The Orlando Magic established their principles and got out to a fast start to the season. Now teams have adjusted and the Magic are trying to grow.
The Orlando Magic do not want to use youth as an excuse. That has been one of the last things on the Magic’s list of reasons for any failings they might have.
As the “grizzled” veteran Channing Frye noted, the players may be young in age, but they are not short in experience — many having played three or four years in the league already.
Youth may not be the right term then. Inexperience could be.
For the first time in the Magic’s rebuild at least, they have experienced success — and 20-20 at this mark is a small measure of success — and teams around the league have taken notice.
Now teams are adjusting and throwing punches and counterpunches to take the Magic out of the sets and rotations they like. And the Magic are still having some trouble adjusting.
It is probably the next major growth point for the Magic as a team.
“We were playing at a level, winning games at least at a level, where people are going to prepare better for you, they aren’t going to be surprised by you,” coach Scott Skiles said. “There’s an awful lot of sets offensively that you can take another team out of, then it comes down to playing basketball — somebody beating somebody off the dribble, making plays for a teammate.
“For us, we have to really rely on each other, we have to set solid screens, the basic fundamentals of the game. When we’re coming up and whiffing on screens, we haven’t shown yet we can break people down off the dribble and just go and create.”
There is a fair amount of simplicity to this problem. Basketball is basketball at the end of the day and once a team takes you out of your set, it becomes about forcing something to happen. This is where the Magic are struggling most right now.
Orlando’s offense especially is built on quick passing and working together with well-timed cuts and movement to free up players. The Magic do not have that break-a-guy-down-off-the-dribble player they can simply dump it in to when possessions break down.
The margin for error, as Scott Skiles has said repeatedly, is very small.
There have been small signs throughout even the team’s current struggles Orlando can turn some things around. But this critical adjustment to how teams play them is a part of that turnaround too.
“We have to remember it comes from confidence,” Channing Frye said. “We do a lot of work in practice. We just need to see some translation onto the court. We’re right there and i think we have some glimpses of playing the right way and doing the right things. Winning is not easy, and sometimes I think we forget about that. I think over the last few games we have not been as crisp as we need to and not as aggressive and not as swaggy.”
The Magic offense has more or less fallen off a cliff in January. They have posted the worst offensive rating in the league since the calendar turned by nearly 2.5 points per 100 possessions. They have the third worst net rating in the league, playing like a team destined for a high lottery slot rather than a Playoff berth.
It is a problem on both ends and the lack of aggression and crispness on offense is the same as defense.
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These numbers and this play is why there are some alarm bells ringing with the Magic and a sense of urgency surrounding Wednesday’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers.
“We just have to really rely on each other instead of fracturing,” Aaron Gordon said. “We have to come together and really be one unit flowing together.
“I think it’s about giving up individual goals for a team goal. Actually, we’re going to have to will it for a couple games to get it to go back to normal. We’re going to come out and work on it.”
That translation piece has been a difficult one for the Magic. It has been a recurring theme for the Magic throughout the season. It would seem they get the concepts in practice and then struggle applying and translating them to games.
As the team repeatedly said the last few days, that good team that terrorized teams defensively is in there. It pops out for stretches but not nearly consistently enough for the team to continue winning games.
There has been a struggle to recapture that feeling. Often times with the Magic it seems good play begets good play as much as frustrating play begets frustrating play. The Magic are trying to grab the reigns to the season again.
It is going to take work to right the ship for the Magic, that much is clear.
“For us, it’s more about establishing who we are and worrying about ourselves” –Channing Frye
“We’ve done a pretty good job at times stopping teams first action, it’s just the extra effort plays,” Frye said. “For us, it’s more about establishing who we are and worrying about ourselves. We’re going to play teams pretty well on defense if we are focused and aggressive. I think we leave guys on islands when we shouldn’t. That’s not how we play defense.”
The adjustment then is not entirely complicated. Teams are throwing different things at the Magic and their execution is lacking in response.
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The next point of growth is getting back to those principles and staying together within the system. That is no easy task but an incredibly important one for the team to continue growing.