It was the first play of the game for the Orlando Magic on Tuesday night.
The team has had its offensive struggles previously and was ready to put on a show for an excited Amway Center crowd. The team just needed to look connected though and turn toward the regular season with confidence.
This opening play though set a tone for the rest of a fun night.
It was not just the fluidity the Magic played, moving from one action to the next and everything seemingly following with an, “Ah, of course, that comes next!” naturalness. It was the connection between its two key players.
Franz Wagner opened Tuesday’s game with an alley-oop to Wendell Carter. It was not the last time they would connect in this game. And by the time the game got tight later, the team was locked into this pairing as they picked the Memphis Grizzlies apart.
Franz Wagner and Wendell Carter combined their smarts to become a potent duo on the court as the Orlando Magic beat the Memphis Grizzlies in Tuesday’s preseason game.
The Wagna-Carter (the new official nickname for this potent pick-and-roll duo) seems to unlock all the team’s potential versatility and weapons. And this could be the crux for the Magic’s success this year.
It is clear all the different ways they can attack and how potent the pairing can be.
"“I thought there was just a poise to them,” coach Jamahl Mosley said after Tuesday’s game. “There was an ability to recognize the reads, understand how Memphis was playing us. There was a patience level. I really enjoyed watching them play off each other, read and reacting. And on the defensive end, sit down and get stops.”"
Everyone certainly did.
Take a look at that opening play that ended with an alley-oop to Carter.
It starts with a dribble handoff from Cole Anthony to Franz Wagner. Wagner goes into a double-drag screen that turns into a quasi-pick-and-roll. Franz Wagner’s ball-handling is enough to occupy Steven Adams even though Dillon Brooks does a good job getting over it.
But Carter slips the screen well, gets into space and Wagner throws a perfect lob to open the game.
It is not even that Memphis defended this poorly. It is an initial play from a preseason game and there is a bit of laxness to it. But it is also a perfect pass from Wagner. Not much else is going on. These two players are locked onto each other and both Carter and Wagner are excellent at finding space to attack.
There is a very good connection between the two, albeit one that was undeveloped.
Last year, Wagner made only 5.5 passes per game to Carter for 0.7 assists per game (53 total assists). Carter shot 48.1 percent from the floor off those passes. This was still the second-most passes Wagner made to any individual player.
But that points to how little the Magic used Wagner as a playmaker last year. According to NBA.com’s tracking stats, Wagner scored 0.85 points per possession on 3.9 pick-and-roll possessions per game (the fourth-most on the team behind the team’s three point guards).
The Magic overall were not a heavy pick-and-roll team. But it is clear the Magic also did not leverage Wagner as a pick and roll ball-handling threat. Especially alongside a smart center like Carter — Carter scored 1.06 points per possession as the roll man in pick and rolls.
This is something the Magic are clearly aiming to change. Whether the team is flowing from handoffs into pick and rolls like that initial play or playing more traditional pick-and-roll sets, the Magic want to use Wagner’s good decision-making, size and playmaking a whole lot more.
It may still be some experimenting but it says something that in the team’s first clutch situation, Orlando hammered the pick and roll with Wagner and Carter repeatedly at the end of the game to a ton of success.
It leverages all the things that make Wagner and Carter so good. They have high basketball IQs and the versatility to attack whatever the defense throws at them. And really that is exactly what they did to close the game.
It starts with understanding the defense and reading things on the fly.
A lot of the Magic’s offense is predicated on these reads and making the right decisions after passing the ball and when to cut. Carter is going to get a lot of opportunities to slip, especially because Wagner is such a threat and unpredictable with the ball.
Teams are going to try to put more pressure on Wagner. He does a great job absorbing it and making great reads.
In this play, Carter executes a handoff with Wagner. Xavier Tillman leaves Wendell Carter to try to hedge on Franz Wagner. Because Paolo Banchero is setting a pindown screen for Cole Anthony, the paint is wide open and Wendell Carter quickly slips the screen.
Wagner reads it just as quick and fires a pass inside for the easy dunk.
The Magic have emphasized these quick decisions and have emphasized attacking these gaps created by these initial actions. A moment later and Dillon Brooks may slip down to cover the paint and tag Wendell Carter on the roll, leaving Franz Wagner either to slow the offense down or fire to Cole Anthony (things could further flow into a screen and roll or for Paolo Banchero to slip to the short corner).
Wagner is able to read that so quickly and is on the same page with Carter that it creates this opportunity to score.
In the final 2:37 of the game, Carter and Wagner combined (scored and assisted) on eight of the team’s final 14 points and three of the team’s final four field goals. It was complete dominance and Memphis was left spinning.
It was because of the play above that the other pick and rolls worked so well.
Once again, the ball finds its way to Wagner on the wing here with 90 seconds left to play. The Magic clear out the floor as Wagner begins a pick and roll toward the middle. The Grizzlies are a nail help team, usually placing a help defender at the foul line, but they are spaced poorly leaving the corner completely exposed.
Tillman again hedges Wagner, showing respect for his downhill ability. Carter reads this quickly and slips to the open space.
The Grizzlies are out of position completely to help on this. Paolo Banchero has flared beyond the 3-point line to provide an outlet for Franz Wagner, leaving Desmond Bane too far to reach Wendell Carter to help (nor should he leave Banchero that open). John Konchar is defending Terrence Ross in the corner. His responsibility is to help in the paint, but he is late getting to Wendell Carter.
He successfully prevents Carter from getting all the way to the basket, but Carter easily shoots over the top and hits the critical basket in the game.
Very quickly in this game — and likely this season — teams are going to learn to respect Wagner’s driving ability. He will see more blitzes like he did in this game. And that is where Carter’s versatility — or potentially even Banchero’s when the team gets there and is not afraid of switching — will be valuable.
Wagner is going to improve as a playmaker. In this game, he had seven assists and none of it felt unnatural.
Wagner has composure under pressure in these screen-and-roll situations. More importantly, he has a ton of trust in Carter knowing where to go and where to find his outlet when he absorbs all the pressure.
That trust is mutual.
"“Franz is a phenomenal player,” Carter said after Tuesday’s game. “He has already established how good he is and how good he is going to be. It’s an honor just being on the court with him honestly. He just plays the game the right way. He knows my strengths, I know his strengths. It’s as simple as that.”"
It helps too that Carter is versatile enough to step out and hit jumpers — he did very little popping to the 3-point line but that could be a way teams try to counter this duo — and can make plays himself when he gets the ball on the perimeter.
The Magic also did a great job designing space for these plays to happen.
Even without knock-down shooters, the team was able to create space for these actions to occur. That is part of why the team is emphasizing cutting and movement along with dribble hand-offs to initiate their pick and rolls. It is still all predicated on that quick decision-making before the defense can settle and set up.
At the very least, this is all pointing to an exciting pairing for pick and rolls and something the magic can turn to in clutch situations.