Desmond Bane's shot to beat the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday is exactly why the Orlando Magic acquired him.
Yes, the play was designed for Paolo Banchero first, dragging him toward the short corner so he could turn and fire over the defense. But so much of the Magic's offensive hopes is designed to take advantage of the attention and, yes, shooting from Bane.
It was a rushed buzzer-beating shot, hardly the kind of hard-working three-pointer offenses are designed to create. But it was a sign of what Bane can bring to this team.
That has not been the story for the early part of the season for Bane or for the Magic.
It would be fair to say that many of the Magic's biggest mistakes are only made worse by poor shooting. The Magic cannot cover for mistakes because their shooting, while slightly improved, is still so shaky.
Orlando could have won and controlled Sunday's game with better shooting (4 for 17 shooting on wide-open threes on 30 total attempts) and blown out Monday's game (2 for 14 on wide-open threes on 30 attempts) with better shooting.
As J. Kyle Mann and The Ringer NBA Show noted last week, shooting is still the biggest issue facing the Magic and everything else in outgrowth of the team's shooting troubles.
"When they turn the corner to get into the paint, it's crowded in there," Mann said. "It's crazy crowded. You'll see them bring three and four guys in there. If you have non-manipulative passers, you are asking them to overextend what they do. You just frequently see them in a crowd and there is nowhere to go. That's when you start to see the crazy passes all over the place."
It is still clear that every frustration facing the Magic still comes down to their inability to properly space the floor and be threats from beyond the arc. There may be other personnel problems to resolve as the Magic try to make this work.
But it all comes back to shooting.
Three-Point Math
The three-point math problem of the 2024 season has returned.
They are now passing up three-pointers and taking fewer of them, putting more pressure on their ability to score in the paint and get to the foul line to make up for their offense.
Orlando is doing it decently. The Magic are ninth in the league with 52.5 points in the paint per game and first in the league with a 38.5 percent free-throw rate. The Magic are ninth with 28.5 field goal attempts per game in the restricted area but near the middle of the league shooting 66.9 percent on those shots.
Orlando has found a way to improve its scoring and efficiency from last year. But to have championship aspirations, the Magic need to make some shots.
But the Magic are still near the bottom 10 in offensive rating. It has not been enough. The shooting must improve.
That was something their offseason was meant to fix.
But Desmond Bane is struggling, shooting 27.7 percent on just 4.3 3-point attempts per game. Those are the fewest since his rookie year. Orlando has struggled to get him the ball or get his shots up.
As a team, the group is only slightly better.
The team is shooting 33.3 percent from three, 23rd in the league, and is 27th in attempts per game at 31.4 per game.
Tristan da Silva has been a revelation, shooting 39.2 percent on a team-high 4.6 attempts per game. Jalen Suggs has been solid, picking up where he left off before the injuries increased his usage, shooting 45.1 percent on 4.1 attempts per game. Wendell Carter is making 45.5 percent on 4.1 attempts per game.
Even Franz Wagner is at 37.0 percent on 4.2 attempts per game.
The real problem may be that the Magic have three high-volume (for them) shooters at worse than 30 percent -- Desmond Bane, Paolo Banchero (25.0 percent on 4.0 attempts per game) and Anthony Black (28.9 percent on 3.5 attempts per game).
But the Magic still have games like the last two, where the team shoots well below 30 percent -- 7 for 30 against the Boston Celtics on Sunday and 8 for 30 against the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday. The past two games were two of the Magic's four games shooting worse than 30 percent.
Bad shooting nights happen. And the Magic are better this year -- they have three games shooting 40 percent or better already this season after just 14 all of last season -- but there is no middle ground.
Those ultimately sink this team.
Process and results
Coach Jamahl Mosley would still argue that the team is following its process. The results will follow.
But if teams are sagging into the paint and closing off driving lanes, are the Magic actually getting good shots?
Orlando is averaging 18.6 "wide-open" 3-pointers per game, according to NBA.com's tracking data. These are shots where the closest opponent is six or more feet away. That is near the middle of the league. However, the team is shooting 33.2 percent from those shots, which is among the worst in the league.
Right now, 59.4 percent of the Magic's 3-pointers are of this "wide-open" variety.
Orlando took 18.8 "wide-open" threes per game last year and made 35.1 percent of those shots. Last year, 53.4 percent of their threes were wide-open.
It would seem that very little has changed in the quality of looks the team is getting this year. The process of getting open shots can, of course, be improved. Orlando is not getting enough shots.
It is still about making open shots. And it is still about the confidence of taking those shots and not letting misses affect the team on defense or sink their energy.
That is something Bane was meant to fix. It is something the Magic need to focus on getting more of. They need to get the ball moving again.
Maybe they are, as Mosley noted after Sunday's game against the Boston Celtics, playing in a crowd too often. That is where everything starts. Orlando has to attract attention in the paint to get open shots. There should be plenty of them with the way teams are defending them.
There are more 3-pointers out there. But the Magic need the confidence to take and make them. And this team has just struggled to have that confidence except in rare circumstances.