Desmond Bane was meant to come to Orlando to fix a specific problem.
The Orlando Magic could not make shots. They needed a volume shooter who could create gravity.
The Magic can live with the shots that he takes -- good and bad. They just need him to shoot.
Rock bottom for the Orlando Magic in their 115-93 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves came in the third quarter.
The Magic went 2-for-14 from three. Bane went 1-for-5 from deep on his own. Orlando scored only 15 points in the quarter. A manageable 12-point halftime deficit ballooned to 26. The game was over.
To top it off, Desmond Bane committed two frustration fouls within the first two minutes of the fourth quarter, fouling out of the game. It felt like frustration was boiling over on a frustrating night.
Even if the Magic had the will to get back, they were now down their best shooter, even if he was 1-for-9. The Magic were never quite right. The puzzle pieces are not clear at this point.
Through two games, it is hard to get a handle of what this team is and who it wants to be.
Nobody is panicking. But the picture is incomplete.
"It's just two games. If you are overreacting, you are tripping," Jalen Suggs said after Friday's game. "You don't really need to be in that spot. We are walking down the process. Whether we win, lose, regular season or preseason, it's all the same. We know what we're working for later in the season."
That still feels very far away, even if the Magic may yet find a way to get themselves there.
On offense, there is more ball movement and intention to get open threes. There is an aggressiveness and speed that could lead to more success.
But there is still the problem of a lack of creators off the dribble and poor three-point shooting that allows aggressive defenses to put the vice on.
Defensively, the Magic showed improvement and defended the paint with more intensity. They made Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball work for every inch of the court. But they were also still fouling, still giving up offensive rebounds, and still late on several key rotations.
Any victory or silver lining you could find was blunted by the clouds ahead.
The Magic have pieces of the team they want to be. But they are far from the complete picture it will take to win.
The familiar problem
The Orlando Magic's biggest question still remains their 3-point shooting.
A more modern offensive design promised to net them more 3-point looks and more open looks. The Magic gleefully shot threes throughout the preseason and made enough of them to be hopeful.
But this is still a lot of the same personnel who struggled from deep. And the reality is that the Magic need to make shots to make everything work.
Orlando finished Friday's game shooting 8-for-39 from three (20.5 percent). Desmond Bane was 1-for-9. Franz Wagner went 1-for-6. Tristan da Silva went 1-for-7.
The team's three volume shooters all came up empty. Even if the team was generating good looks.
"To me, that's where you have to stick to what you plan to do in terms of you've got to attack the paint first and make the right decision there," coach Sean Sweeney said after Friday's game. "I thought there were a few rushed times that we shot the basketball. Credit to them, they have big, long, athletic defenders who do a good job closing out. There are probably some opportunities there that we can re-drive the basketball and find an open one."
The Minnesota Timberwolves put the clamps on the team from there.
The Magic did win the scoring in the paint -- 54-46. But the Magic failed to get to the foul line -- only 19 attempts, with 11 makes. The team found little room to breathe. Their offense sputtered without the safety valve of an open three to change momentum.
It was something like death by a thousand cuts with the pressure Minnesota's defense puts on teams. But Orlando's inability to relieve pressure by making open looks added to the frustration. The Magic could never get themselves going.
Defensive buckling
The players are only human. It is a true phenomenon that when shots do not fall, it becomes increasingly difficult to defend. Frustration can take over.
The Orlando Magic certainly defended better than they did in Wednesday's loss to the Atlanta Hawks. They held a high-powered Minnesota Timberwolves offense to 115 points (and only one 30-point quarter) and a 113.9 offensive rating.
The Magic's defense was nearly five points per 100 possessions better in Friday's game.
The Magic did a great job challenging shots at the rim, giving up only 46 points on 23-for-54 shooting in the paint. Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball struggled to a combined 9-for-36 shooting That is the typical formula for a win.
But the Magic have holes here too.
They were so focused on stopping Ball and Edwards that they overhelped and gave up offensive rebounds -- 22 of them -- and fouled a ton being late in help and rotations -- 30 free throw attempts allowed, although Minnesota only made 17 of them.
"We need to be a bit more aggressive, crawling into the ball a bit more, start to dictate more possessions on that side of the ball. And finish possessions," Jalen Suggs said after Friday's game. "They outrebounded us, and that hurt. They were getting too many shots. A lot of teams shot 21 more shots than you in a game, it's tough to win."
Eventually it all buckled. The poor shooting led to a lapse in focus. And the constant offensive rebounds broke the team's spirit.
The Wolves looked like a team that knew what it was trying to accomplish. Even with the changes on that roster, they looked like they understood what Chris Finch wanted and LaMelo Ball fit in seamlessly to boost their offense as a connector.
The Magic look like a team still trying to learn what their new coach wants. They look like a team that is still figuring out where to be and how to play together.
"To me, it's just learn from what took place, get better and get back on the horse," Sean Sweeney said after Friday's game. "One night is not indicative of the whole season. Now we have to get back into what we need to do, do it aggressively and look to attack. In general, nothing changes in how we want to keep progressing, keep building and keep getting better."
Some of that should be expected.
But this team still only looks like pieces of the team they want to be. But clearly not enough.
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