One of Orlando Magic's biggest strengths is suddenly a weakness

The individual plus/minus column for any isolated game is mostly worthless. There is not a lot you can tell from a single game. Everything is matchup-dependent or sometimes a player has a bad game. It is just one sample in an 82-game schedule.

Patterns matter though. Something that happens repeatedly is a sign of some trend.

And perusing box scores last year revealed a particular pattern: The Orlando Magic's starters were always likely to have positive plus/minuses but usually in the single digits or maybe not even above +5.

All of them except Franz Wagner. That is because if you looked further down the page, you would see Jonathan Isaac at +12 or Moe Wagner at +14. And Franz Wagner played alongside those key bench players.

Five of the top six players last year in plus/minus per game for the Magic came off the bench. The only starter was Franz Wagner who played with the bench players at the start of the second quarter.

This was unsurprising. This was one of the Magic's super powers last year.

Part of the Magic's formula to win last year was their incredibly strong bench. They were fourth in the league in bench scoring with 41.5 points per game. Among the Magic's most-used lineups, the bench group without Franz Wagner had a +4.0 net rating and that group with Wagner had a +21.1 net rating in 81 minutes.

They would completely change games when their reserves checked in. Deficits would become leads or even runaways as it did in Game 4 of the first-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Magic's starters were good and had a positive net rating—+12.5 points per 100 possessions with a 102.1 defensive rating in 300 minutes. But it was the bench that supercharged the Magic up the standings and into contention for homecourt advantage.

This was one of the Magic's biggest strengths last year. But it has not carried over to this season.

No group though took on a bigger change than the bench. Markelle Fultz and Joe Ingles were let go in free agency. The Magic filled in with Gary Harris from the starting lineup and Anthony Black in his second year. They hoped a healthy Jonathan Isaac would not only boost the defense but also improve on offense.

Through nine games, that has not been the case. The bench has increasingly been a negative for the Magic. That might be one of the reasons things feel off this season.

The Magic need more from the bench

Orlando is averaging just 34.2 points per game off the bench, ranking 16th in the league. This is a major drop for a team with a very small margin for error on offense.

Cole Anthony was the team's leading scorer off the bench last year with 11.6 points per game. He is now out of the rotation.

Moe Wagner averaged 10.9 points per game on 60.1 percent shooting—33.0 percent from three and 67.3 percent on 2-point field goals—last year. This year, he is averaging 11.3 points per game but on just 50.0 percent shooting—23.8 percent on threes and 62.2 percent on twos. His shooting decrease has made his defensive shortcomings feel greater.

And it feels like Isaac is not there to clean up for him.

Isaac is averaging only 5.3 points per game but shooting only 39.3 percent from the floor after averaging 6.8 points per game last year on 51.0 percent shooting. He averaged 1.9 "stocks" per game in 15.8 minutes per game last year. This year, he is averaging 1.6 stocks per game.

More than that, last year the Magic were unbreakable defensively in lineups with Isaac in the game. The team had a ridiculous 102.0 defensive rating with Isaac on the floor last year, the best among all rotation players for the Magic. They had a +10.9 net rating and were fine offensively, scoring 113.0 points per 100 possessions.

This year, the Magic have only a 105.9 defensive rating (which by the way is still really good and fourth among all rotation players). But the team is scoring only 75.8 points per 100 possessions with Isaac on the floor.

That speaks to how poorly the bench lineups have performed. It is not merely a product of the team's depth getting stretched with Paolo Banchero out. The Magic are not getting the same margins they were last year.

The Magic's most-used bench lineup of Jalen Suggs, Anthony Black, Gary Harris, Jonathan Isaac and Moe Wagner has a -14.8 net rating (81.5 offensive rating/96.3 defensive rating) in 12 minutes together.

There has been a lot of upheaval to the rotation—the starting group with Paolo Banchero has a -6.9 net rating in 74 minutes and the group without Banchero from the last two games has a -12.4 net rating in 38 minutes. It is hard to say what is sticky.

It is still very early in the season and the team's offense has been a drain at every point of the rotation.

But, to say the least, this is concerning considering the Magic relied so much on the bench last year. Banchero's absence has had a way of highlighting the Magic's weaknesses. And this has quickly become one of them.

The team is still pinning down its rotation and player roles. The Banchero injury has only thrown a wrench in that stability as the Magic try to solidify themselves early in the season.

Things will settle down. Perhaps they did in Wednesday's game against the Indiana Pacers.

A big reason why the Magic got such a boost offensively in Wednesday's game was because of 12 points and six assists from Anthony Black and his aggression attacking the basket in the second half; 14 points from Moe Wagner with his ability to work around the basket; and nine points and six rebounds from Jonathan Isaac.

If the Magic can get that kind of consistent production, they will be fine in the long run.

But so far this season, they have not had that kind of consistency off the bench. And something they relied on heavily last year has not delivered for them.