rotation.
Overall, these numbers and metrics tell us what everyone else knows. This Magic team is not performing or playing well.
Next: The Orlando Magic just do not work
They did enough to stay in the Playoff race. But it is starting to look like the team is beginning to fall off and fall out of that race. And that leads to the situation the Magic find themselves in now.