3 Up, 3 Down from Orlando Magic’s 2022 preseason

3 up, 3 down from Orlando Magic’s preseason

2 Up: Rejuvenated Offense

The Orlando Magic’s offense has been. . . it has not been great . . . for the last decade.

The team has not ranked in the top half of the league in offensive rating since Dwight Howard left in 2012. It has been a decade of offensive futility. And that word probably does not get to the depths of how bad the Magic’s offense has been.

They have lacked a reliable, consistent scorer until Nikola Vucevic became an All-Star in 2019. Even then, the Magic were in the bottom 10 in the league in offensive rating, riding their defense to the playoffs.

They have lacked shooting most of all. They struggled to draft shooting and find players to surround even their promising young players with the space to grow and succeed.

It has been an offense that is spinning its wheels.

This year probably will feel much of the same. The team still lacks a lot offensively. But the ideas the team is using are refreshing. It is completely different than anything the team has run.

Last year’s read-based offense was a good building block. But it was a stop-gap trying to get the team downhill and into the paint. It was really only part of the puzzle.

Players, especially veterans like Terrence Ross, have noted coach Jamahl Mosley made some critical adjustments to the offense. Adding more off-ball motion and emphasizing ball movement has the chance to spike the offense.

It at least has the chance to make the offense more fun and interesting than it has been in nearly a decade.

That was the case throughout the Magic’s preseason. There were a lot of positive moments. Using Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero as main ball handlers were interesting and new. The team caused some problems with this bit of inversion.

Doing that on top of the team’s ability to cut off the ball and willingness to move the ball quickly to keep defenses off balance changed the team’s offensive outlook.

This is not a finished product by any means. The team still has a lot of offensive pieces it has to resolve. Those fixes are not likely coming from this roster at this moment. But the team seems set to take some necessary steps offensively to climb up from the bottom.

The Magic may not climb into the top half this year. But they will have some offensive ideas that will be something the team can grow on.