Jamahl Mosley has not really elaborated on his offensive philosophy except to put out his coach-ism: His Orlando Magic teams will play with pace, play space and play with the pass.
What exactly that means is not entirely clear to this point. And Summer League is not going to reveal the whole equation either.
The Magic are still missing many of their biggest weapons and the nature of Summer League limits the roster to the team’s most inexperienced players. These are players who are playing on raw emotion in these games rather than an understanding of the finer points of NBA success or failure.
Summer League games themselves often take on a sloppy posture. There are players who are playing together and learning each other’s tendencies all on the fly.
So take everything in Summer League with a grain of salt.
But one thing has become clear: The Magic are still hunting for shots and shot-makers. Rookie Jalen Suggs’ play has been impressive on the offensive end but the team has seen the familiar clang of missed shots.
And no matter what offensive philosophy the Magic have, it will be hard to win at any level missing this many shots.
The Orlando Magic are showing off their new offense and offensively philosophy. But one struggle remains: The Magic need some shot-makers.
Orlando has not shot better than 40-percent in any of the team’s three games so far in Summer League, going 38.6-percent from the floor so far this preseason. Orlando is even cooler from deep — hitting on 33.3-percent of the team’s long-range shots on 35.0 attempts per game.
It is Summer League though, so everyone’s stats will get deflated a bit. There is a lot of rough and uneven basketball going on. The Magic are 24th in field goal percentage at Summer League and eighth in 3-point field goal percentage in Summer League.
Go figure. And that includes the icy 9-for-33 shooting from deep in the Orlando Magic’s 108-71 loss to the Boston Celtics on Thursday.
It sure does not feel like the Magic are shooting the ball well from deep this week. There have been plenty of possessions where Cole Anthony or several other players have missed multiple open 3-pointers in a row on the same possession.
That is probably a perfect distillation of Summer League.
But this is part of the “pace, space and pass” philosophy. If this Summer League was going to show hints of how the Magic would play on defense, it is certainly showing hints of how the team will play offensively.
Orlando’s 35.0 3-point field goal attempts per game are fifth in the Summer League. The Magic have not been shy about shooting from deep. And a lot of these shots have been open. Orlando has moved the ball well to get open shots.
Orlando Magic
This is a key part of all three phases of Mosley’s rudimentary offensive philosophy — at least, what he has shared with the public.
The Magic were not much of a 3-point shooting team last year — 34.3-percent from deep on 31.8 attempts per game. It is still one of the biggest weaknesses on the team. And Summer League is not putting that to rest — remember these are 40-minute games too.
Orlando is firing away and willing to take all the risks inherent with lots of 3-point shooting. That is definitely something new.
As long as those shots come from passes inside-out and around the horn and come with speed and pace, Mosley is likely to be happy with those looks. Even if they are not falling.
Still, there are plenty of concerns. A lot of key players have missed 3-pointers.
Anthony, most of all, has struggled with his shot. He is hitting only 20.0-percent from the floor (5 for 25) and 20.0-percent from deep (2 for 10). Franz Wagner has struggled too — 8 for 20 (40.0-percent) overall and 1 for 12 (8.3-percent) from deep.
R.J. Hampton has shot well — 4 for 9 from deep — and so has Jalen Suggs — 5 for 14 (35.7-percent) from deep.
Those are the most important players who will be implementing the Mosley way when training camp begins.
"“The chemistry is definitely building,” Anthony said after Thursday’s loss to the Celtics. “I’m not in tip-top form. I haven’t played a 5-on-5 basketball game in three months. I haven’t had access to it. I’ve been individually working out. But in terms of 5-on-5 basketball, I’m getting back into rhythm. We’re definitely building that chemistry, especially with Franz and Jalen, me and R.J. had chemistry from last year. The more we play together, the more we know each other, the easier it’s going to become.”"
A lot of Summer League is trying to build that chemistry with young players. The strangeness of the pandemic still likely put a lot of players in Anthony’s position where they have not played as much as they might normally.
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Every team and every player is going through this in a different way. Some have slid right in and others have not. Anthony has struggled and has put his focus elsewhere to improve during these games.
Anthony is not worried overall, promising to get everything together and taking responsibility for his poor play.
He, like everyone else, is trying to learn this new system and get themselves ready for the season. There is still at least some time before then — and the run-up to the season is going to feel a bit more normal assumedly.
Expect 3-point shooting to be key for this Magic team either way. That is the ultimate result that comes from playing fast and getting into the offense sooner along with spacing the floor and passing the ball.
Mosley’s coach-speak is really a shorthand way to say he wants the team creating shots at the rim, foul shots and 3-pointers. The three most efficient shots in the game.
Orlando’s offense has been comparatively successful shooting from deep. But the team’s real success this Summer League has been its free-throw shooting. Orlando is averaging 16.7 free throw attempts per game during Summer League, but that includes Thursday’s dismal 8-for-12 performance.
Free throws are obviously a good way to keep an offense afloat when shots are not falling.
And so that gets back to the real question for the Magic as they enter this season and try to improve on one of the worst offenses in the league: Where do they go for scoring?