Wait… The Orlando Magic are Good? Breaking Down a Hot Start
Photo credit: Brandon Dill/AP
If before the season started you were asked what team would remain undefeated a week into the season, there would be several good guesses. You can’t go wrong with the defending champion Lakers, with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Their Staples Center roommates, the Clippers, are a great guess too. Maybe the Milwaukee Bucks, who have dominated the regular season for the past 2 years, or the Denver Nuggets, who have churned out wins like it’s nobody’s business. But whoever you may have guessed, the point is that it probably wasn’t the Orlando Magic. But one week later, and the Magic stand alone at 4-0. Now sure, they’ve played the winless Wizards twice and the rebuilding Thunder once, but they also beat the reigning Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat. And there’s always something to be said about being one of thirty undefeated teams in the league.
But how have they done it? What’s gone well for Orlando, and how have they wound up 4-0? The Magic entered the season in NBA purgatory, too good to tank, but nowhere near good enough to compete, and yet they find themselves undefeated. Through Shaquille O’Neal, Penny Hardaway, Tracy McGrady and Dwight Howard, the Magic never started a season this well, so how did Nikola Vucevic and co. do it? Here, I’m going to break down some of the key things that have sparked this start for the Magic, and why they all bode very well for Orlando’s future.
Markelle Fultz is Good(!)
One of the major drivers of Orlando’s early season success is Markelle Fultz. Averaging 18.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game through the start of the season, Fultz has emerged as a pleasant surprise for the Magic. He isn’t the player the Philadelphia 76ers thought he’d become when they drafted him first overall in 2017, but he’s become a good player nonetheless. The bulk of his offense comes from playing inside out. He attacks the basket a lot, not opting for many jumpers. 40% of his shots this year have come from 3-10 feet from the rim, while only 15.4% of his shots have been from 3. He isn’t like many guards in today’s NBA, who rely on their shooting to create offense. Rather, he uses his physical gifts and basketball IQ to make winning plays while playing downhill. Fultz has become one of the NBA’s more effective driving guards this season, and he’s put on display a number of things that have helped the Magic to their hot start in the early season.
Here, you can see he uses his body very well to get great positioning inside. After Aaron Gordon sets the screen for him, Mo Harkless tries to recover and disrupt Fultz, but Fultz uses his body to quite literally push Harkless out of the picture and get right up against Jimmy Butler for the layup. It’s rare to see a point guard so strong who can use his body like that. He doesn’t just rely on his strength, though. He’s become quite skilled in manipulating his defenders with changes of pace and ball control. Playing the game at one’s own speed is essential for a point guard to succeed in the NBA. It allows them to see the floor properly, generate the offense they want, and minimizes their mistakes. Fultz has started to become quite good at this.
Here, he gets the switch onto the larger Deni Avdija, and starts to attack the rim with some force, making Avdija backpedal to keep up with him. Then, he stops on a dime, and gets an opening for a shot as his defender falls out of the picture. For a guard that doesn’t generate his offense from his shooting, skills like these become all the more important. And while the jumper is still a ways to go, and it may never get there, Fultz has proven that not only can he find success without it, but it can result in winning basketball.
Fultz’s passing has also impressed, and he’s coming off of a double digit assist game against Oklahoma City, the first double-double of his NBA career. As the games have gone on, Markelle has impressed with his very keen passing ability, which goes in tandem with his basketball IQ. He combines these two attributes to generate easy looks for his teammates, which is absolutely necessary for a team that can be as offensively limited as the Magic.
As Aaron Gordon drives to the rim, he draws a lot of defensive attention, but isn’t in position to capitalize. The Thunder also leave Fultz pretty much unguarded, as Lu Dort is ballwatching instead of properly rotating. Fultz immediately reads the situation and cuts to Gordon, grabs the ball, freezes Vucevic’s man by staring at Evan Fournier on the opposite wing, and delivers a pinpoint no-look pass to Vooch, wide open at the top of the key. This quick-time read and react ability makes Fultz a threat on and off the ball, even if his shooting is limited. And when he plays next to a center as offensively talented as Vucevic with such a complementary skillset, you can get easy buckets like this:
A lot of what’s made Orlando so successful comes from the stellar play from their starting point guard. Not only has Markelle Fultz proven he still deserves a spot in this league, but he’s driven a lot of legitimate winning basketball. You can’t tell the story of the Magic’s success without him.
The Second Unit Steps Up
Wanna hear something crazy? The starting 5 for the lone undefeated team in the NBA (Markelle Fultz, Evan Fournier, Dwayne Bacon, Aaron Gordon, and Nikola Vucevic) has a -21.5 net rating on the season. But if you replace Bacon with Terrence Ross, that jumps up to an absurd +56.0. And a nearly all-bench lineup of Cole Anthony, Ross, Michael Carter-Williams, Gordon and Khem Birch has posted a +28.5 net rating. This is all to say that one of, if not the biggest reason for the Magic’s success has been their bench. I’m going to focus on 2 players in particular, Ross and Carter-Williams, to show how the bench has impacted Orlando’s play on both ends this season. Ross has a +15.0 net rating while MCW is at +20.1, but they’ve gotten there in very different ways. For all regular rotation players, Ross has the team’s best offensive rating (116.7), while Carter-Williams ranks first in defensive rating (87.7). These two come off the bench and drive winning for the Magic, but in two very different ways.
The Human Torch is Torching
Let’s begin with Ross. Averaging 21.0 points per game while putting up absolutely scorching shooting splits (51.8/43.5/94.1), Ross looks like he’s returned to his 2018-19 form, when he was one of the most electric sixth men in the league. As the team’s best perimeter threat, his shooting gives the Magic offense an entirely new dimension when he’s on the floor, but in past years, it’s been almost exclusively out of the catch and shoot. He’s always been a great off-ball cutter, using his instincts and his athleticism very well to get easy buckets at the rim. This year, he’s shown some growth in his game on the perimeter. Watch these two clips:
Rather than running around off the ball hunting for shots, you see Ross playing off of screens with the ball in his hands, adding a dribble to his action before taking a shot. It may seem small, but adding that dribble to his game is really big. If he only looked for shots off the catch, he’d be much easier to guard. Actions like this benefit shooters greatly, as it makes them much more unpredictable with the ball in their hands. Just look at Duncan Robinson. He’s an all-world shooter, sure, but his dribble game coming off of screens and dribble handoffs makes him even more dangerous. Adding that new level to his game has propelled Ross to new heights this season. Last year was a down year for Ross. He missed a lot of shots he normally hits, but defenses knew how to guard him too. His offense was predictable. This gives him a new weapon to pick apart defenses with. As Orlando’s second most potent offensive threat, this development has been crucial.
A Lockdown Lineup
On the other end of the floor, a couple of Orlando’s players have been stellar; namely, Michael Carter-Williams and Aaron Gordon. The Magic have the personnel to be a good defense, with length all across the roster, and generally have been under defensive coach Steve Clifford. It goes under the radar, though, how good some of their individual defenders are. Watch this play from Carter-Williams:
Carter-Williams is an incredible defender, combining size and length with fantastic defensive instincts. Not many players in the league could block this shot from Herro. Since he’s arrived in Orlando, MCW has been one of the league’s most underrated defenders. He’s a hound on the ball and has incredible awareness of the floor. Plays like these remind you of how impactful good defenders can be. In fact, the top 5 rotation players on the Magic in net rating are Carter-Williams, Khem Birch, rookie Cole Anthony, Ross, and Gordon, their bench lineup. Not one above average offensive creator in that group, but their defense makes them really, really good. Birch is consistently underrated as a rebounder and hustle player, and Anthony has held up surprisingly well. Gordon is one of the league’s best defenders, and can guard anyone from small forward, to even some centers.
Gordon has a very high defensive IQ, and very quick hands. He gets the strip here on Adebayo by being able to stay in front of him while using his body to get into Bam, exposing the ball for an easy steal in transition. So often are Gordon’s offensive limitations the first thing mentioned in any discussion, that his defensive prowess is often forgotten. Funnily enough, this can also be said about Orlando as a team. Fultz, Gordon, Carter-Williams, Birch and the injured James Ennis are all plus defenders, and Vucevic, Bacon, Mo Bamba, and Anthony are by no means horrible. Yet the only thing that’s ever mentioned with the Magic is their offensive mediocrity. Coach Steve Clifford has molded this team into a very solid defense, with very strong rotations and communication that the plus defenders on the roster help make work.
Gordon, Birch, and Carter-Williams are all great in this play. Gordon helps right off of the screen from Mike Muscala, making Hamidou Diallo pass it, blowing up that action. Kenrich Williams then tries to drive, but is met by both Gordon and Carter-Williams, who provide the perfect levels of help to encourage another pass to Theo Maledon, a low percentage shot that MCW is able to contest. The whole time, Birch is active in drop coverage, intimidating the offensive players from getting to the rim and playing great positional defense, juggling multiple defenders throughout the possession. This is the mark of not only high level defenders, but a very well-coached defensive team. Props to Steve Clifford for instilling these defensive fundamentals and helping the players reach their defensive potential.
Lineups with Vucevic, Gordon and Carter-Williams have produced an insane 74.1 defensive rating this season. Replace Vooch with Ross, and it’s 82.9. Neither Vooch nor Ross are known as elite defenders, so it really speaks to the ability of Gordon and MCW that they’re churning out genuinely elite defense so far. These numbers are, of course, not sustainable over a full season, but the Magic will remain a great defensive team as long as these players are on the roster.
Will the Magic finish the season 72-0? No. Will they muster a top 6 record in the East? Probably not. But they’re 4-0 right now, which is not only cause to celebrate for the Magic, but worth taking a closer look at. There are legitimately good things happening in Orlando. Markelle Fultz is a real starting NBA point guard. They still have one of the league’s most talented centers. It looks like they’ve relit the Human Torch, and their defensive personnel and execution is still top notch. This team is good, folks. When Jonathan Isaac returns next season, they’ll be even better. Even if the road to contention is murky (and oh boy, is it), there has to be more optimism within the Magic that they’re a little better than NBA purgatory, a fate no team wants to fall into. Ultimately, time will tell. But let’s enjoy the ride.