Orlando Magic look to be smarter with 3-point line
The Orlando Magic looked to modernize their team after the All-Star Break last year. But they are still looking for a way to use the 3-pointer effectively.
Terrence Ross spent a lot of his offseason at the 3-point line. Watching him on Instagram and Snapchat throughout the offseason brought promises of shooting near 40 percent from beyond the arc and video of him sinking shot after shot after shot.
The Orlando Magic’s acquisition of Terrence Ross helped transform the team some. It not only moved Aaron Gordon to power forward, opening some space up around the perimeter, but it made the team a much more 3-point oriented team. Or, at least, a team capable of making 3-pointers at a higher rate.
This was all part of the Magic’s effort to modernize their team. Orlando needed to be better shooting the ball. Ross included.
"“I feel like I can do a lot more,” Ross told Orlando Magic Daily on Thursday. “I feel I can show more of my capabilities than I did my previous years in Toronto. This training camp has been good. Now I know where I am going to get more shots and where I am going to make an impact on defense. I know defensive schemes, offensive schemes. It’s coming together. The rest of this training camp is going to get me right on the same page.”"
Ross shot 34.1 percent from beyond the arc in his time with the Magic last year, on what would have been a career-high 5.6 attempts per game. Ross is a career 37.4 percent 3-point shooter.
Ross was a bit below his average from beyond the arc with the Magic. But he still helped the Magic create the space they needed. Defenses had to respect his shot. So maybe the percentage is a bit moot. Then again, Ross needed to make more 3-pointers.
Still, Ross took to the gym this summer to work on his 3-point shot and get ready for this season.
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Ross returned to practice Thursday after missing parts of Tuesday and Wednesday’s practice with a sore groin. It is part of the bumps and bruises that are normal early in camp — Jonathon Simmons was still held out of practice with a sore hip flexor and Arron Afflalo sat out parts of Thursday’s practice with a sore back.
Overall, the team will need to see improvements shooting across the board.
For the entire season, the Magic shot 32.8 percent from beyond the arc, the second-worst mark in the league. They took 26.1 3-point field goal attempts per game. After the All-Star Break, the Magic shot only 32.0 percent from beyond the arc on 27.0 attempts per game.
But the Magic shot 34.0 percent on 11.2 attempts per game on 3-pointers that were wide open, according to NBA.com, after the All-Star Break. Before the All-Star Break, they shot 35.7 percent on 3-pointers on 11.0 attempts per game before the break.
Just because the Magic were more willing to shoot 3-pointers did not mean they were more efficient with their shots. And the Magic know they have to get better and more efficient from beyond the arc.
Coach Frank Vogel said the pathway to better 3-point shooting is to take higher quality 3-pointers.
"“We have good shooters on this team,” Vogel told Orlando Magic Daily on Thursday. “We’re not the best shooters in the league. But we have guys who can knock down shots when we are executing on the offensive end and have good shot selection. That’s going to be the goal.”"
Creating better opportunities is going to be the task for the Magic.
Like so many things with this team, it feels like the team will need to take a big step forward to be an effective 3-point shooting team. It is not something that will resolve itself through familiarity or even returning to the mean.
Orlando Magic
Vogel said, speaking generally about the team’s progress, the Magic cannot be concerned with making a big jump all at once. Trying to make a big jump is how mistakes are made. They have to attack each small hurdle in their way. The Magic’s growth will come from small successes building up over time.
That goes all over the court.
With shooting, that means players like Evan Fournier and Terrence Ross have to be smarter with their 3-point shot selection and how they attack off the dribble. Both Fournier and Ross shot well below their career averages from beyond the arc as they took more shots than ever in their career. Maintaining efficiency while increasing volume is a balance many players have to learn. Fournier hit on just 35.6 percent of his 3-pointers, but is a 37.9 percent career 3-point shooter.
The Magic also added some 3-point shooters in Arron Afflalo (41.1 percent from beyond the arc last year) and Marreese Speights (37.2 percent from range last year) to help spread the floor. And Nikola Vucevic said the Magic asked him to work on his 3-pointer in the summer, hoping to extend his range.
Nobody knows how the formula will work. But the Magic will need to see their 3-pointers go in to keep defenses from crowding the lane.
The key both Afflalo and Ross said will be to move the ball and look to kick out rather than finish in traffic or over bigger defenders when they get into the paint.
"“If we move the ball, we’ll be fine,” Ross told Orlando Magic Daily. “That’s something we did really well today. Especially the starting unit. We’re out there moving the ball, playing together and getting wide open shots. The more we can space the floor out, the more open looks we can get, I think that will help our shot become more consistent.”"
Ross said the team is still going through the fundamentals of their offensive and defensive schemes at this early stage. The familiarity among the starters is helping ease some of the instruction, but the team is hammering down the details they did not have the time to hammer after the deadline last season.
But the signs have been encouraging.
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The Magic may not use the 3-pointer as a primary weapon. But it does seem likely they can make some improvements there and continue their evolution.