5 things that have gone right (or wrong) in the first quarter of the Orlando Magic's season
2) Gone Wrong – 3 Point Shooting
To be fair, the Orlando Magic probably have not been a relatively good 3-point shooting team since the Dwight Howard era. There was no reason to believe coming into the season that they were going to be the second coming of Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors Dynasty.
But Orlando and its fans hoped for better than what has been demonstrated so far. Shooting remains the biggest issue facing this team and the most glaring need the team has to address.
The Magic shoot the second-fewest amount of 3-pointers per game (29.8) and make them at the fifth-worst rate (34.4 percent).
In the modern NBA, this is a huge disadvantage.
For comparison, the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks, the top two teams in the Eastern Conference at the moment, shoot 42.4 and 37.2 3-pointers per night and knock down 37.2 percent and 38.3 percent of them respectively. If a team is going to be a low-volume shooting team, they have to make them and the Magic just are not that.
This leads to difficult matchups where Orlando shoots less and makes a lower percentage of threes than the best teams the East has to offer. If not improved throughout the season, this likely could be the downfall of Orlando come late- and postseason play.
Orlando has found a way to survive it. And the team's offense is surprisingly flirting with the top half of the league -- Orlando has not had an offense outside of the bottom 10 in the league since Howard's last season in 2012. But everyone knows this weakness remains.