Orlando Magic: How they can get back to the playoffs

The Orlando Magic enter the final stretch of the regular season with plenty of work to do to ensure they make it back to the postseason. Here’s how they can do it.

The Orlando Magic have most of this coming week off after the All-Star break, not returning to action again until Friday evening. This provides them with ample time to game plan for the rest of the regular season, and to get over the injustices that came their way during the weekend celebration in Chicago.

Once they resume play, however, every game will be important, as they are clinging on to the eighth seed in the East right now, with the Washington Wizards gaining some ground on them in recent weeks. Perhaps trading away one of their own players has helped them to improve, and this is something the Magic should be wary of if they want to add to their own roster.

Whatever happens, we can safely say at this point that the first half of the season did not go to plan for the franchise. They have yet to get into a winning groove, and injuries to key players such as Nikola Vucevic and Aaron Gordon at the wrong times have hampered their ability to be competitive every night.

The Magic will also have to make a run for the playoffs without Jonathan Isaac, the best young player on the team but who looks set to miss the remainder of the regular season through injury. His absence through a knee injury could have been worse, and it certainly could have ruled him out for a lot longer than it looks like it will, but that is scant consolation to them at this point.

As you can imagine, there is no quick fix to making the Orlando Magic better again, and there is no one area where simply turning things around will lead to more wins. The final 30 or so games will be a balancing act of trying to do enough of the right things on any given night to pull out a win. Let’s examine the three biggest areas that will determine whether they make the playoffs or not.

3. Get several players performing again

The Magic got career years out of Vucevic and D.J. Augustin last season, while Gordon and Khem Birch turned in their most impressive campaigns to date as well. The same could arguably be said for Terrence Ross. So far this season, however, nobody except Evan Fournier is having close to what could be defined as a career year.

The fact he is the Orlando Magic’s most consistent (and probably best) player not only says a lot about where they’re at right now, it doesn’t sit brilliantly with a lot of fans either. Vucevic is still averaging 19 points and 10.8 rebounds per contest, but he has not been as consistently brilliant as last season when he was named an All-Star for the first time.

Gordon too has had some great games, and then followed them up with some below-par efforts while battling injuries, although the controversy surrounding the Slam Dunk contest may spur him on to new heights once the regular season picks back up. It would be great to get more consistency from both of those guys, but the player the Magic should be looking to get involved more is Ross.

He is not nicknamed “The Human Torch” for nothing, and last season was in the conversation for Sixth Man of the Year. He came off the bench, knowing his role as an offensive microwave and hitting 38.3 percent of his seven attempts per game from deep. This lead to him averaging 15.1 points per contest, a career high.

More than that though Ross served as the release valve offensively both for the second unit and alongside the starters. Offensive play is not the Magic’s strong suit, in much the same way it was not last season. It is no surprise though, that they are even uglier so far this campaign, and the underperforming of Ross is a key reason for this.

His 13.4 points per game isn’t a huge drop off from last season, but the 32.2 percent he is shooting from 3-point range most certainly is. His confidence looks low right now, and the team need to change that. Other than this, if Markelle Fultz could show more of the game that he displayed earlier in the season, then the Magic would be in a good place to win some games and solidify their position as the seventh or eighth seed for the postseason.

2. Win some key games

A feature of the Magic making it to the playoffs last season was producing some memorable performances against contending outfits. They swept the season series with the Los Angeles Lakers, and beat the Houston Rockets and eventual champion Toronto Raptors as well. They even essentially punched their ticket to the postseason with a win away from home against the Boston Celtics.

So far this season, their best win has probably been over the Lakers again, away from home, or versus the Philadelphia 76ers in the Amway Center, with the 76ers having an awful record away from home themselves this season. They may have won their last two games before the All-Star break (over the Atlanta Hawks and Detroit Pistons), but they’ve lost to inferior opponents some too.

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Of their remaining 27 games, the Magic will face the Brooklyn Nets three times. This is huge, because the Nets hold the seventh seed, and there are currently two full games separating them in the standings. They simply have to win at least two of these contests, although going for all three is obviously the goal.

There is hope though, as ESPN gives the Orlando Magic the fourth easiest remaining schedule left to play. This is good news for the organization, with a four-game road trip the longest remaining time they’ll spend away from Orlando. They will see the Minnesota Timberwolves, Chicago Bulls and Charlotte Hornets twice more each, as well as playing the Sacramento Kings, Cleveland Cavaliers and Knicks as well.

So while the key games last season came to be defined by pulling out upset wins over better teams, this time out it simply means taking care of business. The potential is there to get on a nice run and build momentum, just as they did 12 months ago. Teams like the 76ers and Celtics are waiting too, but if they can win against inferior opponents, it won’t matter.

Look for the two remaining games against the Indiana Pacers to be really important here too. The Pacers are a good young team, and have the potential to annoy opponents in the playoffs. They are still in the process of re-integrating Victor Oladipo, and could be picked off if the Magic catch them on the right night. This could lead to more valuable wins.

1. Rediscover their defensive form

The most positive sign of all for the Orlando Magic as they head into the most crucial part of their season, is how they rank defensively. They have built their identity around this, and to start the season were hovering in or around the top five in this category. There was some slippage, but now they are back up to seventh (107.4).

This despite sitting in 19th (113.7) in the last 10 games leading up to the All-Star break, as horribly offensive play coupled with a regression defensively lead to them going 3-7 over that period. At this stage last season the Magic were able to turn to Birch and free agent Michael Carter-Williams to give them the required boost on this end.

Both players are still with the team, and both of their roles have increased since then because of injury too (when they are not out injured themselves, as has been the case for Carter-Williams). So they must now look to different ways to not only turn the tide over the next 10 games, but ensure they finish the season as close as possible to the top five in this category.

Center Mohamed Bamba is where they should be looking as somebody who can make a difference. With Isaac going down, he was expected to step up and expand his role, and while that hasn’t happened he has shown some improvements defensively. The Magic have an excellent defensive rating of 101.4 when he is on the court.

The problem is how bad they are offensively when he is out there, as the 101.6 offensive rating they post would be the worst in the league by some distance if taken as the team’s average for the season. We know they are a poor offensive team, and it would not be a bad idea for head coach Steve Clifford to double-down on going all out defensively more often.

Vucevic has turned himself into an average defender, and yet never gets the credit for doing this. If he could bring some more of this, then between himself, Birch and Bamba, the Orlando Magic would have an interior presence for 48 minutes every night. They have to stop playing Vucevic and Birch together though, as this is clearly not working.

Luckily some teams with designs of getting a high lottery pick lie in wait, and if the Orlando Magic can clamp down on them, then perhaps their poor offensive play will still be enough to scratch out some wins. They’ll have to hope it is, because flipping the switch defensively is what they will be hoping leads them back to the playoffs once more. It is their best chance of doing so.