Orlando Magic, Steve Clifford still seeking their way to play

The Orlando Magic are showing glimpses of their offensive potential. But consistency eludes them and they are still seeking their way to play.

The Orlando Magic can play some beautiful basketball.

The ball will swing around the perimeter weaving in and out of the lane and then back to the 3-point line. The team is not a great shooting team from the outside, but it has enough shooters to make an open shot when the team can get one.

The team can find its cutters too. Aaron Gordon and Jonathan Isaac can both devastate teams when an open lane is created as they cut into space and finish with authority at the rim. Terrence Ross can run around screens and get his shot off successfully.

This is the Magic at their best. Constant motion and cutting. Running off screens both on and off the ball and dishing out to the perimeter. They are a team that can still put pressure on the paint because the ball moves without thought.

Then there is the Magic that plays horrible basketball.

Players overdribbling trying to create for teammates while players stand motionless on the perimeter. Quick shots from beyond the arc without working the ball into the paint or running through the offense. Drivers getting into the paint but getting too deep and forcing floaters and runners over outstretched arms.

It is a frustrating watch as the team visibly slows to a crawl in their half-court set.

The Orlando Magic displayed both versions of their offense in their 109-102 loss to the Indiana Pacers on Sunday.

Through 10 games, the Magic are still seeking their way. They are still trying to figure out their formula to win. Their record and their offense so far reflect that.

Coach Steve Clifford often likes to say the team has a way it has to play. The Magic do not have a star they can dump the ball to and generate offense. They do not have a consistent driver to force the defense to collapse and react.

The Magic understand it takes ball and player movement for this offense to succeed. But how to pull that off is still the struggle.

It is still something Clifford is getting a grasp on with this team as he fine-tunes his rotations — as slow as that might be — and puts players in positions to succeed. It is still something the Magic are trying to recapture from last year.

Sunday showed two sides of that coin.

In the first half, they were a high-energy team turning turnovers into fast-break chances and easy baskets and moving the ball quickly through each progression in the half-court. Everything flowed naturally, unthinkingly. One move turned to the next and the ball rarely stood still once the team initiated its basic set.

The second half was the polar opposite. Orlando seemingly stood still. Guards probed into the lane without cutters following them into the open space. The team settled for outside shots and had minimal passing.

The results speak for themselves on the difference between the two types of teams.

In the first half, Orlando shot 55.3 percent and 8 for 13 from beyond the arc. The team had 17 assists on 26 field goal makes.

In the second half, Orlando made 35.7 percent of its shots with 10 assists on 15 field goal makes. Orlando’s best offense still comes when they pass and move the ball. That was always the case.

For the year, the Magic average only 21.5 assists per game. That is a product of the team’s poor shooting as much as anything. According to Second Spectrum, the Magic average 47.3 potential assists per game, eighth in the league. Orlando can get the ball moving and give itself a chance to score.

But that passing and that dribbling are sometimes aimless. The Magic are near the top of the league in paint touches too — second with 26.4 touches per game, according to Second Spectrum.

This is all to say, the Magic statistically do a lot of things that would suggest they can score.

They move the ball and set each other up for baskets. But those baskets are either difficult shots or where their players are weakest. They get into the paint, but that is not warping the defense and leading to the open shots the Magic want.

This is all to say, the Magic are still seeking their way to play. They are still seeking a consistent formula that will enable them to score. And those struggles are playing out on the court each night.

The Magic are still not certain what kind of team they will have. The offense is starting to come around a bit more. But there is still trepidation about what they will get — and Sunday, the Magic had one of their worst defensive performances of the year.

Some of this is certainly on Clifford. He is still searching for the right combinations. Orlando is going through growing pains simply with the groups that are out on the floor.

Sunday that led to some offensively abysmal lineups — the Pacers closed the third quarter on a 10-1 run going up against a lineup fo D.J. Augustin, Terrence Ross, Michael Carter-Williams, Al-Farouq Aminu and Mohamed Bamba. That is a lineup that does not have enough consistent creation and shooting to be effective.

Clifford was slow to make rotation changes last year. He stuck to his original rotation plan longer than he should have last season. It cost the teams some wins in the short term. But he eventually found his group. And slowly he is ramping his starter’s minutes back up to regular levels.

So this is still a team figuring itself out on the court and off. They are still a team trying to find the way they need to play and the rotations that will maximize that play.

Orlando Magic

There are times when the Magic look brilliant. There are times when the ball moves around the perimeter quickly and the team scores at the basket.

There are times when the team gets stuck and struggles to move the ball at all. Where they are trying to create seemingly alone and unable to get easy baskets.

The Magic are trying to limit these moments through transition opportunities created from their defense and an attempt to get to the line more — although that sometimes leads to the team’s bad habit of driving too deep into the paint and shooting over multiple defenders.

This early part of the season has been about the Magic’s search for any kind of offensive consistency. There is clearly a blueprint for how they need to play to score effectively. Implementing that blueprint for 48 minutes still escapes this team.

As Clifford begins to shift his rotation and try new things to find that right combination, this struggle may define the Magic’s season.

Whether Orlando is successful or not depends on finding this way to play.