This has Magic Fans VERY Concerned …

This has Magic Fans VERY Concerned …

This has Orlando Magic fans really, really concerned. Despite two consecutive wins after a rough start to the season, the Magic’s blockbuster trade for Desmond Bane this off season is not exactly shaping up to be what they thought it would be. Is it time to be worried about Desmond Bane? Is he going to get his shooting together? And moreover, if and when he does, what does that mean for this Magic team who seems to be rolling? We’re going to talk about that here today on Magic Digest. First, let me welcome you all back to the channel. I’m your host, Sam Rodriguez, and I want to thank everyone who has been super super active in the comments lately. I absolutely love seeing what y’all have to say about the Magic so far this season. So, make sure you keep that up. And for those of you who are not in on the action quite yet, make sure that you are subscribed to the Magic Digest channel. We are slowly but surely building up this community here. But first, I need that 67.5% of you who are watching and still unsubscribed to just go ahead, hit that button, turn on those notifications so you don’t miss a video with us here. Like I said, I’m going to cover all 82 games for you guys, and hopefully a deep postseason run. But first, we’re going to talk about Desmond Bane and how he can contribute to that run if and when he can get his shooting back on track. So, that being said, let’s just hop right into that here. I know that in previous videos I have said that I’m not exactly worried about Desmond Bane um per se. Uh he’s a very talented player as we’ve talked about here on Magic Digest. We did an entire breakdown of Desmond Bean um over the summer. So you can go ahead and check that video out if you’re um interested in a more in-depth analysis. But we’re going to get into the nitty-gritty here today, too. Um, his three-point shooting this season is just completely unprecedented uh, in attempts and percentage, right? 4.7 attempts is the least amount that he’s shot since his rookie season and he’s shooting an all-time low and just really bad 25%. This is a career 40% shooter. Now, I understand that it’s only six games. It’s a very, very small sample size. Um, but this is really a multiaceted issue at this point. So, let’s just look at the box score uh from last night’s game against the Wizards to start. The Magic beat them 125 to 94. Uh, love to see them hold a team under 100 points. Um, and this score is mostly in part to some fantastic games from Paulo and Fron. They combined for 53 points. Loving that 16 added from Wendell. But the glaring issue with this box score is the five points from Desmond Bane. And it would be one thing if he was just chucking and missing, but he only had six attempts in the game, which includes one shot in the entire first half of the game. I had to say this because that word malpractice is exactly how I feel. You go out and you get this three-point shooter and he’s only getting six attempts per game. It’s completely unacceptable at this point. Going back to that box score, why is Jaylen Suggs taking more threes than Desmond Bean is taking shots? It’s really just um a little bit difficult for me to wrap my head around um at this point in time. Um but after watching the game back a few times this morning, there’s a few issues that I feel like we can point to, right? So, some of it’s very simple. Some of it is just that he’s missing his shots right now. Um, on wide open attempts, he is currently shooting 18.2% compared to the 46.9% he shot last season. Uh, granted, this is on 1.8 attempts versus the 2.4 attempts from last season. Um, but that kind of just speaks to the point that we’re talking about, right? Shooters have to shoot in order to get in rhythm, right? So, uh, I’m going to go back to some graphics that I have shown you guys in the past, but this is Bane’s, um, shot chart from last season. These straightaway threes here, um, are sort of his bread and butter, right? And it’s funny because last night, that was his one and only shot in the first half. Uh, he kind of just pulled up and I was annoyed. Um but then I remembered that he does look for these particular shots and uh obviously right he shoots 42.5% from that area and he took 212 of them last season. Now if we compare that to his shot chart from this season he’s shooting 25% from that area uh on only four attempts. Right? Again this is a sixgame sample compared to an entire season. But if my math is correct here, that means he’s on pace for only 54 shots from this spot and he took 212 last season. So, um that’s really a huge issue. And similarly, let me go back in that right corner where we do see him waiting a lot. That has been like one of my biggest gripes um with the Magic’s offense or with Desmond Bane’s game, however you you you want to spin it. He’s just waiting in that corner um a ton. And we’ll get into that a little later, but he shot 38% from this spot on 54 attempts. Let’s go back. Only two attempts currently, so he’s on pace for half of that. Uh, again, I know it’s a very, very small sample size compared to an entire season, but like I said, shooters have to shoot. So, the Magic really need to find Bane these opportunities. Now, I don’t expect him to have as many. Um, you know, Bane played a fair amount without uh John Morant last season and and to be honest, the Grizzlies don’t really have a Paulo or a Fron in that way. So, um I imagine that there’s some getting used to um the Paulo and the Fron aspect of it all for Desmond Bane. And I imagine the same goes for Paulo and France, right? It it does look like they are trying to get adjusted. There’s a lot of ISO for Paulo and Fron. Uh, and again, given their very, very dominant performances last night, I understand going with what works, right? So, maybe this particular game is a poor example because they were outstanding last night against the Wizards, right? Um, but the team doesn’t seem to be looking for him, like I said. Uh, now, another noticeable thing from yesterday’s game uh was the defense played on Bane, right? I believe it was Keshan George uh who was doing a very very fine job guarding him and given that the Magic are pretty bad at three-point shooting as a whole. You have to wonder if the game plan is simply just to make sure that Bane, who everyone knows is a threat from three, regardless of what’s happening this season, those shots are going to fall, right? If the game plan is just to make sure that Bane doesn’t shoot, and if that is the game plan, then they did a fantastic job. Um, now another thing about Bane is that he’s a very, very good three-point shooter in transition. Uh, right, as we can see from that shot chart, uh, his favorite spot at the top there, 42.5%. I imagine many of those shots are in transition. Um, but the Magic did not start the season out well getting out in transition. To be more specific, they’ve only taken 22 threes in transition through six games. Um, but what’s great is that they’ve been improving, right? They had 24 points in transition just last night and Mosley spoke to this uh after the game. He said the pace is our defense getting stops to get out and run. As we can continue to get stops, we can get out and run. Half of the second and third quarter uh was our stops to get out and run. It was not just that we were trying to go at a break neck speed. That’s an interesting term. uh it was that we were trying to get stops and convert offensively. So, if they can continue to improve that aspect of their game and playing to Bane’s strengths, uh we might just see improvement all around. They’re doing very well scoring in the paint. So, it’s really just a matter of putting the pieces um all together. this uh game plan of the Paulo and the Fron ISO, it may work right against the Hornets and the Wizards, but when it comes to playing the better teams in the league, you are absolutely 100% going to need your best three-point shooter to get involved in this offense. He needs to shoot more than six shots a game. He needs to get back to attempting five to six threes a game in order for him to get in that rhythm. And I think that’s why it’s a little frustrating uh that he had that Statland last night because you would assume in a blowout um like the game was last night that he would be able to sort of get those reps in. Um but that was not the case. everybody else ate, which is fantastic. But you don’t go out and make this trade, give up four first round picks uh to not incorporate him into your offense in the way that he is successful at. Um if that were the case, then you should have just kept your team the way that it was and attempt it again this year uh fully healthy like they are. Um because it’s not just their offense that’s suffering this season so far. It’s their defense as well. Like I said, it seems like they’re rolling a bit. These uh wins coming against these sort of easy teams are are really great reps to get in. You can see right here, this is their schedule through Thanksgiving or right before Thanksgiving. And you do have some tough teams in there. Uh Atlanta, that’s a great game uh for the Magic given that Trey Young is going to be out. Hopefully they can get some get back. Uh when I was doing my uh prediction on how they would do with the schedule, I definitely had one of these losses to Boston. So, we’ll see how that goes. But then, you know, you go down the line there and you have New York, you have Houston, Golden State, the Clippers, New York, and Boston again. So, we’re really really going to see what the Magic are made of, how they’re going to get Desmond Bane involved in this offense a little more. And I do want to give the coaching staff just a little bit of credit because in that second half, you did start to see them running plays for Desmond Bane. And we really, really need to see more of that, but it has to happen sooner. And I really have no idea why Desmond Bane did not check into the game until there was 3 minutes and 40 seconds left in the second quarter yesterday. Um, but I really just genuinely feel like that cannot happen. He needs to be a focal point of the offense. That is why he is here. He is here to shoot threes and bring that three-point percentage up, which is something that the Magic are still struggling with, right? So, do me a favor. Drop a comment below. Let me know how you think they’re going to do um in their next however many games. It’s about 10 games, right? Uh and let me know if you think that this is a coaching issue, this is a Desmond Bane issue, or this is a Paulo and Fron and the entire team just kind of adjusting to this new play style. And as always, make sure that you guys are subscribed to the Magic Digest channel. You’re not going to want to miss a video with us. And I will catch you all next time.

The Orlando Magic have now won two consecutive games after a slow start to the season, but there are still some glaring concerns. Sam Rodriguez breaks down Desmond Bane’s continued shooting woes and how the Magic can get him more involved in the offense.

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Magic Digest is a YouTube channel dedicated to covering all the latest news, trades, reports, and rumors about the Orlando Magic. We provide in-depth coverage of game highlights, player performances, and analysis of team strategies. Our channel features discussions on key players like Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Jalen Suggs, and Jonathan Isaac, along with insights from Head Coach Jamahl Mosley and President Jeff Weltman. Stay tuned for all the exciting updates and engaging content on everything Magic!

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