Losses highlight Wendell Carter’s importance to Orlando Magic

The Orlando Magic are in the midst of an ugly eight-game losing streak that shows no signs of ending. An unwanted record bettered only by the tanking San Antonio Spurs, who have lost 11 straight.

A season for the Magic that had the potential to culminate in a play-in run is instead flaming out as a result of desperate injury luck and an inability to decide what this group’s identity is.

There have been some positives in among all of this losing, with Kevin Durant recently raving about rookie Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner sure to be an All-Star in the next few years. Despite this, reasons for optimism in Orlando are scarce at present.

Most of it may center around a player who has been missing for this entire eight-game losing streak and played in the only game Orlando has won in the past 10.

If we take a closer look, it has become clear that some of the Orlando Magic’s losing can be attributed to the loss of Wendell Carter Jr., and how much he does for this team.

Wendell Carter has not been seen for the Magic since their last win, which came in an away game against his former team, the Chicago Bulls, on Nov. 19. He has averaged a career-high 16.6 points per game this season, on a pretty respectable 34.6-percent from deep.

Scoring is not Carter’s main purpose when on the court though. Defensively he has been sorely missed during this eight-game skid.

During this period, the Magic have ranked dead last in rebounding (34.6 per game), and the 9.1 boards per night Carter grabbed (also a team high) have been one of the key reasons for this awful drop.

Alongside Bol Bol and Paolo Banchero when healthy, the Magic boast one of the bigger starting units in the entire league. So to rank last here is unacceptable, especially when it looked like defensive stops and playing hard would become the group’s identity.

No player better encapsulates this than Carter. And it has been especially noticeable in losses to the Philadelphia 76ers and Atlanta Hawks.

The effort simply was not good enough, and although the Magic do not have the talent right now to hang with these better squads, they simply rolled over and admitted defeat early in both contests. Orlando has lost five of the eight games in this streak by double-digits and have most of their 20-point losses in the past two weeks without Carter on the floor.

Orlando is struggling to remain competitive right now. And Carter is a big piece of this puzzle that is missing.

We have spoken several times about Bol’s importance to this Magic group so far this season, but Carter’s absence is making the case that it is he who is their most important player right now. His Player Efficiency Rating of 17.6 is second among all Magic players (Bol leads the way with 18.5).

Despite Bol and Bamba having ridiculous length, neither is comfortable getting into the paint and banging with other centers. They do not have the physicality to be a factor against a bruiser like Jonas Valanciunas for example, whereas this is an area of the game where Wendell Carter excels.

He is smart in pick-and-roll situations as well, and in fact, ranks 13th in the entire league in being the roll man (2.7) in the two-man game. One of the better players at bullying his way to the rim.

Defensively Carter’s importance speaks for itself. But his ability to help simple offensive sets and get into the paint are an underrated part of what he does for the Magic.

Clearly, his skillset is unique in that nobody else in the rotation can do what he does, and those like Admiral Schofield who can, do not do it nearly as well.

This has a knock-on effect on the guards on the roster.

Markelle Fultz is only just back from injury, and so too is Cole Anthony. Jalen Suggs is out at the moment and R.J. Hampton is still a bit part player here. All of these players would benefit from having Carter back on the court to run plays with.

Returning to the defensive end, it is no surprise the Magic have ranked dead last in defensive rating while Carter has been out. But to be giving up 121 points per night is simply unacceptable, and Carter alone cannot fix that.

On the season as a whole, the Magic have allowed 115.8 points per game, which is still bottom five in the league. But in those numbers alone we can see Carter’s impact. Less impressive, but still worth noting, is how this is the first season of his career where he has a positive plus/minus (+0.3) as well.

The Magic are going nowhere in a hurry, and it may be that tanking sooner rather than later is the call. But as long as Carter Jr. is sidelined, that decision is going to be made for them. He is already too important to everything they do, and they miss him dearly on both ends.