Orlando Magic searching for an answer they already know
The Orlando Magic have been in this boat before. They know the answers to the struggles. Now they must find their way out.
The first eight games for the Orlando Magic were absolutely brilliant.
The ball moved around the perimeter and through each other. The team made shots and brought that energy to the defensive end. They switched defensively smoothly and had their timing down to rotate. They may have been late to get out to the 3-point line, but their length and the threat of their closeouts still forced misses.
Making shots covered up many of the team’s overall flaws. The rebounding was not a huge issue because the team was making shots to cover it up.
Life was good.
Through the first eight games, the Magic had the second-best offensive rating at 109.9 points per 100 possessions and the ninth-best defensive rating at 100.2 points allowed per 100 possessions. The national media wrote articles and everyone wondered how the Magic could keep things sustainable.
The shooting — 56.3 percent effective field goal percentage with Aaron Gordon leading the league in 3-point percentage — was going to come back to earth. Everyone braced for that.
But . . . no one saw the team falling this hard. After playing so well and seemingly turning a corner, the Magic are as surprised and frustrated as everyone else with their play.
After the Orlando Magic’s 105-97 loss to the Indiana Pacers on Monday, it seemed the players were at a loss for words.
"“I don’t know what to tell you,” Evan Fournier told the media following the game. “We just look like a totally different team. It’s frustrating. There’s not much to say. We don’t play the same way. I don’t have a reason. I don’t know why. I guess we all got to keep working, keep believing and it’s going to come back. Just two totally different teams.”"
That same Magic team that moved the ball so easily and scored at will now cannot seem to get itself unstuck.
In the last nine games — where the Magic have lost seven — they have seen their offensive rating drop to 99.0 points per 100 possessions and their defensive rating rise to 108.2 points per 100 possessions.
Essentially, the Magic went from one of the five best teams in the league through the first eight games to one of the five worst. Very clearly there is a middle ground somewhere with this team. Or there is a way the team could get to a middle ground.
Unless, of course, this is a new normal.
No one wants to believe that at this point in the season. It is still early.
Coach Frank Vogel said after practice Tuesday the team had built a little cushion to absorb their current struggles. But no one is expecting the team to keep going at this rate. . . right?
"“We’ve got to try to get back to what we were doing,” Elfrid Payton said. “Get back to fighting and competing at a high level. Shots aren’t going to be there every night. When the game is going like that fight defensively. We have to make sure our defense is still intact. That hasn’t been there the last few games.”"
That might be the most frustrating part. The Magic have a frame of reference for their strong play.
Comments like the ones Elfrid Payton and Evan Fournier made are similar to comments the team has made in the past. Whether it was trying to find answers as the team slipped further down the standings in 2016 or as the team struggled to regain its defensive dominance in 2017.
The Magic have been here before. They have spiraled out of control from this point before.
If this team is truly different, they will have to make something different of their season. They have had moments when they looked like a different team. Now is the moment when they really prove it.
They know this. Everyone says the right things. They know exactly how they played earlier in the season. The team knows exactly what it did right. Their problems with ball movement are not anything selfish. The Magic are trying to make the right play — sometimes a little too hard.
Of course, they did that all last year too. And the change never came.
Everyone seems to have some diagnosis of what is wrong with the team. There are some simple, schematic things anyone can pick up on. The team is moving the ball less and struggling to keep things moving. The defensive intensity and physicality have decreased at the same time.
The team’s reads and reactions to the defense also appear to be off. The team has lacked the rhythm it needs.
The difficult part is getting it all back. The problems are easy to diagnose. The solutions are difficult to implement. Especially considering the schedule ahead of Orlando.
Orlando is playing catch up again. They are catching the idealized version of themselves and the way they played earlier in the year.
The season has reached its first crossroads. Orlando is worse than .500 for the first time this season. The Magic are out of the Playoffs for the first time this season. They are looking up at their goals, having to do some work to get there.
The opportunity to achieve their goals has not disappeared. There are still a lot of games left and a long way to go.
Orlando Magic
A small losing streak leaves the team needing to fix these issues and find the resolve to fight back. They need to regain the rhythm they lost from earlier. They need to refocus their defense and physicality.
The Magic need to get back to that strong play. That was something they could not do through the long losing streak in January 2016 nor in December 2016. The Magic have fallen off before. They still have to work to recover and get themselves right.
These are the simple things they can easily give lip service to doing. That is what the Magic have done for the last several years. Lip service.
What was meant to be different this year was their action. The Magic seemed capable of putting those words to action. For the early part of the season during gutsy wins the team showed itself capable of having this resolve.
The answers for the Magic are all within them. They know this.
Next: Decision-making issues plague Orlando Magic
And that is the most frustrating part yet again.