The Orlando Magic’s playoff loss to the Toronto Raptors is five months old and the new season is approaching. It is time to see what lessons they learned.
The Orlando Magic had that “Why not us? Why not now?” attitude about them entering the playoffs. The crowd at Scotiabank Arena was hungry for an easy playoff victory after years of playoff hardships — and even minor disappointments. They were ready for what would become a championship run.
The Magic were oblivious to this. They played with the same frenetic energy and urgency that helped push them to the playoffs through a crazed 22-9 run to end the season. The Orlando Magic were going to defy the odds and play their game, using their defense to make life hard for the Toronto Raptors.
Still, it was a close game at the end of Game 1. Kawhi Leonard hit a long two over Nikola Vucevic to give Toronto a two-point lead. It felt like the Raptors would survive a scare from a plucky young team and take their place at the top of the mountain.
Then something new happened.
D.J. Augustin was able to beat Danny Green off the dribble and dart into the lane for a layup to tie it. Then Marc Gasol missed a wide-open 3-pointer. And the rest is Magic history.
D.J. Augustin sized up Marc Gasol on a pick-and-roll switch and buried a 3-pointer to give the Magic a Game 1 win. At that moment, everything seemed possible.
During the next four games, the Raptors proceeded to dismantle the Magic in almost every way.
Orlando struggled to generate much offense. Their defense struggled to contain transition opportunities off those misses. Leonard turned in an MVP-worthy performance (and it was perhaps his worst overall series of that title run).
Orlando failed to come up with any answers. Nikola Vucevic shriveled — raising questions about his future contract.
As coach Steve Clifford put it after the series ended, he expected the Magic to compete a little bit better against a very good Raptors team. He was disappointed that the team got beat so thoroughly.
In re-assessing that series, Clifford said the team was unable to generate much offense. He felt the defense was solid when it got set, but the team’s offensive shortcomings were on full display.
And that is at least part of the focus heading into the 2020 season. If Orlando wants to make a step up in the Eastern Conference ladder, it will take some internal growth and some changes to the offense.
The playoffs happened five months ago unbelievably. Training camp is a week away. All the analysis and plans should be done.
There are plenty of lessons to learn from that five-game series, even if full conclusions about this team’s potential cannot be drawn — it is an incredibly small sample after all. But the playoffs laid bare the Magic’s flaws.
In that destruction, there is the ability to grow. If they can learn those lessons.
NBATV re-aired all five games of that playoff series Wednesday. Giving us a final look at what we can learn from that series.
Game 1: Evan Fournier’s Spacing
When it comes to the Orlando Magic, the most glaring weakness most people will point out is their outside shooting. The team does not have many knock-down shooters. Terrence Ross and Evan Fournier are probably the two players opponents respect the most when it comes to their 3-point shooting.
But in the playoffs, despite the Orlando Magic being a league-average team from beyond the arc — 11th in the league at 35.6 percent, better than the Houston Rockets — the Toronto Raptors left a lot of their shooters open. They committed to collapsing the paint and forcing the Magic to beat them from the outside.
Orlando struggled to get their shot going in the entire series. The Magic made 29.9 percent from beyond the arc in the series. And no one underperformed more than Evan Fournier.
Fournier shot just 23.5 percent from beyond the arc in the series. That was well below even his career-low 3-point field goal percentage in the regular season.
If Fournier were shooting even at that level, much of the series changes. The Raptors decided to put Danny Green on D.J. Augustin after Game 1 and that gave Evan Fournier a small matchup advantage on Kyle Lowry.
He never took advantage and even when the defense sank into the paint and left Fournier open, he rarely made him pay.
The times when he did though were the times the Magic offense suddenly began to click.
The playoff series put a lot of pressure on Orlando. When the Magic were able to execute their offense, it made it more vital for them to make those open shots. And continually the team did not.
Orlando Magic
Not consistently. But the best offensive sparks came when they did.
Whether it was the second quarter of Game 1 when Fournier hit a few threes to spark the team back into the game. Or the third quarter of Game 3 when Terrence Ross started hitting from the outside to spark the team.
The 3-point shot is vital in today’s game. It is no coincidence the Magic’s best 3-point shooting game was the only one they won. Orlando was sub-30 percent in the other games.
It was not always the quality of the looks. Orlando missed a lot of 3-pointers. But the Magic struggled to find a good rhythm or get those shots in the flow of the offense. Toronto slowed everything down and gummed up all the systems for the Magic. Orlando did not catch passes cleanly and that disrupted their rhythm.
Undoubtedly, the key to the Magic’s ultimate success is hitting from the outside more. That will free the team’s offense up.
Orlando never made Toronto pay for collapsing the paint and doubling and overhelping. Especially Fournier.
Game 2: Drawing Fouls
An area that is undoubtedly a weakness for the Orlando Magic remains their inability to draw fouls and get to the line. The team again rated near the bottom of the league in free throw attempts per game (last at 19.2 attempts per game) and free throw rate (29th at 21.6 percent).
The Magic have had an issue getting to the foul line ever since Dwight Howard left the team. It has been a constant and repeated issue for the team.
Offensive struggles do not correlate with low free throw rates — the Golden State Warriors and Denver Nuggets are ranked just ahead of the Orlando Magic in free throw rate. It is not essential for offensive success.
But the team does not have a dominant offensive threat. There is no Nikola Jokic or Kyrie Irving generating good shots or creating for others.
Orlando’s offense is a collaborative struggle to create good looks. The ball has to touch the paint and kick out to the shooters, hoping that the penetration will have collapsed the defense to create good looks and rotation and drive opportunities.
The inability to get to the line makes scoring more difficult because so much rests on what the Magic are perhaps worst at — creating off the dribble and relying heavily on pick and rolls and Nikola Vucevic’s mid-range jump shooting.
Surprisingly though, free throws are the only thing really keeping the Magic in this series in a lot of ways. Orlando posted a 26.7 free throw rate in the playoffs, far above their regular-season average.
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In Game 2, Orlando shot 16 free throws in the first half alone. That is nearly the total they would shoot in an entire game. It was the only thing keeping that game close Orlando finished that game with 24 free throw attempts and lost by 29 points.
The same happened in Game 4. Orlando got Kawhi Leonard in foul trouble in the first half and that helped them keep that game close despite their own turnovers and mistakes.
How were these fouls created? That is a fair question.
The Raptors came into the series with the intent of playing physical, especially with Vucevic. They were working to make the Magic uncomfortable and were willing to give away a few fouls to get that point across and get the Magic hesitant with their attacks and their shots. They aimed to increase the pressure and break the offense.
That all worked.
But the only thing keeping Orlando’s offense afloat for long stretches of the playoffs was the Magic’s ability to get to the foul line.
The question moving forward is whether Orlando can get to the foul line more. Increasing their free throw attempts by even four or five per game (two or three more trips) could have major effects for the team’s offense. That is the difference between finishing in the bottom third of the league and getting to the middle.
If Orlando can find a way to keep up that aggression and draw fouls against a defense that is not elite like Toronto’s, then the team could see an offensive revival.
Game 3: The Power of Size
One thing has always stuck out about the end of Game 3.
In a close game, Orlando was in need of stops. That was something they could always rely on. Their defense was their backbone. But this is a playoff series and it comes down to a series of plays. It comes down to matchups.
And that defense was suddenly not so reliable. The matchups were not in Orlando’s favor.
Those late stages of Game 3, a game where Orlando effectively bottled up Kawhi Leonard through a mixture of Nikola Vucevic more forcefully shading Leonard on every pick and roll and Leonard apparently suffering from the flu, saw Pascal Siakam with the ball on the block, feasting on the Magic’s smaller defender.
Orlando, rightfully, stuck to its typical closing lineup. Coach Steve Clifford has said he prefers offensively focused lineups late in games because defenses typically play better late anyway. No one would complain about replacing Jonathan Isaac for Terrence Ross in those lineups and late stages of the game.
But Siakam is waiting for this. He scores several times on the block against Ross to stem the tide and keep the Magic from getting all the way back. The Magic are scrambling and eventually falter.
That matchup was something Toronto sought out all the time.
Swarm and Sting
Siakam had a great series regardless — he averaged 22.6 points per game. That was even going up against Jonathan Isaac, who bottled him up throughout the regular season. But Isaac’s size mattered against him. It did not stop him, but it certainly slowed him down.
Siakam ended up scoring 7.8 points per game on a 54.2 percent effective field goal percentage with Isaac as his defender, according to NBA.com’s Second Spectrum player tracking statistics. That was 39 points on 171 possessions (22.8 points per 100 possessions).
Against all other players? Siakam averaged 14.6 points per game with a 60.2 percent effective field goal percentage. That is 75 points on 199 possessions (37.7 points per 100 possessions).
Taking out Aaron Gordon’s numbers (Pascal Siakam went just 5 for 11 on 49 possessions against Gordon), and it looks even worse. Pascal Siakam especially victimized Evan Fournier for 29 points on 52 possessions. Most of his 3-pointers came with Fournier at least as the nearest defender.
Isaac certainly struggled in the playoff series. He faced foul trouble especially in Game 4 making things even worse. But he made a bigger difference against Siakam and his size than anyone else.
It is under this lense that signing Al-Farouq Aminu made a lot of sense. It gives the Magic the opportunity to play two big and versatile wing forwards at all times. It gives them the chance to shift Ross more to the shooting guard against these bigger lineups.
That appears to be what the Magic want.
Orlando has always valued size. But in the playoffs, they faced a team that was objectively bigger than them and used that size to beat them in the end. It was most evident in the deciding moments of Game 3.
The Magic appear determined not to let that happen again.
Game 4: Aaron Gordon’s Emergence
Very few players could objectively say they had a good series against the Toronto Raptors. So few players did much positive consistently throughout the series.
Coming out of the series though, it was hard not think of Aaron Gordon positively. He led the team with 15.2 points per game and was second on the team with 7.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game. Gordon shot a 53.2 percent effective field goal percentage.
As Mike Fratello put it on the Game 5 broadcast, Gordon’s scoring average in the playoffs stayed relatively the same and he needed to take his game up to another level. It is fair to say that about every player on the Magic.
In that framework, Gordon’s playoffs stood out because he was giving the Magic the same kind of production he did in the regular season.
The moments of brilliance that came from the Magic all seemed to come when Gordon was involved. He had several strong scoring bursts that showed his potential as a versatile forward. The team just had to get him in the right spots.
Most of that came when the team was able to get Gordon favorable matchups on switches.
He rarely attacked Kawhi Leonard with any success, scoring just 15 points on 6-for-20 shooting with four turnovers, according to NBA.com’s Second Spectrum player tracking statistics. But he torched Pascal Siakam for 30 points on 72 possessions and 12-for-19 shooting.
Gordon had his best stretch through Game 4 when he scored 11 points in the third quarter and kept the Magic from getting blown out. Of course, Leonard seemingly had an answer for every shot Gordon took and the Magic made no progress.
Nugg Love
That spurt as part of a 25-point, 7-rebound, 5-assist effort was his best of the series. But it was a prolonged version of several similar spurts throughout the series. And they usually coincided with the Magic’s best offensive play.
It was promising to watch Gordon take charge like that in the moments he did. He spent a lot of last season blending into the offense. He had fewer isolations and fewer wild forays to the rim throughout the season. He focused a lot more on becoming a better playmaker and making better decisions with the ball.
When the playoffs began though, it felt like the Magic were begging for someone to step up. And for long stretches that was Gordon.
Gordon still has some maturity to go. He has a penchant for bowling his way to the rim. The Raptors baited him into plenty of charges throughout the series. That foul trouble limited some of his effectiveness too — especially in Game 5.
Gordon said he has worked this offseason on his post-game and footwork. That will help him unlock the rest of his game.
But the next step undoubtedly for him is having the confidence and ability to more confidently and consistently test players like Leonard on a playoff stage like this.
Game 5: Turnovers and Transition
The final game of the series was pretty much pro forma.
The Toronto Raptors blitzed the Orlando Magic and took a 20-point lead quickly in the first quarter. Orlando made a run to cut it to 15 and flirt with making another run at the lead. But the Raptors would just extend the lead again.
Orlando faced foul trouble to both Aaron Gordon and Nikola Vucevic in this game. With both of their best players handicapped in their aggression. The game was played to reach the end and for the series to end.
The Magic were pressing and trying hard to stay in the game. They got some good looks that just would not go down. And the Raptors ran on them.
In some ways, the Raptors played exactly how the Magic want to play. Their defense was their base, forcing turnovers and misses and then using that to charge a fast break.
Orlando was a fairly poor fast-breaking team last year. The Magic averaged 10.8 fast-break points per game (25th in the league). That is not at all what you would expect for a team with some incredible athletes like Aaron Gordon and Jonathan Isaac and shooters like Evan Fournier and Terrence Ross.
Toronto Raptors
The Magic should be a team that can get out on the run. And part of the reason they could not was their struggle to create turnovers. Orlando forced 13.0 per game (26th in the league) and averaged only 15.2 points off turnovers last season (24th in the league).
There is an opportunity there for the team to improve. If the biggest thing the Magic have to do to improve is to generate more offense, hen finding a way to create easy points in transition is vital. Just like the free throw issue from before.
Orlando has to find easier ways to score. And transition opportunities are perhaps the easiest and best way for the team to get there.
Coach Steve Clifford said he would like to see Orlando play with better pace next year. He wants to see them pick up their pace and get out in transition more. It was easy to see that power in Game 5.
Toronto could upend the game and turn a relatively competitive series into a runaway because they could turn misses into transition opportunities and easy baskets.
Clifford is not likely to advise his team to go after steals and lose their discipline defensively. But the team will likely look to take steps to run more off misses and look for these easy opportunities.
It is vital to their ultimate success offensively.
The Magic’s five-game series with the Raptors was perhaps not as much of a blowout as it might indicate. Orlando still did some good things throughout the series. But the Magic struggled to break a set and active Raptors defense.
Orlando’s offensive weaknesses were all laid bare against that team. Toronto had Kawhi Leonard able to step up in a big way and got Pascal Siakam to play above his regular-season level too.
Ultimately, the Magic lost that series because they could not raise their game to another level. Whether it was the Raptors’ strong defense, the stage or something else, the Magic were unable to meet the challenge.
It laid a blueprint for their improvement in 2020. But ultimately, Orlando will not see how much the team has improved until it gets back tot he postseason and gets a shot at redemption.