Orlando Magic’s offense key to taking the next steps
The Orlando Magic can trust their defense to get stops. But whether they take their next steps relies on their offense finding consistency.
The Orlando Magic had to sit with and study their loss to the Toronto Raptors all offseason.
Sure, the Raptors would eventually win the NBA championship and had one of the all-time great playoff performances courtesy of Kawhi Leonard. But defeat is never a comfortable feeling. Especially a defeat that seemed to expose the team’s flaws.
Orlando finished their five-game series with Toronto still trying to figure out how to score on that elite team. The Orlando Magic posted a playoff-worst 95.8 offensive rating, tied only with the Indiana Pacers as a saving grace.
The Magic’s defense was not good, but it could be their saving grace. Only if the offense worked.
As the Magic return every player from last year’s team, the offense is again the focus. If the team wants to take the next steps it imagines it can take, the offense is going to have to do more — against elite teams and against everyone.
"“The playoff series taught me players got to make plays,” Aaron Gordon said after practice Monday. “That’s really what it comes down to. The best players have to make plays. When you scout the offense, everybody knows each other’s offense, the offense bogs down and it’s down to one-on-one plays and making the right reads.”"
Getting into those positions to make those kinds of plays proved a struggle in the playoffs. With the Raptors shutting out Nikola Vucevic, the Magic were stuck trying to find somewhere to escape.
The team did not have a one-on-one player who could break things down when the offense got stuck.
The offense was clearly where Orlando struggled most last year.
The Magic finished 22nd overall last year in offensive rating, scoring only 108.2 points per 100 possessions. That was the worst regular-season mark for any playoff team.
Throughout the year, coach Steve Clifford said the team’s goal was to be in the top-10 in defensive rating while finishing in the top half of the league offensively. The team accomplished the former goal, finishing eighth in defensive rating, allowing 107.6 points per 100 possessions. Orlando’s +0.6 net rating was the 14th best in the league.
The Magic had a poor offense for much of the year but still did enough to get by most nights.
What really changed for them was during the playoff push.
From Jan. 31 to the end of the season, the Magic finished eighth in the league in offensive rating, scoring 112.5 points per 100 possessions. The defense climbed the best in the league in that time — 104.9 points allowed per 100 possessions.
For Clifford, the biggest test early in the season is figuring out a way to get the team back to this way of playing. Rediscovering that standard is the trick while also improving upon it so it lasts the entire season.
"“We’re going to need good pace of play with great ball movement and we need to develop more ways within the structure of sets and stuff and then also just offensive concepts where we can consistently put more pressure on the defense,” Clifford said after practice Monday.“It’s the hardest thing to guard in any level of basketball is a great player with the ball in the middle of the floor. The guys who can go get good shots consistently without the aid of a pick. We don’t have that. You have to be very cohesive and coordinated. You have to have a way to have a pick and roll game, a way to have a post-up game, a way to have a paint touch game and a catch-and-shoot game. we have enough talent to do those things, it just makes it a lot harder.”"
Playing at a faster pace was a big part of that change last year. It eased that pressure to break down the defense. Adding in Isaiah Briscoe and Michael Carter-Williams to the point guard spot helped the team pick up its pace considerably and put more pressure on the defense.
The Magic have talked all preseason about playing at an increased pace. But in reality, the team is not changing much from the way it played last season. Clifford said he has not seen any negative effects — such as the team’s high turnover count — to the focus on pace. It is more of a reminder of how the team needs to play.
The Magic’s big issue is still the lack of a one-on-one player. That means the team will rely on cutting, movement and pick-and-roll play to generate offense.
If the preseason sent up any warning signal, it was how if the team is not executing its offense effectively, it could lead to trouble.
In the preseason, the Magic posted a 96.6 offensive rating. The team’s defense was still effective, but Orlando got blown out in games where the team committed too many turnovers. The Magic’s biggest concerns defensively in the preseason were getting back and set in transition and rebounding to finish possessions.
Everything for this team is connected. An efficient offense that allows the defense to get set could make this team a terror. If they are still making their mistakes and turnovers, the defense loses its advantage.
Orlando hopes familiarity and practice can reduce the mistakes that characterized the preseason. Some of those turnovers were simply preseason turnovers. They are not things anyone seems overly worried about.
From there, the Magic have to make shots and keep the defense honest. To do that, they know it is about ball movement and taking what the defense gives them.
"“Ball movement is going to be key,” Evan Fournier said. “I know if I make my shots, it’s going to help a lot. Just keeping it real. When you have five guys on the floor who can really score and shoot the ball, it changes everything. If I can go back to my usual as far as shooting percentages, I know it’s going to change a lot of things.”"
Orlando Magic
Evan Fournier knows that especially. He shot 34.0 percent from beyond the arc, the lowest in his time with Orlando. He is a 37.7 percent career 3-point shooter. Bouncing back up to that level will certainly give the team a boost.
Especially in the playoffs, Fournier struggled. The Raptors seemed to bet that Fournier could not make them pay for their doubles into the post and clogging the paint and it paid off.
That might be too much pressure to put on one player. But the team understands it will take making outside shots to loosen defenses looking to clog the lane.
The key for the Magic offensively is finding a way to get the ball into the paint and working inside out. Whether that is through post-ups or pick-and-roll opportunities. Orlando will have to manage ways to get inside the paint and collapse the defense.
Aaron Gordon complimented Steve Clifford for his ability to adjust to games on the fly. He said when he senses an advantage, he will go to a trove of plays that will look to run plays through that advantage. It is one of the things that makes him such an involved coach.
The memory of how the Raptors routed them certainly still remains. Those lessons are still getting ingrained.
"“You can look at it this way, we lost early 4-1,” Fournier said. But I actually think we were lucky to play against the champs. They showed us what it’s like to play against a championship team. They played with such an intensity and they were so aggressive. They showed us what it’s like to be a champion and what it takes to win. I think we are lucky to go through that. That’s a blessing for us because I feel like we’ve been through a lot. It’s definitely going to help us.”"
To get to that level, all eyes will be on how the Magic progress offensively and whether they can find a consistent way to pick up points.