Everyone knows what the Orlando Magic need.
Even after making 16 threes and scoring 130 points in Wednesday's win over the Sacramento Kings, the Orlando Magic are not an offensive team. They are one of the worst shooting teams the league has seen in more than a decade.
The Magic need shooting. Nobody is pretending otherwise. And it feels like the key to unlocking this team's potential climb.
But the Magic could not find the deals they wanted at the trade deadline. They opted to stand pat. They left unaddressed their offensive issues, their playmaking and, most importantly, their shooting. They left an offense that gets stuck too often and becomes stagnant.
Orlando did not meaningfully make the team better. And so the question is: Are the Magic destined for the Play-In Tournament? Could things potentially get worse?
The Orlando Magic's 112-90 loss to the Denver Nuggets was not a ringing endorsement of the team's decision not to even acquire deep bench help to these problems. The Magic are going to ride to the end of the season with the same roster that is struggling to do the most basic act in basketball.
Another poor 90-point showing—the team's eighth game this year with 90 points or fewer (the team had only one such game last year)—and another 5-for-31 (16.1 percent) 3-point showing—the team has six games shooting worse than 20 percent from three this year (it had only one such game last year)—only highlights what the team did not address at the trade deadline.
Where is the change?
It is hard to believe much will change for the Orlando Magic when they did not attempt to address their most basic need. It is hard to envision the team coming close to accomplishing their goals. President of basketball operations Jeff Weltman merely delayed what must be done.
The Magic still cannot hit open shots and struggle to create offense outside of Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. All of this still holds them back, draining them of energy and preventing them from competing at their desired levels.
All the known issues that are demanding some resolution from outside the roster and the issues that went unadressed at the trade deadline were front and center in Thursday's blowout loss. It is hard to believe the Orlando Magic could be in the same class or compete in a seven-game series with a team like the Denver Nuggets playing like this.
And that is the most disappointing and frustrating realization of all. Nights like Thursday night have become all too common this season.
A night after hitting 16 3-pointers and routing the Sacramento Kings, the Orlando Magic crashed back to Earth to shoot 36.9 percent from the floor and 5 for 31 (16.1 percent) from three. The latter effort is much more commonplace than the former. It has become the team's reality.
It was known. It was identified. It went unaddressed. The Magic will have to continue to fight with seemingly one offensive hand tied behind its back.
All the team can do is keep working and hoping that the problem fixes itself as the team gets healthier.
"It's something that we work on every day," Wendell Carter said after Thursday's loss. "Obviously, it's our job. It looks like we don't know how to shoot. I think a lot of guys from top to bottom are all great shooters. Some days we're red hot, on fire and making all of our shots. And then we have a really bad cold spell where we can't even hit a coin in the ocean. We have to find that even keel."
The three-point shot was as important to the outcome of Thursday's game as anything else. As much as the Magic want to hide from it, the ability to make threes and the threat of shooting are essential to a functioning offense in the NBA.
The Nuggets hit six three-pointers in the second quarter as they took control of the game, including three in a row with about two minutes to play before halftime to help build a nine-point halftime lead.
But the Magic came out flat in the third quarter, shooting just 7 for 20 and missing all five of their 3-pointers. Orlando scored only 17 points in the third as the offense devolved into tough jumpers and fadeaways.
Those misses fed the Nuggets' devastating fast break, accounting for eight of their 24 fast-break points in the third quarter.
Orlando could not keep up and the team could not stop Denver in the half-court either.
The Nuggets made another three 3-pointers and went 12 for 19 to score 33 points. Denver opened as much as a 28-point lead in the quarter.
Orlando had completely let go of the rope. Fatigue likely had something to do with that, all things considered. But things would never get this bad if the Magic could work for open shots more effectively.
"You have to stay confident in your shot," coach Jamahl Mosley said after Thursday's loss. "You have to continue to look in the mirror and exactly how you continue to work and how you can continue to get better. We get to go home and get a homestand, which is much needed. To be able to go home and get the rest but also get around our home fans and play the right way."
Struggles are nothing new
None of these weaknesses are anything new. The Orlando Magic have one of the worst offenses in the league—and have for the last 12 years since Dwight Howard left. They are not magically going to become a better offense.
The shooting weakness has been obvious for several years. It has been difficult to fix—even adding an ace shooter in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has not put a dent in the problem.
This problem is not new or even unacknowledged. It was an issue that seemed to require an immediate fix. But instead, it is something that will wait for the offseason. The Magic must hope that will not come too late.
They are committed to this team with all of its opportunities and flaws.
No one is ever as bad as they look on their worst night. Just as they will always come back to their average from their best night. Conditions made this bad game look that much worse.
"It doesn't feel good. it's not pretty. it wasn't pretty," Mosley said after Thursday's loss. "I think we have to continue to look at what we need to do in these moments. You are not as bad as you are in your losses and you are not as good as you think you are in your wins. We have to continue to find an even ground to continue to play the right way with consistency."
Sure, there is the open hope that Jalen Suggs' return gets the Magic back to playing the frenetic and chaotic defense that lifts all boats. There is the hope that being fully healthy will give the front office the chance to evaluate this roster fully and understand just how good it is.
Those are all hopes. The reality is still the same.
Consistency has eluded this team for the past month as the team has sunk and seen its playoff goals become out of reach. It is hard to imagine a healthy roster being significantly better or not requiring the kind of shooting the currently available roster needs.
That Orlando got that painful reminder on the team's last day to make that change only highlighted how far the team still has to go to make the most of this era and this team.