Orlando Magic need to find their pace and control to succeed

The Orlando Magic are scratching and clawing to stay in these games. They are seeing a lot of the positive things they want to see and giving plenty of hope for what the team will ultimately become.

No one needs to look much further than Paolo Banchero’s scorching start to the year for some glimmer of real hope for this franchise and this team.

The pieces are all there.

But they are still scattered. And inevitably the Magic have found through these first four games some moments where they struggle to put it all together.

The Orlando Magic are struggling to put all the pieces together early in the season. A lack of organization and consistency have hurt a young team with many pieces to build together.

It feels like it is a different thing every night. But inevitably it comes down to a few moments, a few plays or a few minutes. Just a short time where the game gets out of their control and the pace becomes too fast for a Magic team that still has a lot to figure out.

It is in these moments of disorganization the Magic find themselves in a deficit they no longer can climb out of. It is no wonder what the cause is — something that is at least partially beyond the team’s control with both Markelle Fultz and Jalen Suggs out with an injury — but there does not seem to be a solution in sight.

If you are looking for a reason the Magic are struggling to win despite remaining competitive, it might be as simple as lacking an organizer for a full 48 minutes. The team’s lack of depth at point guard has hurt the team’s ability to get into the offense and stay calm and composed for key stretches in each game.

These are the decisive moments whether they happen in the second quarter or the fourth quarter. The Magic’s offense executes inconsistently as they rely on players unfamiliar with the point guard role to get them organized, in the right spots and executing effectively.

"“I think we moved the ball pretty well in some parts of the game,” Banchero said after Monday’s loss. “I think we got stagnant. We couldn’t get a lot of shots to fall. That was tough.”"

The Orlando Magic tallied only 14 assists on 36 field goals in Monday’s 115-102 loss to the New York Knicks. The Knicks blew the game open in two critical stretches, both occurring with Cole Anthony, the team’s only healthy point guard, off the floor.

The Knicks opened their lead late in the first quarter with an 11-2 going up against a lineup with Franz Wagner, Caleb Houstan, Paolo Banchero, Chuma Okeke and Mo Bamba.

While that lineup would seemingly be a solid one with several plus defenders, the team’s lack of cohesion offensively powered New York’s potent fast-break account. Orlando turned it over twice in the final 2:46 of the quarter. On top of that, the team missed four of its five shots (all three-pointers).

The team settles a lot for threes in these moments. They might be fairly open — and the Magic have missed a lot of open threes. But the lack of confidence and the lack of shotmaking has also hurt the team’s calm and composure.

The game then becomes ragged as teams are able to run back at them and beat them in transition, where the team is often disorganized trying to find someone to cover.

It all starts on offense as much as anywhere as the Magic struggle to execute efficiently.

"“I would have liked to see the ball move a little bit more,” coach Jamahl Mosley said after Monday’s loss. “There were some shots we were getting that just weren’t falling. We keep telling our guys that we can’t always rely on shots being made. We have to keep our heads down and focus on the defensive end of the floor.”"

Making shots goes a long way to helping a team execute and stay in the game, limiting the panic and constant need to come back.

Orlando has been a resilient team and fought back to get close by halftime. The team even took a brief one-point lead in the third quarter. But the Knicks put the game out of reach with a 23-7 run from the 7:31 mark to about one minute to play in the quarter.

Wagner played the final 3:23 of that stretch without Anthony on the floor. In that stretch alone, the Knicks expanded a nine-point lead to 14 points. That virtually put the game out of reach (Orlando got as close as six points).

"“Down the stretch, we’ve got to come together and be on the same page with shots,” Bol Bol said after his career-high 19 points on Monday. “We got to get good shots instead of everyone trying to iso at the end of the game. And we’ve got to get stops. Everyone has to get stops.”"

The Magic have a lot of other problems to resolve. Many of them are interconnected.

Missing open 3-pointers is hurting the team’s offense and leading to the fast breaks the Magic have struggled to defend so far — they are 23rd giving up 17.5 fast-break points per game. Missing those open threes is causing the team to force its offense and leading to turnovers as they try to make their way into the paint.

The defense is a whole different issue. But Orlando has had some positive moments when the team can set up in the half-court. That too is a direct effect of a team struggling to make shots and execute.

And that comes back to that same issue that seems so obvious but is so difficult to put a finger on so clearly. The intangible skill of organization and composure is at the center of so many of Orlando’s issues.

When the team is able to get into its sets and execute with pace and control, the team can get good shots and be a very dangerous offensive team.

Right now, that is not happening. The ball can get stuck and the team can look disorganized. Their execution pace is slow and the team stalls out.

There are certainly a few things that need to happen.

Getting Markelle Fultz, an expert at controlling pace and tempo, will help a ton. That is just a waiting game for him to get healthy again.

Then Mosley has to do a better job putting his players in positions to succeed and execute. Limiting the experiment of Franz Wagner or Paolo Banchero playing a pure point guard role will help reduce some of these issues. Shifting the rotation to keep an organizer like Cole Anthony or Wendell Carter on the floor at all times might help reduce this.

Some of it might just be experience and waiting for the team to figure some of this out on its own by learning to play together. Here though, consistent rotations and playing groups would go a long way. Mosley has yet to use the same rotation for consecutive games as he tries out different lineups.

"“I’m sure as things go, the more games we play, the more comfortably we play,” Bol said after Monday’s game. “Toward the end of the game when we get into the sets that we know will work, the ball will find everyone and play the right way. Especially down the stretch.”"

Right now, the Magic need some faith in what they are trying to execute and some reminders of how good things can be when they do it at a high level. That has been the most frustrating and difficult part of this 0-4 start and the beginning of the season.

There is a lot of good going on and a lot of good to build on. But the results have not been tied together.

Someone on this team has to do more to tie it all together and get the team over the hump.