The Orlando Magic are the first team to the midpoint of the season. And it was a wild start. What do the Magic need to accomplish int he second half?
The calendar has turned to January and that really means nothing in NBA parlance. It only means we are nearing the midpoint of the season and teams are grinding their way forward and preparing for Playoff pushes. The midway point of the season came Monday in Chicago.
Those Playoff pushes, surprisingly still, include the Magic. Although that seems to be fading away more and more these days.
So, since everyone else is making New Years’ Resolutions and the midway point of the season is here, we might as well add our own and figure out exactly what the Magic need to do in 2015.
There is a lot. They have already probably broken whatever resolutions they made a few weeks ago. It has been that bad in early January.
So what is the Magic’s main resolution?
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“I think overall, we want to be a better team in 2015 than we were in 2014,” Jacque Vaughn said before shootaround as the team prepared to face the Nets, the team’s first game of 2015. “There are a lot of areas we can improve on whether it is transition D if you want to be specific or the overall toughness if you want to have an overall theme. The toughness of our team mentally and physically.”
There is the remainder of the 2014-15 season, which figured to be the one where the Magic started competing later into the season. A very light check on that one so far, as the Magic are 3.5 games out of the Playoff race (but sinking fast).
Then there is the impending free agency of Tobias Harris and Kyle O’Quinn to sort through. Along with several key decisions in roster building as the Magic continue their rebuild and begin to make concrete moves to hand the team over to their new core and build around them for future Playoff runs.
Then there is the beginning of a new season and everything that comes with that.
A lot is going to happen in the next 12 months. Here is what we hope happens and what others hope the Magic can aspire to in 2015.
Next: Develop an identity
Develop an identity
This gets to what Jacque Vaughn said when he was asked what the team’s goal is for 2015. He said he wanted the team to develop a toughness and physicality behind them. He wants to see the team develop a mental toughness.
That can be a tall task with such a young team. But it is time for the Magic to start building and moving forward. The team should try to exit this season with some idea of what this team will look like for years to come.
Have the Magic developed an identity and a belief in a system that will carry them through?
No, not yet.
This is Year Three of the rebuild and Jacque Vaughn’s tenure as head coach. It is hard to tell exactly how he wants his Magic teams to play. At a certain point the Magic are going to leave rebuild mode and enter contention mode. And to hit that mode, the team has to have a distinct identity.
Through the Phog
At the beginning of the year, the Magic professed to be a defensive team that would get out in transition, using their youth to a supposed advantage. They certainly are not a fast breaking team — 94.9 possesions per game entering Saturday’s game, good for 24th in the league. And they are not quite a defensive team either — 104.2 defensive rating, good for 20th in the league.
Orlando is not making the progress in these areas you would want to see. And the Magic are still kind of sitting still, leaving everyone wondering: How does this team want to play?
Right now, no one can say exactly how this team aspires to play with this roster. Those identity issues have led to frustration when the shots don’t fall and that trickled throughout the team. They need good things to happen, particularly on offense, to focus in.
That is not a team that makes its money on defense. The team just is not ready for that kind of identity. They have to find something they can hang their hat on.
Maybe Monday’s win over the Bulls was a sign things are heading in the right direction.
Next: Find consistency
Find Consistency
The most maddening part about a young team is inconsistency. It warrants its own post and has led to numerous and repeated questions from the media after each loss.
How maddening can inconsistency be?
The Magic had perhaps their best win of the season in Miami on Monday. It was a gritty road effort with different players stepping up at various times on both sides of the ball. The next night in Detroit might have been a schedule loss anyway as the team played its fourth game in five nights. Friday and Saturday’s home games presented a great opportunity to build momentum before moving on to a difficult portion of the schedule.
Nope, none there.
Daily Knicks
The Magic fell behind by 20 points in both games to star the year and had a furious rally to give themselves a chance to win last week against the Nets and then against the Hornets. They fell behind big again and had to fight back again and again with a crazy comeback in the final two minutes against the Nuggets before a missed 3-pointer from Evan Fournier fell short. Then there was the lackadaisical effort against the Lakers and then played three solid quarters after a horrible first and wilted at the end of the game.
That last part is not new. But the ups and downs of the Magic in 2015 have been pretty concerning.
We will be digging a bit more into the consistency issues in an upcoming post. But the Magic have to start playing at a high energy level every night and at least execute what they are trying to each time out. It is about process over results right now in large part.
Next: Make Nikola Vucevic a star
Make Nikola Vucevic more of a star
Nikola Vucevic is the Magic’s best shot at an All Star this year.
He has had coaches singing his praises all season. He has taken steps forward offensively, averaging career high 18.4 points per game and sits at 11.1 rebounds per game. All solid numbers for him.
The only problem is his team is not getting much better, sitting at 13 wins and seemingly sinking fast. That should not detract from his individual accomplishments or his All-Star qualities.
Being named to the All-Star team is what it is. The coaches will either vote him in or they will not. And Vucevic is extremely modest, he is not going to campaign or go on some rampage if he does not make it.
“I just want to keep playing good for my team and help my team win and do better,” Vucevic said. “I want to improve as a player and a teammate. I just want to keep getting better.”
Pippen Ain't Easy
So, here is what the Magic have to do — MAKE VUCEVIC AN ALL STAR.
If not in reality, then in name only.
Vucevic has a career-best 25.2 percent usage rate and he is asserting himself more offensively. The Magic are usually getting him involved early though. He scores just 8.2 of his 18.4 points per game in the second half. In clutch situations, Vucevic actually becomes one of the worst “big-name” players in the league. He is shooting 25.0 percent from the floor and scoring 10.3 points per 36 minutes in situations where the Magic are down five points or fewer within five minutes. His usage rate in those situations goes to 20.6 percent.
Vucevic’s numbers go way down and the Magic do not look to him as often despite his general reliability there.
If you want to be an All Star you have to demand the ball and your teams has to feed it to you.
The Magic did that in Portland and then in Chicago. And it worked. He stepped up to the plate. And that is a big statement from a player on the borderline of stardom in this league.
Time for the Magic to make him a star this second half.
Next: Make the picture clearer
Make the picture clearer
The Magic are spending a good chunk of this season figuring out which players are going to be part of the team’s future and which ones are not.
So far, the focus has been on evaluating whether Nikola Vucevic was worth his extension. Whether Victor Oladipo can be a point guard or whether he has learned all he can. Whether Oladipo and Elfrid Payton can work well together.
Probably the bigger questions were figuring out how Tobias Harris fit into the puzzle for the Magic and what his worth is for his upcoming free agency. Then there is Kyle O’Quinn’s free agency. And then the futures of Maurice Harkless and Andrew Nicholson.
So what have the Magic learned in the first 41 games of the season?
First, Vucevic is worth the money offensively and on the glass. The Magic appear to have made a good investment and have put in place their starting center. He comes with blemishes — defensively and protecting the rim especially — but is a solid player at a good price for a center.
The Sixer Sense
Second, Harkless and Nicholson appear to be outside the fold. Both have struggled to get into the rotation. Both have struggled some when they are on the floor. And they just have not matured or progressed enough to earn a spot in the rotation. Their strengths have failed to hide their weaknesses.
Third, it is still unclear where Tobias Harris fits in with this team’s future and what he might fetch when he becomes a restricted free agent. He has played extremely well in his time and puts up good numbers. But he can be a bit of a ball stopper and he is still improving as a playmaker and contributing elsewhere on the floor besides the points column.
It is still too difficult to figure out what his value will be.
The mystery of the Magic is getting to a lot of people right now. Zach Lowe of Grantland wrote about it extensively earlier this week. At some point, the Magic are going to have to figure things out. Might as well start with some of these players right now.
Next: Get Aaron Gordon back
Get Aaron Gordon back healthy
Another player the Magic put a pretty big investment in was Aaron Gordon. That 2014 first round pick was a pick the Magic spent two years preparing for. They lost the lottery and ended up fourth.
Instead of going with seeming conventional wisdom, Rob Hennigan drafted another tweener forward with improving shooting ability and a high motor and good character. At least that part had a theme.
The Magic have barely seen the player they spent all that time and energy on though. Gordon played just 11 games before the team discovered he had a fracture in his foot. He has been on the sideline ever since, although his return appears imminent.
Gordon obviously adds a major energetic piece to this team. And they want to see what he can do. Once healthy, the Magic will surely want to unleash him on the world.
Health is the most important thing for the 19 year old. He obviously has a lot of basketball ahead of him. Each bit of experience he gets is a good thing.
Orlando wants to see him on the floor. You can sense how hungry Gordon is to get back out there too. He will get out there soon.
Next: Playoffs or Lottery? Doesn't matter, just play
Playoffs or Lottery? Just play every game
The Magic are in a weird position.
On one hand, they are just 2.5 games out of the final Playoffs pot in the Eastern Conference. They have a young team with plenty of talent and the experience, you would think, to at least make a push for the Playoffs.
On the other hand, the Magic are in line for the seventh pick in the Draft and are only 1.5 games out of picking fourth.
There is the odd push and pull of competing and maybe positioning for lottery.
Pelican Debrief
The Magic as a team cannot think about that. Their focus has to remain on the task at hand — winning basketball games individually.
This team is not talented enough yet to consistently burn off tons of games in a row. But they will have their moments. Plenty of moments. The key for the rest of this season is for the Magic to continue to have these moments.
More moments like the stunning buzzer-beating win over the Hawks or the energetic victories over the Bulls and the Rockets. There has to be more of these moments than the negative ones.
The Magic came into this season believing they had to turn a corner, so to speak. They had to show fans and show themselves that this rebuild is moving int he right direction. It is hard to say the team has done that with how difficult it has been to find an identity and produce wins.
There is still 40 or so games to do that though.
We will see what they have in store.
Next: Victor Oladipo's breakout performance could be a watershed moment