They could use a little Magic in Orlando, or else this year’s squad may go down as one of the worst shooting teams in the history of the NBA.
In the era of the three-pointer, no team has been as inept behind the arc as the 2025 Magic.
Going into the NBA All-Star break, not only were the Magic nearly three percentage points lower than the next-worst shooting team in the league, but their 30.6% mark is the lowest the NBA’s seen in 12 years.
To put that into context, in 2013, not a single team in the league averaged more than 30 three-point attempts a game. In fact, only two teams shot more than 25 a night: the Knicks and Rockets, who each attempted 28.9.
This season, EVERY team in the league shoots more than 30 threes, with Orlando ranking 19th with 36 deep balls each game. Even the least-interested three-point shooting team takes 31.4 per night. And those Denver Nuggets run their offense through the best point-center the game of basketball has ever seen, in Nikola Jokic.
As for Orlando, it’s only gotten worse as the season’s gone on. In both December and January, the Magic shot less than 30% from deep (28.3% in Dec, 29.8% in Jan).
Only four teams have dipped below 30% for an entire season in the last 25 years, and none since the strike-shortened 2012 season, when the Charlotte Bobcats did it. Those Bobcats just so happened to go on and post the worst record, percentage-wise, in the history of the league.
Fortunately, there are still a few months left for Orlando to pull a rabbit out of their hat, or at least start getting some lucky banks.
If the Magic could start hitting shots, it would go a long way to how far they go in the playoffs. In the 22 games they’ve managed to shoot better than 32% from three in a game prior to the All-Star break, they’ve gone 17-5. That would be the equivalent of a 64-win season over the course of 82 games.
Several of their starters have been shooting near career-worsts this season, too. Paolo Banchero’s 30.3% mark is below the team average. Franz Wagner’s 31.3% clip is his second-lowest season in his four years in the league. And Jalen Suggs was shooting 8 points less than he was last year before missing the last nine games before the All-Star break.
The numbers say there’s nowhere to go but up. And with the Magic still contending for a first-round bye in the playoffs even while shooting this poorly, any improvement could go miles towards being a true contender to the hierarchy in the Eastern Conference.
The post Magic’s 3-point shooting reaches historically ugly levels appeared first on ClutchPoints.
