Frank Vogel: Orlando Magic don’t do a good enough job flopping

Among the many issues the Orlando Magic face, their poor free throw shooting is somewhere on the list. Frank Vogel has a solution: more flopping.

The Orlando Magic have struggled to get to the foul line the last four years. The team was full of plenty of offensively gifted players, even some decent drivers. Yet, the team could not get to the foul line for those easy points.

The Magic had a near historic low in free throw rate and free throws attempted per game in the early stages of their rebuild. There is not a direct correlation between a low free throw rate and a poor offense, but the Magic needed this outlet.

Once again, Orlando is near the bottom of the league in free throw rate. The team is 28th in the league with a 23.2 percent free throw rate — measured as free throws attempted over field goals attempted in a game.

In the five years since the Magic began this rebuild, they have been out of the bottom five in free throw rate just once. Orlando has finished last twice in the past five years. The Magic just do not get to the foul line.

The reason for that has been confounding for the Magic throughout the last five years. At various points, there was always a concern over Victor Oladipo and Nikola Vucevic‘s struggles to get to the foul line.

Oladipo’s highest free throw rate was the 34.0 percent he posted his rookie year, he never cracked 30 percent since and it has gotten lower than 20 percent in Oklahoma City. Vucevic has never had a free throw rate that cracks 20 percent.

Those are two players the Magic relied on to carry a large scoring load and attack the basket. And neither could get to the foul line consistently. And that hurt the Magic offensively.

This year, it is still a problem. Bismack Biyombo, Evan Fournier and Jeff Green have been good at getting to the line this year. Evan Fournier is hovering near 30 percent. But the Magic overall are not good at getting there.

That frustration boiled over in last Wednesday’s loss to the Atlanta Hawks. Coach Frank Vogel was visibly upset after several calls, and Serge Ibaka picked up two technical fouls. Vogel said he would send some tape to the league for review.

But ultimate, scapegoating officiating is the easy way out. Ultimately it is up to the players to attack the basket and draw contact.

What Vogel believes the Magic can do better is sell contact.

“It’s a little bit of a frustrating thing,” Vogel said before Friday’s game against the Houston Rockets. “But I feel like our guys don’t do a good enough job flopping. I don’t like when guys flop. But it seems like that’s the avenue to get to the free throw line. We don’t sell contact very well. We just try to score the ball. I think that’s part of being successful in the paint is to make sure the whistle is blowing, making sure you are getting contact and making sure you are being physical with your post moves and your drives. I think we need to get to the paint more offensively.”

The flopping line got a few laughs and a surprised look from Magic media representatives. It certainly was a surprising thing to hear any coach say.

There is a fine line between outright flopping — like when Marcus Smart goes flailing out of bounds without getting touched — and selling contact. Many players give a nice grunt through the lane as they get contact or throw their arms up to accentuate contact. That is part of the gamesmanship and psychology to get the officials to notice a call.

But there may be something to the Magic’s inability to sell contact and them getting to the line. Their drives rarely lead to fouls.

Orlando is virtually at the league median for drives per game, according to NBA.com. The team has 26.2 drives per game — a drive is defined as any time a player goes from the 3-point line to 10 feet within the basket. Yet, the Magic are 24th in the league in free throw attempts per game off drives.  Orlando ranks 22nd in points per game on drives.

There is something of a disconnect or at least a poor relationship between the Magic’s ability to get into the paint and get to the line.

If drives are a primary engine for generating free throw attempts, then this must improve. And the Magic have to improve it any way they can.

The good news is Orlando found some solace in Sunday’s game. About the only silver lining to that game was the Magic took 29 free throw attempts, the most free throw attempts the team has taken since the double-overtime game at Miami. The Magic have passed the 30-free throw mark just five times. Meanwhile, Orlando has taken fewer than 15 free throw attempts 13 times and fewer than 20 attempts 19 times.

Finding players who can draw fouls and get to the line, putting pressure on defenses to defend less physically, remains a problem. And certainly, the Magic could do a better job selling the contact.

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Whether that means the Magic resort to more histrionics is a question only the team can answer. It does not seem like that is something the team should devote practice time to with all the other problems the Magic are fighting to get through to stay in this playoff race.