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Orlando Magic Daily Mailbag Volume 20: Development

By Philip Rossman-Reich

Dec 22, 2016; New York, NY, USA; Orlando Magic head coach Frank Vogel coaches against the New York Knicks during the third quarter at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 22, 2016; New York, NY, USA; Orlando Magic head coach Frank Vogel coaches against the New York Knicks during the third quarter at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports /
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Evan Fournier, Orlando Magic, Alex Len, Phoenix Suns
Nov 23, 2016; Orlando, FL, USA; Orlando Magic guard Evan Fournier (10) shoots the ball past Phoenix Suns center Alex Len (21) during the second quarter of an NBA basketball game at Amway Center. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports /

The Orlando Magic’s offense was expected to be pretty poor — if the setup for this question was not entirely clear. And for the first half of this season, it absolutely was terrible.

The Magic still have these moments where their offense gets stuck and their lack of a true go-to, one-on-one player is evident. The Magic are the kind of team that has to share the ball, get multiple scorers and rack up a lot of assists to win. There is no bailout guy.

It took some time to get there. And the Magic are still trying to get there.

But the offense has suddenly come alive.

The team is still 28th in the league in offensive rating overall. So the overall outlooks is not fantastic. But since Dec. 6, the Magic have the 16th best offense in the league. So they are clearly doing something better. Although they are hardly perfect.

A lot of it has to do with a better understanding passing the ball. Frank Vogel’s favorite “coachism” is for the team to “trust the pass.” It is a pretty clear indicator of how the Magic are doing when they are able to move the ball and pick up assists fairly quickly.

The Magic have picked up their ball movement pretty significantly. Evan Fournier has specifically started exploring his ball movement and playmaking skills, with a few hiccups.

More than any of that, the coaching staff has adjusted some of their sets to make the most of their players. At the beginning of the season, the Magic experimented a lot more with Aaron Gordon in pick and rolls and Serge Ibaka in post ups. Both of those have decreased pretty significantly.

Also of note, Elfrid Payton seems to be a lot more comfortable running the offense and picking his spots to attack and try to score. He stands and dribbles a lot less than he did early in the season thinking of what to do. His play looks much more instinctual.

Take all these together, and there is a lot more comfort playing together and with the coaches and how they should use their players. This should continue to improve.

The Magic may never have a stellar offense, but they are creeping toward a long period of at least respectability. And with how their defense can perform, that should be enough.