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The solution to the Orlando Magic’s offensive woes is simple

By Seth Arora

The Magic must right the ship on offense if they want to get back to the postseason.Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images)
The Magic must right the ship on offense if they want to get back to the postseason.Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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D.J. Augustin, Orlando Magic, Memphis Grizzlies
Several Magic players are off to career-worst or near career-worst starts. (Photo by Don Juan Moore/Getty Images) /

Just How Bad Are We Talking?

The Orlando Magic’s offensive plan is actually largely consistent with last season’s campaign.

Like 2019, the Magic are in the top 12 in catch-and-shoot attempts, both overall and from three. They are also again near the top of the league with 19.9 “wide open” (closest defender 6-plus feet away) shots per game, according to NBA.com.

They repeated 2019’s success and get almost as many paint touches as any team in the league in the 2020 season.

Same plan, different results.

Orlando Magic
Orlando Magic /

Orlando Magic

All the catch-and-shoot attempts in the world mean little when the squad is dead last by a considerable margin in catch-and-shoot effective field goal percentage.

Wide-open shots are fantastic unless the team connects on 30.7 percent of them (since Second Spectrum began tracking defender distance data in the 2014 season, no team has had worse than a 37.7 percent field goal percentage in “wide open” shots for a season).

Getting into the paint can lead to successful offensive possessions, but this year’s Magic team seems to get the fewest points out of those touches and has the worst paint touch field goal percentage in the league.

That does not include even a cursory analysis of the team’s passing. The Magic are middle of the pack in terms of the number of passes they make in a game but they sit near the bottom of the league in actual assists.

And one cannot discuss the Magic’s offensive woes without taking a hard look at their three-point “shooting”.

In the first 10 games, the Magic are shooting a sweltering 28.2 percent from three, the worst 10-game start from 3-point territory since the Brooklyn Nets in 2016. Orlando was particularly cold in the four games between Nov. 2 and Nov. 8, shooting a combined 22 for 103 from long distance (21.4 percent).

Suffice it to say, the Magic’s big problem is they are missing shots. That accounts for a lot of these issues. The question is if these are the same looks the Magic got for much of last year, why are they missing at such historic rates?

The issue comes down to shot location, shot quality and the shooter himself.