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Orlando Magic First Quarter Review: The Magic’s 5 best lineups

By Philip Rossman-Reich

The Orlando Magic have struggled in their record, but Jamahl Mosley has some very successful lineups he can use to soften that blow. Mandatory Credit: Mike Watters-USA TODAY Sports
The Orlando Magic have struggled in their record, but Jamahl Mosley has some very successful lineups he can use to soften that blow. Mandatory Credit: Mike Watters-USA TODAY Sports /
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Wendell Carter, Orlando Magic
Wendell Carter has become more than a paint presence this season as he displays his overall versatility. (Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images) /

Orlando Magic’s top 5 lineups

Closing Lineup?

Cole Anthony/Jalen Suggs/Terrence Ross/Franz Wagner/Wendell Carter

16 minutes (5 games) – +8.5 Net Rating (111.1/102.6)

The Orlando Magic have always had this odd problem.

Their starting lineup is not their closing lineup. During the 2019 and 2020 playoff runs, the team would often swap out Jonathan Isaac to finish games with Terrence Ross. If there is one reason why the starting group does not play a lot more, it is because Jamahl Mosley has kept this up.

The Magic’s most common fourth-quarter lineup was a deep bench lineup. The most common rotation lineup was the starters with Terrence Ross and R.J. Hampton in for Jalen Suggs and Wendell Carter to a net rating of -26.1 points per 100 possessions.

The first positive fourth-quarter lineup was the starters with Terrence Ross in for Jalen Suggs with a net rating of +22.2 points per 100 possessions. Of course, they played in only 11 minutes together.

That goes to show how few “clutch” minutes the team played and how many blowouts and non-competitive fourth quarters the Magic faced. Orlando was involved in only 17 minutes of clutch play (the second-fewest in the league) and just seven games (26th in the league).

Orlando has had some great late-game moments courtesy of Cole Anthony and Terrence Ross. But the Magic have not really shown exactly what they can do late because there are so few opportunities. And that has hurt the team’s ability to craft a consistent rotation — often killing Carter’s minutes because of the way Mosley has decided to deploy his rotations.

What this gets at is if the Magic are going to insist on using Ross in their closing lineups, then they have to figure out who he is best at replacing. Going small with Bamba would seem to make the most sense then. It allows the team to match up better but gives the team the offensive boost they are looking for in adding Ross.

It should be noted then that this specific lineup with Ross replacing Bamba with the starting group played 10 minutes across three games in the fourth quarter with a +6.4 net rating. This was a group the Magic went to in the fourth quarter and found some success.

What is equally clear is the Magic play this by ear.

They are still figuring out their closing lineups — remember they closed the win over the Utah Jazz with Gary Harris and R.J. Hampton in the lineup. At least here Mosley has shown some flexibility with his rotations.