Orlando Magic Daily
Fansided

Orlando Magic: 5 questions for the second quarter of the season

By Philip Rossman-Reich

Jonathan Isaac's emergence as a Defensive Player of the Year candidate has boosted the Orlando magic early this season. (Photo by Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images)
Jonathan Isaac's emergence as a Defensive Player of the Year candidate has boosted the Orlando magic early this season. (Photo by Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 6
Next
Evan Fournier, Orlando Magic
Evan Fournier took to the role of primary scorer with glee as he attacked and scored efficiently. (Photo by Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images) /

Will the Orlando Magic’s shooting get back to normal?

Even with Nikola Vucevic on the floor for the Orlando Magic, the offense was still pretty abysmal.

Sure, the Magic had a pretty stellar 109.1 offensive rating with Nikola Vucevic on the floor — only really matched by the team’s 109.4 offensive rating with Markelle Fultz on the floor. The team has the seeds for some offensive production, but it has not put any of it all together.

The Magic have spent much of the first quarter of the season at the bottom of nearly every offensive category — offensive rating, field goal percentage, points per game, effective field goal percentage. Coach Steve Clifford has often said he generally likes the team’s shot selection and the team’s analytics say the team is getting quality shots. But they are just not going in.

It is amazing how simple the game can be when it comes down to making or missing shots.

As things stand entering Friday’s game, the Magic are up to 24th in the league in offensive rating now with 104.7 points per 100 possessions. That is what back-to-back 125-plus point performances will do. Orlando is still 28th in effective field goal percentage at 49.2 percent. The team is 27th in 3-point field goal percentage, making only 33.3 percent from beyond the arc.

Orlando has had some moments of offensive clarity. And the last two games show signs of the team coming through and starting to hit shots that were not going down early in the year.

But the team will undoubtedly need a reliable offense to get through this season. The team still feels like it has to scratch and claw to find every point it can to succeed. And it still has to find its footing.

Evan Fournier has been the rock for this team, leading Orlando in scoring and providing the most consistent shooting of anyone on the team. Loosening everyone else up has been a challenge.

Aaron Gordon, for example, is shooting an icy 43.1 percent (only slightly lower than his high-usage “breakout” season two years ago) entering Friday’s game. Aaron Gordon is hitting on just 33.3 percent of his 3-point shots. So there is plenty of room for growth from him and plenty of others who have seen downturns in their shooting.

The Magic’s starters have all played well offensively together. Every starter for the Magic has an offensive rating above the team’s overall average. And slowly, Clifford has started to intersperse his starters more with the bench units, increasing minutes for players like Evan Fournier and Aaron Gordon especially.

The Magic will have to make shots. That is the central thing for the entire team. Making shots is the simplest act of the game and the one thing the Magic are struggling most to do.

If Orlando’s shooting gets back to normal, the team should be able to carry itself through even a difficult part of the schedule.