In January, the Orlando Magic have slipped rather dramatically and incredibly. They have lost seven of their last eight games entering Wednesday’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers and have fallen out of the Playoffs for the moment. Even coaches though are recognizing the difficult schedule upcoming in February and March.
Everyone knows they need to right the ship soon and end the slippage, particularly on defense, that has occurred since mid-December.
Scott Skiles has always built his teams on their defense. That part should not change. And that is something the Magic are focusing on and trying to correct.
The offense though is a much more alarming shift downward in January.
The Magic have fallen to the sixth worst offense in the league at 100.8 points per 100 possessions. In January, Orlando has the worst offense in the league at 93.6 points per 100 possessions, nearly 2.5 points per 100 possessions worse than the next team. Even an average offense might get the Magic a few more wins and soften this slide.
In this stretch, the Magic have struggled to move the ball and get quality shots. The ball is getting stuck and the team is trying to attack one on one more often. This is not how the Magic built their strong offense this year.
Orlando went from the 13th best offense in the league on New Years’ Eve to where they are now. The fall has been sudden and dramatic.
There are multiple culprits for the Magic’s slide, Evan Dunlap of Orlando Pinstriped Post diagnosed two of them:
As ever, offense is much easier to quantify, so we’ll direct our focus to that end of the floor. Two of Orlando’s cornerstones have taken nosedives which correspond to the team’s offensive putridity in recent weeks: Nikola Vucevic is shooting just 45.9 percent from the floor for 15.1 points per game in the new year, while Tobias Harris stands at a frigid 39 percent for 9.5 points per game. Before the calendar turned to 2016, Vucevic was shooting 53.2 percent for 17.3 points per, with Harris converting 47.4 percent for 14.4 points. Harris’ slide is particularly galling, given that he leads the team in minutes in 2016; his per-minute scoring has dropped nearly in half, and it’s fair to wonder weather Skiles ought to keep him on a shorter leash.
There was at least one easy fix — get Elfrid Payton back into the lineup healthy. He has returned as a starter in one game and that had little effect. He still seems to be working himself back into the swing of things.
The fix most fans want for the team is to add Aaron Gordon to the lineup. Gordon would bring some much-needed energy to the group and maybe get them off to a better defensive start. Gordon though does not add much offensively. Channing Frye, for his limited offensive production, does spread the floor and theoretically give players more space to work.
How valuable that is when the team is struggling to work and play together is questionable.
A healthy Victor Oladipo playing like he has been offensively since the Elfrid Payton injury also could help the offense at least create raw production.
Really the Magic need to get back to their principles and run their offense. they need to get back to moving off the ball and moving quickly off passes and executing those passes crisply. It is a very fine-tuned and complicated offense that can be thrown off. But when the Magic run it effectively they are deadly.
It would also help for the team to get some stops and get out in transition more. The Magic’s poor defense has seemed to create a reverb loop for the team. It does not help them generate easy offense and the poor offense leaves the team discouraged on defense.
Orlando has a lot of work to do to right the ship. While defense is still a major issue the Magic need to make a priority to fix. The offense is just as bad and even worse statistically for this team during this recent slide.
