Ask any Orlando Magic fan what the Magic’s biggest offensive problem last year was and they will inevitably tell you that it is their outside shooting.
The Magic finished 24th in 3-point field goal percentage at 35.2 percent and 29th in 3-point attempts per game at 31.3 per game. That led Orlando to make the fewest three-pointers in the league.
There is a simple math problem as the Magic try to climb the offensive ranks. Orlando did not take enough threes to even make enough threes.
It is why the team chased after Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in free agency. He has shot better than 40 percent from three in three of the last four years. What he lacked was volume. The Magic were expected again to take relatively few 3-pointers.
Wednesday’s 116-97 win over the Miami Heat seemingly flipped that script on its head. The Magic took 49 3-point attempts, making 18 of them for 36.7 percent.
The raw number of attempts was notable as the Magic took 40 3-pointers in a game just six times last year. They took more than 45 3-pointers in a game exactly once. The 49 3-pointers the Magic took Wednesday night would have been a season-high last year.
Is this a trend or an aberration for the first game?
“I think we talk about the process a ton,” coach Jamahl Mosley said. “Our process is to find open threes if you are available. The first thing that you do, which we have done very well, is we attack the basket. You see when we pick up the pace a little bit differently, we’re able to collapse defenses. We want those guys stepping in and knocking shots down.”
No one should take anything in the first game as a trend quite yet. The numbers were just so eye-popping that they deserved some notice.
But this has been a part of the Magic’s focus all throughout training camp. The Magic have made spacing a major focus of their offensive development. There has been an emphasis on getting to the corners, where the only way to get good shots is by good ball movement.
That is where there was the most eye-popping change.
The Magic were 8 for 22 on corner threes in Wednesday’s game. That 36.4 percent shooting is not so amazing. But the 22 corner threes shows the emphasis on ball movement and spacing the Magic are looking for.
Last year, the Magic averaged only 8.5 corner threes per game. They shot the same percentage at 36.7 percent. The pure volume though means Orlando made five more threes than their 3.1 average corner 3-pointers per game last year.
The Magic’s focus on creating open shots was evident. Of their 49 attempts, NBA.com classified 45 as open or wide open, meaning the closest defender was at least four feet away. Thirty-three of those 49 attempts were “wide open” with the closest defender six or more feet away.
The whole league will have to wait to see if this trend continues. The Magic though showed signs that their relationship with 3-point shooting is changing in a meaningful way. Increasing their attempts should improve the offense, even if their percentages do not drastically improve.
