3 Surprisingly simple ways the Orlando Magic can increase their scoring

Franz Wagner lit up a bit when he got asked to give an assessment of where his team is at. He and several players have said you can see the hint of the team the Magic are going to be in their preseason games. They are still putting those pieces together.

Perhaps the preseason did not reveal the whole picture. With a smirk, Wagner reported the Magic are further ahead offensively this year than they were last year.

That should be encouraging. But it is meaningless until everyone sees the offense on the floor and looking better.

While the Magic have a lot to be excited about and a lot they should be eager to build on, everything for them will eventually come down to how much their offense has improved.

It remains the team's biggest weakness and biggest question mark no matter how you want to divide it.

Last year, Orlando finished 22nd in the league in offensive rating with 112.9 points per 100 possessions. That was the worst mark of any team that made the postseason last year.

The Magic made the playoffs and succeeded on the back of their stellar defense. That will again be the baseline for this team. But if Orlando wants to accomplish its goal of reaching the second round or winning homecourt advantage in the playoffs, the team needs to improve offensively.

There are already some signs the team is doing that.

Players like Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, and Jalen Suggs should improve just from natural growth and development. They added an elite 3-and-D wing in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. That should boost the scoring.

Still there are a lot of questions.

The team's offense remains the biggest question mark for the season. And the Magic have a lot to prove on that end.

Improvement seems inevitable—it can't be worse while this team is still competitive, right? The question is how much it will improve and what steps the team can take to get there.

The fixes to the Magic's offense are not complex but they will have major effects. And the team is clearly already working on them.

3. Improved shooting

The biggest fix is the most obvious. The Orlando Magic have to be a better shooting team to succeed on offense.

Everyone will point immediately to the team's 3-point shooting. They were 24th in the league making 35.2 percent of their 3-point shots. But they took the second-fewest threes in the league with 31.3 per game and made the fewest threes in the league at just 11.0 per game (tied with the Detroit Pistons).

Jeff Weltman was ready to point out at the end of the season that Orlando ranked 15th in the league in 3-point field goal percentage after Jan. 1, making 36.3 percent of their threes. But the Magic were still 27th in attempts per game at 32.1 per game and 25th in makes at 11.7 per game.

The issue for the Magic may not wholly be about their ability to make or miss shots. It may be more about volume and creating more shots.

Their strategy is about getting downhill to the basket and putting pressure on the rim.

Orlando finished 14th in the league with 21.6 paint touches per game, according to Second Spectrum. The Magic were ninth in the league with 27.7 field goal attempts per game in the restricted area but 14th in the league shooting 67.0 percent on those shots.

But this is where the Magic leave a ton of points on the board.

Last year, Orlando led the league in free throw rate with 28.7 free throw attempts for every 100 field goal attempts. However, the Magic were also 26th in free throw percentage at 75.9 percent. Even rising to the median free throw percentage on their 24.4 attempts per game would add nearly one more free throw made per game.

Considering how often the Magic get to the line—without a clear intentional foul candidate—the Magic should be a team that is one of the best free-throw shooting teams in the league. It came back to bite them in the playoffs with 10 missed free throws in a narrow Game 1 loss against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Free throw shooting was the one area where Paolo Banchero regressed last year—going from 73.8 to 72.5 percent from the line.

Banchero must improve his three-point shooting and overall efficiency. But making more free throws is an easy way to increase his raw scoring total and address his efficiency concerns.

The Magic have a clear strategy of how they want to attack. It is not centered on the 3-point line, though. But it is fair to say that the Magic have to shoot better with these shots. The efficiency criticisms are fair for the entire team and not just Paolo Banchero, it would seem.

Still, the Magic can make marked improvements. A lot of it will come from the efficiency of their passing.

Orlando ranked 21st in the league with 43.3 potential assists per game, according to data from Second Spectrum. The team has to make better decisions with the ball, whether that is putting up a shot or passing to get a man open.

The Magic may always be a low-volume passing team with Banchero on the ball a lot. They were 16th in the league last season with 7.2 isolation possessions per game, according to NBA.com's tracking stats. Increasing the team's passing and movement could be a way to create more space for the team to shoot more.

But the simplest solutions are probably the most important. The Magic have to make more shots to score more points. That should be the easiest statement anyone can make.