Orlando Magic still have a point guard problem

If you ask Jamahl Mosley and the Orlando Magic, they have superseded the need for any positional nomenclatures. They have sought what they feel are smart basketball players who have the IQs to bring the ball up, read the defense and start the offense.

That is one of the things that has proven difficult to handle about this Magic team.

What is a defense supposed to do when Bol Bol picks up a rebound and goes the length of the floor for a dunk? What are they supposed to do when 6-foot-10 Paolo Banchero is coming downhill at them or Franz Wagner is coming downhill at them?

Orlando wants to run an offense based on reading the defense and reacting to what they give them. That kind of offense required everyone to be able to do, well, everything. They need guards screening well as much as they need big men cutting and working on the ball as playmakers.

This kind of inversion has given the Magic something of its identity. The team is improving as a switching defense that uses length to close down the paint and close down lanes. Offensively, it has made everyone a potential attacker.

That has helped the team improve on offense, even if it still feels a bit cosmetic. But the Magic still have a key issue keeping their offense from finding its best form and keeping them from winning.

The Orlando Magic have shown a ton of potential on offense. But their late game moments and inefficiency reveal this team still needs a point guard to get them organized.

There is no doubt that while the Magic are embracing positionless basketball, there is still the need for a point guard to run the show. The Magic are making do without one, but many of their overall issues would be helped by an experienced game manager and someone who can control the pace.

No matter how exciting and intriguing this team is so far this season or how much the team experiments, this is still a vital role the team needs to be filled.

Orlando is still not much to write home about offensively, posting a 108.9 offensive rating which is good for 23rd in the league. The free throw shooting from Paolo Banchero has certainly boosted the team’s offensive performance but the team is dragged down by its poor shooting and its poor passing and turnovers.

The Magic are 29th with a 51.4-percent assist rate (meaning they get an assist on a little more than half of their shots. They are 25th in turnover rate at 16.0 percent.

These are all things that come from both young, inexperienced teams and teams without a clear playmaker and floor general.

It is not that the team cannot find success in pockets without a lead guard. The team has found a lot of success actually with its current lineup.

The team’s current starting quartet of Paolo Banchero, Bol Bol, Franz Wagner and Wendell Carter has a net rating of +17.5 points per 100 possessions with an offensive rating of 119.8 points per 100 possessions (although with just a 50.0-percent assist rate.

With Jalen Suggs in the lineup with them, they have a -6.4 net rating at 108.7 points per 100 possessions. With Terrence Ross with them, they have a +43.8 net rating at 134.2 points per 100 possessions.

This certainly speaks to Suggs’ struggles manning the point guard role. Especially his difficulty with turnovers. Orlando as a team has struggled with turnovers this year, but Suggs has especially struggled with 4.0 per game.

What Orlando needs from the position is not necessarily someone who can take over the game and dominate the ball. They just need someone who can efficiently initiate the offense, kick the ball forward on fast breaks and spread the floor as a shooter for all the size the team has coming downhill.

These problems become especially clear late in games.

Orlando is playing a lot of close games this year. Their eight clutch situations this year (when the game is within five points in the final five minutes) is the most in the league this season. They are just 1-7 in these games and their late-game issues are well-known by this point.

However, Orlando’s poor late-game execution goes beyond that.

The team has a 96.6 offensive rating in clutch situations this season (the defense is also very not good, but that’s for another post). This is not about turnovers (the team has a 12.1-percent turnover rate in clutch situations). This is about simple execution and getting into the team’s sets and plays.

That quartet of Banchero, Bol, Wagner and Carter late in the game? Their net rating drops to -19.8 points per 100 possessions and a 90.0 offensive rating in the fourth quarter (not just clutch situations) in 26 total minutes.

Whether that is because teams adjust to attacking the Magic’s size after that initial burst or there are some real roadblocks late in games — or just plain inexperience closing games and dealing with late-game pressure — is something the team will have to ponder and explore.

But there are some truths about the end of games.

The pace of the game slows down and possessions become far more valuable. Little mistakes — a bad shot, a missed shot or a turnover — have much larger consequences.

And this is where a team has to do all it can to make things easier to execute, putting the ball in the exact right spot to enable them to score. This is where the team needs someone who can slow the game down in the midst of the chaos and organize the team to get the ball to the right spots and the right players.

This is the intangible element the team is missing.

As much as Wagner has improved as a ball handler bringing the ball up the floor and as much promise as Banchero shows promise as someone who can create at his size, neither has the composure and poise to do so at the end of games or to do so consistently.

As with all things with this young Magic team, are going to learn and get better.

They may well be willing to go through some of these growing pains with Suggs, for instance, because there is more information to be gained from trying Suggs at point guard than not trying it at all, even if it is not the most successful decision.

They do owe it to him and other players to give them a chance to learn from these mistakes. These are still very small sample sizes.

But it is still a glaring hole. With Markelle Fultz and even Cole Anthony out with injuries right now, Orlando is undoubtedly missing this kind of basic knowledge of how to organize a team.

It shows up most glaringly late in the games when the pressure to execute ramps up. And this is where the Magic are missing something when it comes to them taking that next step and winning.