It is hard to describe the Orlando Magic’s mood right now as panic.
Yes, the Magic remain one of three teams in the league without a win this season and are hoping to avoid the infamous label of the last team in the league to get a win. The good news for those who think the Play-In tournament or more is the goal this season is that there is still a lot of games left to play.
The even better news then might be just how close the Magic have seemingly been to wins, holding leads entering the fourth quarter in both games against the Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks and competing deep into the fourth quarter against the Boston Celtics.
The mood is certainly not panic then. The mood is probably more characterized by frustration.
The Orlando Magic are still searching for their first win of the season. The team can make some key adjustments to get on the right foot and break through to a victory.
The team is doing some good things and it definitely understands that many of its problems are born from the players it does not have. There is no changing that — it does not appear Markelle Fultz or Gary Harris made this trip and so the team awaits their hopefully imminent returns.
Still, the team has to figure out how to play, compete and win with what they have. They have shown themselves perfectly capable of doing so. And that is where the team sits today.
Orlando’s schedule has not been easy — the team starts the season with six of its first eight games on the road and five of those first eight are against teams that made at least the Play-In Tournament last year. But the team has to find a way to break this streak.
With what this team has already shown itself capable of, one win and getting this losing streak in the rearview mirror could give the team a surge of confidence. The Magic just need something to reward their faith and belief in each other and what they are trying to build.
Those pieces still need to come together. And while things will not be easy Wednesday night going up against a very good Cleveland Cavaliers team, the Magic have to start making moves to put these pieces together. Something the team is doing is clearly not working.
There are of course the easy fixes. But it will be on coach Jamahl Mosley to make some tweaks to simplify things for this team and put the Magic in a better position to win.
The good news is that it does not take much. The Magic are falling behind in these games in very distinct stretches following many of the same themes. Tweaking the rotations or lineups or thought processes to address these is something that needs to be done immediately.
5 adjustments the Orlando Magic must make to get their first win
The stalwart calls
It should be very frustrating for Orlando Magic coach Jamahl Mosley and his team that many of the things the team has focused on and talked about throughout training camp are still points of emphasis the team has not resolved to this point.
The simple things — the bell plays — are what is keeping the Magic from reaching their potential. And these are all things the Magic can control.
It is too reductive to say the Magic just need to play better. But that is also the fact of the matter too — thus it gets the first slide, but we will put them all together because this answer is just too simple.
The Magic spoke a lot in training camp about their focus on transition defense. There are certainly two sides to this coin — limiting turnovers and then being organized to limit transition points.
So far this season, the Magic are 21st in the league with a 14.8-percent turnover rate. The Magic have done a better job limiting their turnovers of late. But the team has struggled to prevent points off those turnovers. Orlando gives up 20.5 points off turnovers, 23rd in the league. The team also gives up 17.5 fast-break points per game, 23rd in the league.
Orlando is not at the very bottom of the barrel for any of these categories. But the team’s margin for error is so small that being in the bottom 10 for the league is hurting the team.
The other issue so far has been offensive rebounding. Orlando is 21st in the league with a 69.7-percent defensive rebound rate. The team is giving up 14.5 second-chance points per game, 14th in the league.
The rebounding issue has been more about giving up offensive rebounds and critical back-breaking moments rather than a raw number. Orlando’s defense has been able to rebalance and get stops even after giving up offensive rebounds.
The good news about all of these numbers is that they are completely correctible and controllable. A better focus on executing the offense and limiting these mistakes will make it easier for the Magic to set their defense, where they may not be fantastic but they are at least good enough.
Orlando has had long sustained runs of good play on both ends this season that should be a sign of good things to come. But far too often mistakes like these keep the team from sustaining that potential.
5 adjustments the Orlando Magic must make to get their first win
Help Point Franz
The Orlando Magic are in a bind right now. They are playing with one healthy point guard in Cole Anthony. They have had to get creative with their rotation and with their roles just to try to stay afloat.
Thus the idea of Point Franz was not just born, but thrown into the deep end and expected to swim.
That has gone about as expected.
The Magic’s lineup when Franz Wagner is on the floor without Cole Anthony or Jalen Suggs has not been good. The team’s worst lineup that has been used in at least two games featured Franz Wagner alongside R.J. Hampton, Chuma Okeke, Paolo Banchero and Bol Bol (a -38.1 net rating in five minutes).
Of the 13 lineups with a worse net rating used in only one game, six of them feature Wagner without another league guard on the floor and two feature Wagner alongside Hampton as a secondary ball handler.
There are a few in there with both Wagner and Anthony on the floor together. That is not some panacea. Right now, Orlando has to figure out how best to fill the minutes with Anthony on the bench until the team gets healthy.
The Magic’s experiment with Wagner running point guard is not a bad one to try. Wagner has the playmaking and ball-handling chops to be an interesting lead playmaker. Orlando wants to use both Wagner and Banchero as ball handlers.
But a big reason for Wagner’s struggles this year — 15.0 points per game but on 41.7-percent shooting and 23.8-percent from beyond the arc — is because he has had to expend a lot of energy bringing the ball up the floor. That has also led him to get fewer spot-up opportunities — 2.0 spot-up field goal attempts per game this year compared to 2.9 last year — and fewer of the cutting opportunities that made him effective last year.
Orlando is doing a good job keeping Wagner more involved. The criticism that he does not get enough shots or touches should go away now.
But he is clearly struggling and frustrated with his play and the team struggles to run its actions when Wagner is running point.
There is no clear solution to this.
Perhaps playing Wagner more alongside Carter to give him a solid screener and a high-post playmaker to ease that responsibility would help. Orlando has a -11.5 net rating with Wagner and Carter on the floor together, so finding the right group right now is more theoretical than actual.
Perhaps ensuring that either Anthony or Hampton are on the floor at all times so the team at least has a nominal ball handler to bring the ball up and initiate actions would help.
Even running simpler sets and simplified actions while encouraging the team move quicker would help a lot. The team just needs to be better organized in these minutes and hope the team can hang on.
Leveraging whatever veteran help the team can for these minutes will help a ton too. There just is not enough to mine to give these lineups some stability. That is really what the team should seek.
5 adjustments the Orlando Magic must make to get their first win
Settle on a Rotation
The Orlando Magic are a team still figuring out who it is and what the team ultimately wants to be.
Some experimentation is warranted and probably correct for this group. The team wants to see how Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero play off each other (120 total minutes, the second most common pair for the team so far this season) most of all. Thus the team has been hesitant to stagger their minutes, even if that would benefit the team in the short term.
Orlando should be willing to try some new and funky things and to stick with them even when they do not work for a little while at least. A lot of these plans and thoughts are not about whether they will work in this individual game, but whether it is something the team can turn to later on in the season or even build upon as they continue to build the roster.
None of this should be surprising.
But with the team struggling to get wins, the extent to which the Magic are experimenting is certainly part of the problem. Orlando should be willing to experiment, but perhaps should limit it in the name of building a sound foundation and stability.
So far this season, it has felt like coach Jamahl Mosley has had a different rotation for every game the team has played. Some nights Caleb Houstan is the first guy off the bench, sometimes he does not play. Sometimes R.J. Hampton cannot get some run, other times the team relies on him for that backup ball-handler help.
Sometimes the Magic stagger lineups so that Wendell Carter is not playing with Mo Bamba. Sometimes the duo plays together so that they can get some minutes with Bol Bol or Paolo Banchero at center.
All of these experiments are fine if it did not feel like they were all coming at once. And that the team was able to sustain testing things out without falling behind or compromising games.
It still feels like Mosley is testing things out and treating the first half of these games like preseason testing grounds rather than regular season games — to his credit, he abandons what is not working and looks to play the hot hand or make adjustments to fill in gaps in most of these second halves just see how Mo Bamba did not play much in the second half Monday in favor of the scorching Bol Bol.
One of Mosley’s strengths is his ability to adjust and not be so stuck to set rotations. That was a common complaint under Steve Clifford with how he had a plan and rarely deviated from it.
The Magic could probably use a little bit of that so that players can get used to playing with set groups at set times and have some stability to grow from.
At this point, that would probably help the team find a rhythm and solve problems together to just churn out a win or two.
5 adjustments the Orlando Magic must make to get their first win
Preach Accountability
The Orlando Magic entered the season preaching accountability. They want to hold each other to a higher standard and work quickly to correct mistakes.
That may also lead to the coaches holding players accountable.
The Magic are still a rebuilding team. They need to give young players some latitude to make mistakes and learn from them. But if they are focused on winning more and doing winning things, that might also mean pulling playing time from players who are making repeated mistakes or are underperforming.
The Magic’s problem in using playing time as a carrot right now is twofold.
First, the team is so injured, that it almost has to play everyone. Being down Moe Wagner means the Magic do not have a third center and need to rely on the struggling Mo Bamba. Being down Jalen Suggs and Markelle Fultz means the Magic have to fill in the backup point guard minutes with someone not used to playing point guard.
And so on.
The second issue is the same as described in the previous slide. The Magic have been throwing a lot of things against the wall. Everyone has gotten a chance to play. And it seems like there is a plan for things the team wants to experiment with and they go into each game doing those things rather than playing the feel of the game (again, at least in the first half).
The lack of consistent playing time and the constant shuffling of lineups has to effect everyone and their rhythm.
At some point, Orlando needs to find stability and settle in on a more set rotation. That may not come until players return from injury. The Magic are missing at least two starter-level players and a young player the Magic are willing to start and then another high-level player who has been out for two years.
But there is no timetable for their returns and no waiting for them. These games count. And the Magic have to start practicing the accountability they preach. If players are not performing, they need to have their roles changed or adjusted or they just simply need not play.
Orlando has talked a big game throughout training camp and the offseason about taking some next steps. Unfortunately, it does not feel like the team has quite lived up to that promise to this point.
Players who are struggling and draining their lineups are playing and the team seems more interested in experimenting and testing parts of the lineup and players through these injuries rather than setting the team up to win.
5 adjustments the Orlando Magic must make to get their first win
Shore up the defense
Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the season so far has been how poor the Orlando Magic’s defense has looked through the first four games.
Orlando sits at 23rd in the league in defensive rating giving up 114.9 points per 100 possessions in the early season. Stats are still settling in and the Magic have been fairly inconsistent on that end — but especially terrible in the last two games.
Some of that is the turnovers and the mistakes the team has made that have led to easy baskets. But a lot of it is because the team just has not taken and executed its defensive system particularly well.
For a team that has talked all offseason about being a good defensive team and has a ton of defensive talent on top of that, this start has been really disappointing. Orlando has just struggled to get on the same page.
Some of it is that lack of communication.
The team has not been clean in executing any switches it is trying to do. That has left the team exposed some to drives to the basket as the team figures out where to go next — they will send two to the ball, leaving a man open. Teams have been able to exploit some of this confusion to get into the paint which is what leads to the fouling, kickouts and 3-point shots that have killed the Magic all year.
Some of it has been a lack of aggression and confidence.
The Magic’s 3-2 zone especially has become susceptible to this. The New York Knicks especially were able to flash a player easily right into the heart of the zone and then pick their pass to find an open shooter. Orlando’s zone defense just has not looked aggressive in using its length to deter penetration.
There is a ton of defensive talent and Orlando has had some really positive defensive moments (even against New York on Monday when the team gave up only 19 points on 31.8-percent shooting in the final quarter). The talent and the pieces are all there.
But like so many other things, the team has not put them together.
What this team ultimately really needs is a shot of confidence. That will help them play more aggressive and assertively and fulfill their expectations and potential. The team still seems to be figuring a lot of things out.
They play with that tentativeness. And that is probably the biggest thing that needs to change to turn things around.