In theory, Desmond Bane was supposed to transform the Orlando Magic. He was supposed to elevate them offensively, both with his shooting gravity and his playmaking. He was supposed to make Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner’s lives easier and allow the Magic to diversify their attack.
So far, this hasn’t happened. Orlando is 3-5, and it ranks No. 25 in offense and No. 26 in halfcourt offense specifically, according to Cleaning The Glass. Compared to last season, Banchero’s usage and touches are slightly down and Wagner’s are more than slightly down, but they are still clearly the team’s primary offensive initiators. Bane, meanwhile, is averaging 13.9 points in 29.1 minutes and making 28.6% of his 3s on 4.4 attempts per game. His scoring and assists have dropped drastically on a per-possession basis and he’s getting 3s up less frequently than he did in any of his five seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies. His usage rate is the lowest it has been since his rookie season.
In other words, Onyeka Okongwu has a point. On Thursday, when asked about the incident that got Bane ejected on Tuesday — he spiked the ball off Okongwu’s head — the Atlanta Hawks big man told reporters that it was “nothing personal,” as he assumed Bane was upset about the way the season was going.
“I can already tell he’s frustrated over there,” Okongwu said. “He’s not having the best year. I’d be frustrated too, if I was in the position [that] he is, watching, respectfully, Paolo and Franz take all the shots.”
If the Magic are going to turn things around, they need to figure out how to best use their new weapon. They gave up four unprotected first-round picks and a pick swap to acquire him, and they did that because they needed someone like him to open things up offensively. On too many possessions, Bane has been effectively a spectator, standing on the perimeter while a teammate tries to create. Orlando has used him a bit as a screener; it needs to lean into that. The team needs to make better use of his ability to make 3s on the move, too.
More generally, the Magic are far too young to look this slow and static. They rank 27th in offensive pace, per Inpredictable, and Banchero in particular has been a ball-stopper.
“I think our guys are looking at trying to find the right play,” Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley told reporters Friday, in advance of its NBA Cup game against Boston. “We’ve just gotta do a better job of finding the right spacing, being [in] our spots at the right time and then understanding, when we put two on that basketball, that we’re moving and sharing. And continue to trust it. And these guys are working on it. That was a lot of our shootaround today. Our film sessions are about those things.”
At practice the previous day, Mosley said that the Magic needed to “let our defense fuel our offense” and Bane said that, coming into the season, he knew there was a “decent chance it gets off to a little bit of a rocky start just because things are new and we’re trying to put so much together in a short amount of time.” Bane preached patience, saying there is “a long way to go” and “I’d rather be playing our best basketball in April or may than October.”
There’s truth to all of that. Most of us assumed that Orlando would at least pick up where it had left off on the defensive end, but it ranks No. 18 on defense, per Cleaning The Glass, and was absolutely lit up in losses in Philadelphia, Detroit and Atlanta. If the Magic were getting more stops, they could get out and run more often, which would take pressure off of their halfcourt offense. With the Grizzlies, Bane did a lot of damage in transition, but he hasn’t been able to replicate that this season. Maybe the root of all of the team’s problems is that it lost touch with its tough, defense-first identity. Maybe, in time, it’ll live up to all of the lofty preseason projections.
It is too soon — and Bane is too talented — to roast Orlando’s front office for its blockbuster trade. Early returns haven’t been great, though, and, one way or another, the Magic need to get Bane more involved.
