The game was virtually already over by the time the fourth quarter started for the Orlando Magic against the Phoenix Suns. The Suns got their work in thanks to Chris Paul’s mastery in controlling the pace and tempo of a game and Devin Booker’s third-quarter shot-making. Orlando simply could not keep up.
The Magic though have never let any moment go to waste. Even in blowout losses, they have taken some small measure of pride in being able to reduce deficits and play to the final buzzer. That is nothing more than a moral victory — and a minor one at that. And probably something this group should be beyond at this point.
Still, being a development team, the Magic are right to emphasize the importance of every moment. There is no reason the Magic should not be looking to try things and test things out. The team has nothing to lose at this point and it can always discard failed experiments.
The team itself has admitted their record is not important this season.
So it was at the beginning of the fourth quarter, coach Jamahl Mosley sent out a somewhat experimental lineup. One that he has been trying more and more of late.
He had a lineup of Jalen Suggs, Terrence Ross, Gary Harris, Chuma Okeke and Franz Wagner on the floor. It was not the first time Mosley has put out a lineup like this or similar to this. The team is starting to experiment a bit more with these kinds of funky lineups.
The Orlando Magic are starting to experiment a bit more with their lineups but they need to remain focused on the big picture as they try things out to close the season.
This goes beyond the Magic trying to start two centers with Wendell Carter and Mo Bamba and trying funky lineups to be different or playing the team’s best players. Orlando should not simply experiment just to experiment.
The team has to start looking at lineups and playing lineups that will fit the team’s overall future and ethic more.
Everything about this season — and certainly the rest of this season — should be about figuring out what this team will look like beyond this year and thinking about how it will play and look like when it is ready to compete for the playoffs.
Everyone around the league has been obsessed with these center-less since the Golden State Warriors unleashed their “death lineup” with Draymond Green at center.
Indeed, the Magic of a previous generation seemed set to have something like this of their own with the potential of Jonathan Isaac or Aaron Gordon playing the five. The team did not have the offensive firepower to make it work — or the coaches willing to experiment in that way.
Those odder lineups are still used sparingly across the league, even with the teams with better personnel for it. But it is still something the Magic want in their quiver and it is clear the kind of team they are hoping to build as they try to mix up their defensive schemes.
Mosley said after the game his rationale in trying this lineup against the Suns specifically was because of their ability to shoot the ball. He wanted to be able to switch 1 through 5 and try to bog down a Suns offense that was clicking on all cylinders.
The Magic’s group was +4 in 4:32 on the court together. They largely played a zone defense to counteract Phoenix’s lineup of Elfrid Payton, Mikal Bridges, Torrey Craig, Cameron Johnson and JaVale McGee. Nobody would confuse the Magic with going up against the best that the best team in the league could offer.
That group with Wagner or Okeke at center with Suggs at point guard has played six total minutes in two games together. They have a 138.5 offensive rating and a 121.4 defensive rating (+17.0 net rating). It is an extremely small sample size for sure. So it is hard to draw too many conclusions.
The fact the team played zone Saturday night is a sign that maybe they were not as confident in them defensively as Mosley suggested.
It not the only center-less lineup the Magic have tried, albeit briefly.
A lineup with Cole Anthony at point guard instead of Jalen Suggs has played four minutes across three games with a 109.1 offensive rating and 120.0 defensive rating (-10.9 net rating).
A lineup that featured R.J. Hampton at point guard instead of Jalen Suggs has played nine minutes together with an 87.0 offensive rating and 130.4 defensive rating (-43.5 net rating). A group with Hampton and Suggs playing together for Harris has played three minutes in one game together for a -50.0 net rating (50.0 offensive rating/100.0 defensive rating). A group with Anthony and Hampton playing together with Harris has a +20.0 net rating in two minutes (80.0 offensive rating/60.0 defensive rating).
Again, these samples are so small, the numbers do not mean very much. The Magic are just trying to see what this all looks like it appears.
This kind of experimenting is important though.
The Magic have dreamed of playing with versatility and being able to switch and swarm players defensively. It is one of the things the team certainly has imagined with Isaac as a backstop. It is what is so attractive about Wendell Carter and his versatility.
This kind of “center-less” lineup may not be something the team can do all the time. But with the ability to put five shooters on the floor and have several solid defenders, it creates an issue for opposing teams.
What the team really needs to focus on with their lineups and how they craft the team is what it means for the team and its future. They need to have a clear view of the way they want to play and how they want the team to look.
Recently, the Magic have run into rotation problems because they play both their point guards and both their centers at the same time. Moritz Wagner’s injury has hit the team’s depth — Robin Lopez because of his lack of speed is used only sparingly. And Orlando is still waiting for Markelle Fultz to make his long-awaited return.
The Magic’s starting group with both Jalen Suggs and Cole Anthony and Wendell Carter and Mo Bamba has still been effective. But it is starting to wane.
For the season, that group is still 15th among lineups that have played at least 200 minutes together in the entire league with a +2.5 net rating and an impressive 99.2 defensive rating.
Since Suggs’ return a month ago, the group has a -7.8 net rating with a horrid 97.3 offensive rating. Whatever spark that group had early in the season, its poor offense is starting to overwhelm it.
Splitting Bamba and Carter may not be the clear solution — one of the Magic’s better lineups in the last month replaces Suggs with Harris — but the team has to start thinking about what it wants to look like in the future.
Yes, Isaac will return at some point. And Okeke is playing a lot better if the Magic are looking for more versatility.
It certainly seems like against spread-out offenses like the two the Magic faced this past weekend, the Magic put themselves at a disadvantage having Carter chasing around shooters on the perimeter rather than helping in the paint.
Orlando may not necessarily need to split its starting lineup. But the team needs to be thinking about what its rotations will look like when the group is fully healthy. Especially since it seems like that time is so close.
The Magic are starting to do little things to move in that direction. They are experimenting with how they can use their versatility. And that flexibility is very refreshing to see, especially from a young team trying to learn and make the most of the rest of the season.
At the very least, it seems like the Magic are seeing enough out of their new center-less lineup to keep trying it. and so it will not be surprising to see this group get a bit more run.