Ask anybody the Orlando Magic's biggest need and they will inevitably land on two things -- their shooting and their lack of a point guard.
The shooting is an obvious one and the big one the team addressed by acquiring Desmond Bane, Tyus Jones and Jase Richardson. The Magic will likely get a shooting boost from Jalen Suggs' return from injury, too.
The point guard position?
That was left largely unaddressed. The team will head into the season with a point-guard-by-committee approach with Suggs as the nominal point guard.
For a team that can at times look disorganized and stagnant on offense, this could be a big problem. After all, the Magic's season turned around when they inserted Cory Joseph into the starting lineup.
While that move baffled the national audience when the Magic reached the Playoffs, it was proof positive that an organizer and stabilizing player in that lead guard spot could have a massive effect. Indeed, the Magic, for as bad as they were on offense, had a 110.5 offensive rating with Joseph on the floor, the second-best mark on the team behind Franz Wagner.
One of the big things the Magic are going to find out this year is whether they can function without a true point guard and whether that is the next big move to work on in the background.
Orlando's philosophy and players make it tough to chase a ball-dominant point guard. The team does not want to take the ball out of Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner's hands too much. They wanted more of a game manager who could play off those players.
Ultimately, what the Magic want is to have more players who can do everything. They want multiple players who can play the point guard position. They want to spread the responsibility to several players and not concentrate it in one player.
The best way to describe the Magic's approach to the position is to steal a line from the movie Moneyball. The Magic do not want a point guard, but they can create one in the aggregate by combining all the stats that a point guard can do.
If that is what the Magic are trying to do, it is another area where Bane was a perfect fit. Like Banchero and Wagner, he can do enough with the ball to set others up and bring up the Magic's assists and passing.
The Magic may indeed have a point guard in the aggregate.
The Magic's assist and passing problem
The Orlando Magic's offense had many problems last year.
The shooting was only the primary one. That made it difficult for the team to get itself moving. But the Magic had a host of other offensive problems that went beyond the shooting.
The team played at a pace of 96.5 possessions per 48 minutes, the lowest possession count in the league. Orlando averaged 13.8 fastbreak points per game, 25th in the league.
More than that, the team was always a low-pass team. The Magic averaged a league-low 23.0 assists per game and just 44.9 potential assists per game, 23rd in the league. Orlando recorded only 279.3 passes per game, 19th in the league.
Those raw stats are not the be-all, end-all. There are good offensive teams that do not get a lot of assists or pass the ball effectively. But the Magic could use some more ball movement. They could certainly use some more assists and more ball and player movement.
As much as adding shooting was vital to the Magic this summer, the team added a lot more passing too. And there is no denying the Magic have more passers and playmakers now.
Desmond Bane and Tyus Jones each averaged 5.3 assists per game last year. They are replacing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who averaged 1.8 assists per game, and Cole Anthony, who averaged 2.9 assists per game.
Just on raw totals, the Magic are replacing 4.7 assists per game with 10.6 assists per game. That should mean more passing and more ball movement.
More than that, Anthony averaged 28.4 passes per game, and Caldwell-Pope averaged 25.6 passes per game. Bane averaged 49.0 passes per game, which would have been the most on the team and led the Memphis Grizzlies last year. And Jones averaged 49.8 per game, also leading the Phoenix Suns last year.
Even if the Magic's slower pace decreases the raw total, it is easy to imagine even just one of those players averaging more assists than the Magic got from Caldwell-Pope and Anthony last year. On its face, the Magic added more active passers to their team.
They have more players who can help shoulder the load at point guard and do what is statistically at least associated with point guards.
Intangibles still the concern
If only it were so simple as going down the assist column and adding these new assists to the team. If we could do that, the Orlando Magic would rise from a league-worst 23.0 assists per game to 28.9 assists per game, which would rank sixth in the league, based on last year's raw counting stats alone.
If there is reason for excitement for Orlando, it is this potential to be more versatile and attacking on offense. They have more guys who can connect others and create easy shots. It will still come down to the Magic making those shots.
Indeed, if the idea is to create a point guard statistically in the aggregate as Brad Pitt would say as Billy Beane in Moneyball, the math appears to work out.
But being a point guard is about more than just the stats. There is a game management aspect that is vital -- knowing when to slow the game down or speed it up, knowing when a player needs a touch, and how to get players in the right spots with precision passing.
Tyus Jones is certainly a true point guard. And he will almost certainly bring that stability off the bench.
But the starting group will not have that level of organization. They will platoon that responsibility between their four key players -- and even Wendell Carter, who is a solid passer for a center.
Whether the Magic can execute in critical junctures of games, and especially in the Playoffs, will ultimately determine whether this experiment will work.
But the Magic have added more passing potential to their team. It is on them to unlock it and put themselves in a position to take that next step offensively.