The Orlando Magic have plenty of players who are good at getting to the basket and they have done so. Finishing is another struggle.
The Orlando Magic have an Achilles heel. There is no getting around it either. It is part of their very essence and their inability to take advantage of it spells trouble in the long term.
Yes, the Magic cannot finish at the rim. A team with ostensibly no guaranteed jump shooters and drivers like Victor Oladipo and Elfrid Payton is struggling to finish where it matters most. And, adding on top of that, the team continues to struggle to get to the foul line.
Entering Tuesday’s games, Orlando ranks 10th in the league with 31.3 field goal attempts per game within five feet. However, the Magic make only 53.2 percent of those shots, good for 25th in the league.
The ability to get to the rim is there — 35.2 percent of their shots come from within five feet — the ability to finish is not.
“It’s kind of an underrated skill,” Magic coach Scott Skiles said. “I think people kind of assume pro perimeter players are going to go in there and they are going to make most of them or they are going to get fouled. The guys know it. They are working at it. We just have to translate it into games and make more of it.”
This has been a notion expressed for several years now. Victor Oladipo has specifically said finishing at the rim is a skill he has to learn. And in the open portions of practice, players can be seen shooting over Magic assistant coaches using poles to contest shots or pads to hit players as they try to finish around them.
Skiles seemed to agree with the notion that it is a skill. And he has noted the team has finished well at the rim in practice, but like with many things this year, the team has not translated it fully to games.
“We just got to make those baskets,” Tobias Harris said. “We can’t make excuses. We just got to finish them. As a team, we have to finish that also.”
Finishing has not been easy for the Magic. And there does not seem to be a good explanation for why the team is struggling so much in that area.
Particularly after the game in Indiana, Skiles complained his team was driving too much into traffic and forcing shots. The last three games have seen the Magic do better on that front, Skiles even half-joking it has turned the other way.
The numbers tell something of a different story. In the last three games, the Magic are shooting 48.4 percent on shots from less than five feet, taking 93 of 263 total shots (35.4 percent). The Magic are taking a lot more shots at the rim in the past week, but not shooting at the same percentage.
Where things have changed however is in the team’s free throw attempts per game and free throw rate. For the season, the Magic are averaging 20.7 free throw attempts per game and a 23.3 percent free throw rate (one of the worst in the league). In the last three games, the free throw attempts per game have bumped up to 22.3 per game and a free throw rate of 25.5 percent.
These may be small increases, but they have made a difference. While it is not completely clear if the extra free throws means the team is getting to the basket more and thus converting more by getting to the line more, it is a good sign the team is proving to be more aggressive attacking the basket.
Continuing to be strong and absorb contact in the paint is something the team is continuing to work on.
“We’ve just got to get into the paint with more intensity, stronger, don’t try to get a foul called and just have the mindset of dunking the ball,” Evan Fournier said.
Finishing at the rim is not easy, for sure. Otherwise this would not be a repeated problem. The Magic are, again, very good at getting to the basket and attempting shots near the rim.
The skill to finish and make good decisions when driving is a difficult one. There is always a lot of information to process. For young players, that can be difficult to do and lead to inefficiencies. The hope is they continue to show improvement.
Even though the numbers have not come around, Skiles said he likes the fact the team does try to get to the basket more and are getting there. It is about that last piece to get this team over the hump and unlock perhaps a stronger weapon.
“In general, we’re at the rim all the time,” Skiles said. “In general, we’ve made a good effort. Even the games we aren’t getting to the line, we are getting into the paint. It’s not like we lookat the game when it’s over and thinking we should have drove there, maybe we could have gotten contact. I think we have better purpose right now of getting to the line. The guys are still going in there, we have to either finish or get fouled. We’re still working on that.”