There is a lot of film to review.
Every loss for the Orlando Magic is a chance to learn and get better. Every experience is a chance to get better and improve the next time.
For a Magic team with the worst record in the league as they near the midpoint of the season, there have been a lot of lessons. A lot of them.
None more so than for a point guard still finding his way in the league.
As brilliant as Cole Anthony has been this season, at times flirting with the star potential that made him one of the top high school prospects and legitimately exciting a Magic fan base that has been without a dynamic perimeter scoring for more than a decade, it is easy to forget he is still in his second season and carving his path through the league.
Cole Anthony has been one of the brightest spots for the Orlando Magic this season. But it is easy to forget, he still has a lot to learn as a point guard in the league.
Saturday’s 97-92 loss to the Detroit Pistons was not Anthony’s finest game, by his own admission. The usually staunch late-game playmaker and decisionmaker went cold and kept trying to take himself out by shooting more.
"“We’ve got to continue to get good looks one,” Anthony said after Saturday’s loss. “But then two also spread some easy ones in there whether it is a fast break layup. Get a feet set three. Get a few more of those. I’ve got to do a better job setting my team up to get in poositions like that. I take a lot of responsibility. That’s the price of being great, you have to take responsibility.”"
Orlando could not get any of those as the team had one of its worst shooting performances of the season — 33.7-percent and 14 for 46 from beyond the arc. The ball got stuck and the team floundered late.
Anthony scored 19 points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished out six assists. But he shot just 5 for 18 from the floor, missing all seven of his shots in the fourth quarter. It was an uncharacteristically poor performance from Anthony, one of the best fourth-quarter scorers in the league this season.
But it was a good moment to pause and recognize all the ways Anthony still needs to grow and improve as a point guard even as he plays this breakout sophomore season.
Anthony for the season is averaging 20.2 points per game, 6.1 rebounds per game and 5.9 assists per game with a 49.3-percent effective field goal percentage. He has slowed down some since his blistering start to the season — various injuries have not helped including the two sprained ankles Anthony is playing on right now.
Nothing should take away from how good Anthony has been. Or how important he has been to this team. But all that strong play can make everyone forget he is still only 21 years old and in his second year in the league.
Despite all the late-game success he has had early in is career, he is still learning how to manage games, keep others involved and keep the ball moving.
"“I think we could have had the ball popping a little more,” coach Jamahl Mosley said after Saturday’s loss. “What got us our run at the end of the third and beginning of the fourth, the ball was moving, the ball was popping playing out of our motion actions. They started picking up the traps and understand we are trying to get someone to the middle of the floor to be the primary playmaker, but we started chasing it a bit.”"
That was abundantly clear late in the game.
Many of the Magic’s possessions got blown up when the Pistons were able to trap the Magic and force them to retreat. They were not able to get to the middle. In that way too, the Pistons were able to play Anthony’s habit of rejecting screens against him, forcing him away from the middle and to reset himself constantly.
That habit took Anthony out of his game helping others. That will be something he watches and learns from on tape.
Cole Anthony said he needed to do a better job getting Franz Wagner, who scored only nine points and took 10 field goal attempts with just one in the entire second half, involved and setting him up in positions where he can score. Anthony said he took as many bad shots as he has taken since his rookie year.
In general, the Magic needed their lead guard to get the team easier shots to get their struggling offense unstuck.
This is part of the game management Anthony is still learning early in is career.
And that did not get into some of his defensive missteps. In two critical possessions in the fourth quarter, Cole Anthony was late on a switch, allowing Cade Cunningham a straight path down the middle of the lane.
To his credit, Anthony took responsibility in real time for his shortcomings after the loss and took all the criticism he received to heart.
Really bad will fix it
— Cole Anthony (@The_ColeAnthony) January 9, 2022
That is a reminder for much of the rest of the roster too. Orlando is still extremely young and prone to the young team and player mistakes that come with it. Even when there is some brilliant play interspersed between it.
The Magic fought when they did not have their best stuff. They rallied through a difficult shooting night, leaning as much as they could on the only players who seemingly could create offense.
They took the lead late in the third quarter thanks to some brilliant ball movement and solid defense — the Magic had a defensive rating of 102.1 points per 100 possessions and 97.8 in the second half.
Everything only crumbled when they lost any offensive flow. The bench unit struggled to generate offense early in the fourth quarter. And then Anthony and the Magic’s offense tried too hard to get unstuck and get the ball moving in the fourth.
The game was there for the Magic to win just like it has been for the last week. The team just needs to improve and execute.
"“I think that we have honestly all the tools to start closing those close games out now,” Anthony said after Saturday’s game. “I’ve got to do a better job to help my team. Obviously the more you go through sitautions, the better you’re going to be. But I think we have gone through those situations a lot. I think we can start to win games now. We have to start to do that. It’s got to start with me. I’ve got be way better.”"
Personal responsibility for his shortcomings will go a long way toward improvement. Anthony has been very good at taking these defeats and failures and improving. At his age and development, there is no reason to believe Anthony will not take these lessons to heart.
Saturday just served as a reminder that this is still a team led by a young player finding his way in the league.