Orlando Magic’s playoff run exposed weaknesses the team has not answered
Search for Star Power
Nikola Vucevic remains at the center of a lot of these questions.
The Magic gave Vucevic a four-year, $100 million deal ensuring they kept their All-Star player. And he was absolutely an All-Star and one of the elite big men in the league in 2019. He averaged 20.8 points per game and 12.0 rebounds per game with a 51.8 percent field goal percentage during the regular season.
But the Toronto Raptors bottled him up and the rest of the offense sank with him.
In the playoffs, Vucevic averaged only 11.2 points per game and 8.0 rebounds per game while shooting 36.2 percent from the floor. Without Vucevic’s consistent production, the rest of the team floundered.
It was not like the Magic was a strong offensive team to begin with. And so losing out on Vucevic’s production hurt that much more.
Orlando was 22nd in the league in offensive rating for the season, scoring 108.2 points per 100 possessions. During the playoff push, the Magic were eighth posting 112.5 points per 100 possessions.
During the playoffs, they sank to 95.8 points per 100 possessions on a horrid 45.1 percent effective field goal percentage. It all started with Vucevic’s struggles.
The Raptors were able to use Marc Gasol to bully him out of his spots on the post. But they also were able to shut out any outlet for Vucevic to dish the ball.
The whole offense revolved around Vucevic and the Raptors shut him out.
Orlando Magic
The playoffs are a point where star players step up their game to meet the challenge of specified game plans. Orlando’s star did not rise to that occasion. Vucevic surely looks forward to getting a second chance and some redemption.
It did not help that most of the other players on the Magic also struggled to shoot.
Evan Fournier, already having a poor shooting season, was even worse in the postseason. He shot 23.5 percent from beyond the arc in the playoffs. He was not alone. The Magic went ice cold and struggled to find much offensive traction.
Orlando can become a more reputable 3-point shooting team. After all, the Magic finished last year 11th in 3-point field goal percentage at 35.6 percent (and 15th in attempts at 32.1 per game). Orlando was not shy about shooting 3-pointers last year and was at least moderately effective at it.
The Raptors still did not respect the Magic’s 3-point shooting. And their best shooters — especially Fournier — could not make the Raptors pay for their doubling. There was no reason to change their strategy if the Magic were not going to make them pay.
But if Vucevic is not the guy who else might be?
Aaron Gordon led the team in scoring that series with 15.2 points per game and 7.2 rebounds per game. His best efforts came in Game 4 when he scored 25 points on 10-for-17 shooting. He took over the game in the third quarter and brought Orlando back into that game.
Aaron Gordon struggled to assert himself in that series. Orlando was probably asking for him to do more. He could be the player that steps up in that regard.
It may not have mattered much with how well the Raptors played.