The month of January was a pivotal point in the season for the Orlando Magic, and it resulted in a nightmare of a slide in the standings.
The Orlando Magic entered the 2016 calendar year with a 19-13 record, and all was well in the Magic Kingdom.
Then January hit. And after those 31 days had passed, the Magic’s Playoff hopes looked extremely slim despite having a bit less than half the season remaining.
The Magic went 2-12 in January, and often times would not even look competitive. They tied the Minnesota Timberwolves and Phoenix Suns for lowest win total in the month, and finished with the third lowest net rating.
Many analysts predicted some sort of drop off in January for the Magic, as the schedule was set to become tougher — complete with a trip to London to play the Toronto Raptors. But no one saw the Magic falling off this fully and completely.
The Magic lost in pretty much every way possible: poor execution late in the fourth quarter, as they did against the Indiana Pacers, overtime losses against the Charlotte Hornets and Toronto Raptors, and start to finish blowouts such as against Cleveland Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons.
So what exactly was the issue for the Magic during the month of January? Pretty much everything, but a few aspects of their play happened to stand out.
Next: Defensive slippage
Defensive slippage
One big problem they had was in the mental aspect of the game.
The Magic started off the season playing some tough competition, but the team looked very focused on the defensive end, and that allowed them to be competitive in games against good teams such as the Oklahoma City Thunder and Toronto Raptors.
In January, however, the effort seemed to lack oftentimes, and the Magic finished the month 27th in defensive rating (108.2 points allowed per 100 possessions), which is much worse than their season average (104.6, 17th in the NBA).
Simple aspects such as fighting over screens and rotating to help on defense were not huge priorities, and the Magic got embarrassed a few times.
In the first play attached here, John Wall uses his quickness to easily get past Evan Fournier, and there was no one there to provide help. Wall proceeded to lay it in and ice the game.
The second one involved a subpar effort by Elfrid Payton at the perimeter, and Nikola Vucevic completely frozen as the lone helper. Wall once again was able to finish the easy layup.
These were similar scenes throughout the month as the Magic defense collapsed and gave them no chance to win.
Perhaps the most disappointing display of effort came in a home loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, the NBA cellar dwellers who in January happened to double the amount of wins the Magic had.
The 76ers were able to overcome an early 10-point Magic lead, partially because of their 9-for-19 shooting from three. Most of the threes that came from the overall 24th ranked 3-point shooting team in the league were wide open, as the Magic did not seem locked in enough to contest those shots.
Next: Offensive shortcomings
Offensive shortcomings
Focus and confidence were huge parts of the Magic January collapse, but that was not the only issue.
The Magic were 28th in the league in offensive rating in January (97.6 points per 100 possessions), as well as 23rd in effective field goal percentage (48.5 percent) and 26th in true shooting (51.9 percent).
Overall they were 21st in offensive rating (102.6 points per 100 possessions), 16th in effective field goal percentage (50 percent), and 20th in true shooting (53.3 percent).
The Magic went away from the free flowing, pass heavy offense that led to a strong offensive output in December (seventh in the league with 104.9) that was mostly responsible for the 10-5 record in the month.
Guys were stagnant on offense, and often resorted to isolations and non-constructive off ball movement when facing any adversity. This resulted in tougher shot opportunities, which particularly hurts a team like the Magic that struggles with creating their own shot.
Victor Oladipo improved his shooting in January, but everyone else regressed, including Channing Frye, who saw his role diminish in January to the point that he was traded for nothing.
Next: The month they regret
The month they regret
Overall this season was a big step forward for the Magic. They increased their win total by 10 games and were competitive in a lot of games against tough opponents.
However the games in January displayed such a poor showing the Magic were never able to recover and stay close in the playoff race.
The Magic soon traded Tobias Harris to Detroit, and from there it seemed they were planning for next season already.
Some of the issues the Magic had in January they fixed somewhat (such as ball movement), and some continued to be issues exploited by other teams (such as poor help defense).
The problems were certainly not helped by injuries to C.J. Watson and Elfrid Payton, but those should not be big excuses for the poor quality of play in this span.
The Magic know what they have to improve for next season, and some more time for development plus a lot of cap space will make the organization excited about the future.
Next: What Went Right: December
However, the franchise is likely becoming impatient with the lack of wins, and the team cannot afford to rack up any more months like they did in January of 2016.