National Basketball Association

The Orlando Magic just do not work

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 10:05 p.m. ET

Fansided, Philip Rossman-Reich/FanSided via Orlando Magic Daily

The Orlando Magic came into the season with high expectations for their defensive-minded group. All those promises seem broken as the team loses again.

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The Orlando Magic have a fundamental problem.

Maybe that was something everyone knew all along. This was a mismatched roster, overloaded with defensive talent (supposedly) and older, ready to take the step up to the Playoffs.

The bet was clear, be elite defensively and ride that to a Playoff berth.

Yet the problems are clearer than ever now that the Magic have started the West Coast road trip with a disappointing and frustrating 111-95 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center on Sunday.

Perhaps those problems are best summed up in one offensive play and the repeated mistakes defensively.

The Magic were in desperate need for some offense after a dreadful 2-for-20 third quarter. Serge Ibaka got the ball at the top of the key and paused. He glanced to his right where Evan Fournier was wide open and paused. Paused.

One of the team’s precious few shooters was open on the wing as the Magic desperately tried to get back into the game and two of their top players were completely out of sync. Ibaka got the ball to Evan Fournier. He was still open. And he missed.

Process over results. But here the process was flawed.

Just as it seemed flaw defensively where D’Angelo Russell and Timofey Mozgov tore up the Magic in the pick and roll. Or Julius Randle just bulldozed his way to the rim.

The Magic’s defense was flimsy at best. That is what happens when a team gives up 40 points in the first quarter. And the team lacked any physicality to lock down the boards or prevent anything coming near the basket. Orlando tracked the ball and turned players the wrong way, giving up free runs to the basket or exposing their weak side to easy reversals and dump downs.

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This was a game where Frank Vogel commented after the game the team does not pass instinctually. And that is a big deal for a team that has to rely on the pass — to “trust the pass” — to generate offense without a true one-on-one option.

Orlando had 18 assists in the first half and finished with 24 for the game. The team devolved into a parade of isolations and aimless and wild drives to the basket. The Magic earned their 2-for-20, nine-point third quarter. And the deficit that came with it, as the Lakers expanded their two-point halftime lead to double digits.

It is a recurring theme from the Magic. They look brilliant in moments — they scored 36 themselves in the first quarter — and terrible in others. Often in the same game. And it goes on both ends.

The Magic were a destructive force defensively for three weeks in November and early December. Since then they have the 28th best defense in the league. That defensive identity never quite took.

And that leaves the Magic where they are at now.

They are 16-23, and quickly sinking out of the Playoff race. They were keeping their head above water playing .500 basketball, but inevitably the team was going to go in one direction or the other.

It would seem the Magic are headed in the wrong direction now on a three-game losing and losing five of their past six games.

The identity has not taken hold defensively. And offensively, it is unclear what kind of team it will be from game to game or even quarter to quarter.

There is only one conclusion to draw — this team just does not work.

That might have been an easy conclusion to draw from the beginning of the season looking at a starting lineup that could possibly feature two big men known more for their defense, a lack of perimeter shooting, no star to turn to when offense does not work and on and on and on.

The Magic are a deeply flawed team and roster. That part is not new. Perhaps this was all inevitable.

But there was always the hope talent would win out and at least make the team passable. There was always the hope the team would be strong enough defensively to eke out enough wins.

None of those promises have come true.

At the season’s midpoint, the Magic are just not together. The team lacks trust. And that is not a team at all. Certainly not a Playoff-caliber team.

Sunday’s game devolved into isolation plays time and time again, players standing around waiting for someone else to make a move. The ball would stick to one side of the floor and a shot would aimlessly go up. Slightly better players occurred when the Magic tried overpassing in tight quarters.

The defense was never on the same page too. They would guide players to where help was supposed to be and it would not step up to stop the penetration. The weak side rotations never came to help the helper.

Everyone just seemed out of sync.

In large part this season, the Magic have not been on the same page. This group just has not come together the way the team needs them to. And the Playoff goal is slipping away. Four games seem like a far way for a team that has not been able to gain much traction or momentum this season.

There comes a point in every season when a team is who it is. Identities take hold and the season’s fate is set in stone.

The Magic are a team that just are not one right now. They are a team that can will themselves to a victory here or there, but nothing that will last. Consistency eludes them. They just show a flash in the pan here or there. A moment of focus and clarity that shows their potential only to see it vanish the next night — or even the next quarter.

Orlando entered the season with an incredibly small margin for error. To make this one summer rebuild work, the Magic would need all the pieces to fall into place.

They would need the defense to come together and become an elite stopping force. They would need Serge Ibaka to take a step up in his role. Aaron Gordon to take a leap and become a more actualized player. And on down the line.

So far, very few of those things have happened. If they have, only momentarily.

The Orlando Magic do not work. That is the only conclusion now after nearly 40 games this season. This group is not coming together the way everyone hoped.

If the Magic are dead set on making the Playoffs, it feels like only a matter of time before they make another change, forcing expectations and identity on a team and praying it works.