Orlando Magic coach Bruce Kreutzer is back to keep improving the team’s shooting

The Orlando Magic are not known as a strong shooting team.

In fact, that is probably the biggest weakness facing the team. And at every opportunity, the front office has struggled to add shooting to the team. It may have been the one thing that was left unaddressed during the team’s recent playoff run.

It would appear the front office led by president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman believes shooting is a skill the team can continually teach and improve through coaching. And so having a strong shooting coach and being able to teach that becomes paramount.

With the installation of a new coaching staff, a lot of things from the Steve Clifford era were wiped away to start over — most of all the roster. But one thing is going to stay (among several): The team is keeping its shooting coach.

Josh Robbins of The Athletic reports Bruce Kreutzer will remain on the Magic’s staff as the team’s shooting coach as the team finalizes its coaching staff. He expects there may be another announcement of other player development coaches on the team. Terrence Ross mentioned on his podcast that one of those player development coaches is former Magic guard Courtney Lee.

Kreutzer had been with Clifford for his final two years with the Charlotte Hornets and his three seasons with the Orlando Magic.

The Orlando Magic kept shooting coach Bruce Kreutzer on their staff amid the coaching change. Despite team stagnation, Kreutzer has helped plenty of players improve their shots.

Bruce Kreutzer was at least partly credited for helping Kemba Walker transform into a strong shooter. Walker went from 31.8-percent in the first four seasons of his career to 38.6-percent from deep in his two years working with Kreutzer. Walker has not shot worse than 35-percent from deep since even after Kreutzer moved on.

There are obviously a lot of factors that go into an individual player’s shooting development. Their work with a shooting coach with the team certainly helps. So too does their individual work with their own skill coaches and drills.

Everyone should get some credit — the apportionment of that credit will always remain a mystery.

Kreutzer still had a positive impact on the Magic. And his continued presence will give the Magic’s young players a measure of consistency as they continue to work on improving their shooting.

The Magic are still not considered a strong shooting team. But it should be noted how they shoot in spot-up and catch-and-shoot situations — the situations that a shooting coach would probably drill most.

The team made 37.2-percent of their catch-and-shoot opportunities (22nd in the league) according to Second Spectrum including 35.7-percent from deep (27th in the league) last season. In 2020, the team made 36.3-percent of catch-and-shoot opportunities (25th in the league) and 35.2-percent from deep (25th in the league). In 2019, the team made 38.0-percent of their catch-and-shoot opportunities (eighth in the league) and 36.3-percent from deep (17th in the league).

On spot-up shots, the Magic made 37.0-percent of spot-up opportunities last year (27th in the league), 36.2-percent on spot-up opportunities in 2020 (28th in the league) and 38.5-percent (21st in the league) in 2019 according to NBA.com’s data from Synergy.

The Magic made 77.5-percent of their free throws last year (17th in the league), 77.4-percent in 2020 (17th in the league) and 78.2-percent in 2019 (12th in the league).

As anyone can see, making shots usually leads to wins. There is at least that correlation. And the Magic shot their best during that 42-40 2019 season when Clifford and his staff just got in town. And a lot of these numbers either decreased or stayed about the same throughout Clifford’s tenure.

Orlando Magic

Shooting remains a problem for the team overall and an individual coach is not going to fix that.

But shooting coaches often work more with individual players. And it is here where Kreutzer’s work can be seen more clearly.

He worked most specifically with Markelle Fultz helping reshape his shot.

Fultz made only 41.4-percent of his shots with the Philadelphia 76ers but made 46.5-percent of his shots in the 2020 season. Obviously, there are some sample size issues there with how little Fultz has played in his career to this point.

Jonathan Isaac might be a better example.

Again, with small sample sizes, Isaac had shooting splits of 37.9/34.8/76.0 in his rookie year. In 2019, Isaac’s shooting bumped up to 42.9/32.3/81.5. Notably, Isaac’s 3-point volume went up accounting for at least some of his dip in percentage. In the 2020 season, Isaac had shooting splits of 47.0/34.0/77.9.

That is a pretty clear upward curve. And considering shooting and shooting form is probably all Isaac has been able to work on, there may be no greater evidence of Kreutzer’s work with young players than how Isaac and Fultz improve as shooters.

Remember, when Isaac made his return in the bubble he came out shooting incredibly hot and it seemed like that could completely change his game. With his lower body out of action, it is safe to assume the skill he has worked on most is his shooting form.

Everyone will be waiting to see those results.

There are plenty of other examples of improvements in shooting under Kreutzer.

Nikola Vucevic went from barely taking 3-pointers to a proficient 3-point shooter under Bruce Kreutzer and Steve Clifford.

Vucevic always said he had begun the process of adding the 3-point shot to his game before Clifford’s arrival. But the transformation was astonishing — 30.8-percent on less than one 3-pointer attempt per game to 36.4-percent on 2.9 attempts per game in 2019 to 33.9-percent on a spike of 4.7 attempts per game in 2020 to finally 40.6-percent on 6.5 attempts per game last year with the Magic.

That is a really significant jump.

Aaron Gordon went from a 30.9-percent 3-point shooter before Kreutzer’s arrival to 34.9-percent in 2019, 30.8-percent in his injury-filled 2020 season and finally 37.5-percent last year with the Magic.

More from Orlando Magic Daily

• 2023 Orlando Magic Playoff Lessons: Philadelphia 76ers can’t seem to avoid conflict
• 5 worst starters of the Orlando Magic’s Shaquille O’Neal era
• Orlando Magic FIBA World Cup: Franz Wagner can be a star if he takes it
• Orlando Magic are going to find out who they are in 2024
• 2024 Orlando Magic Player Outlook: Moe Wagner is the spark off of the bench

Even a non-shooter like Michael Carter-Williams seemed to improve his shooting under Kreutzer. He shot 42.7-percent from the floor overall in the 2020 season. Carter-Williams is still not a reliable spot-up shooter, but his percentages are up with the Magic.

There is plenty of evidence of Magic players seeing their shooting numbers improve with the team.

Obviously, though, the Magic struggled to put all those pieces together consistently enough to be a strong shooting team. Teams still packed the paint and dared the team to beat them from the outside.

The task now for the Magic is much different. And seeing these individual improvements will be critical for the team’s development.

There are obviously a lot more young players for the Magic now. Getting a veteran to change their shot is much more difficult than young players.

And Bruce Kreutzer will get his hands on some potentially strong shooters in Jalen Suggs and Franz Wagner early on. Both have the reputations of shooters without the percentages.

But perhaps the greatest work that Bruce Kreutzer will do this year is with Cole Anthony.

Anthony has admitted he needed to do some work on his form and he was frustrated with his percentages — 39.7-percent overall, 33.7-percent on 3-pointers, 32.7-percent on spot-ups and 32.7-percent on catch-and-shoot opportunities. It is not clear how much Anthony has worked with or consulted with Kreutzer this offseason (he spent a good chunk of his offseason back home in New York City with his own skills coach).

If this hire is worth it, it will likely be seen in how young players like Cole Anthony and Chuma Okeke (41.7/34.8/75.0 shooting splits) improve in their second year.

For now, the Magic like the progress they saw from other players and want to keep the same voice helping with improvement on the roster. That is a strong vote of confidence.

But the proof will be in the numbers next season.