Orlando Magic’s playoff run exposed weaknesses the team has not answered

The biggest weakness

The Playoffs exposed perhaps the biggest weakness for the team in a very stark way. The Orlando Magic had no perimeter players who were able to create offense off the dribble.

Much of the team’s Game 1 success came from D.J. Augustin beating Kyle Lowry off the dribble and getting into the lane. D.J. Augustin scored 19 of his 25 points in the first half of that game. Then the Toronto Raptors put the bigger Danny Green on him and locked him out of the game, minus his five critical points late in the fourth quarter.

Essentially throughout that first-round series, the Raptors bet they could swarm and react to Nikola Vucevic in the post and lockdown D.J. Augustin to keep the team out of the paint. They were not concerned about anyone else forcing rotations or beating their defense off the dribble.

That is a weakness the team still have not addressed overtly.

The Raptors dared Evan Fournier to be the guy to beat them off the dribble. He could not step up to the challenge.

Aaron Gordon had his opportunities, but it took him a while to assert himself. When he did in the third quarter of Game 4, the Magic found some offensive traction. It was a bit too little too late and Gordon had to attack Leonard, which is never easy.

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The lack of perimeter creation is essential to playoff basketball. With defenses loading up to stop specific actions, the playoffs become as much about will as anything else. Players have to have the skills to win their one-on-one matchups and force the defense to rotate and change.

Teams have to force adjustments to cover up weaknesses. The Magic simply did not have someone who could do that. The Raptors made one key adjustment to cut off Augustin’s dribble penetration and the Magic could not adjust.

The problem is there are few answers on the roster to fix these weaknesses.

The Magic certainly hope that Markelle Fultz can be a player who can hit tough shots off the dribble or drive into the lane and cause the defense to collapse. But it is hard to count on him for much when there is no timetable for his return.

Aaron Gordon is another player who could take on more responsibility on the ball. He proved he could do some of that throughout the playoffs and in his 2018 season. But Gordon scaled back his aggression considerably last year, focusing more on his defense and playmaking.

The Magic could experiment with giving him more freedom on the ball after he showed a lot of on-ball poise last year.

There is still the hope too that Jonathan Isaac can be a bit more aggressive and solid on the ball. As there is for Evan Fournier, who proved himself an improved playmaker off the dribble.

All these are possibilities, but nobody is forcing the defense to load up on them. Whether any of these guys can work better off the dribble is a complete mystery at this point. It is just as likely the Magic operate the same way offensively next year.

Unless the team can get much more efficient and effective with its cutting and screening and run a more motion-based offense, the team will still have all of these problems.