Magic being held back by one key shortcoming

Teams are shooting at an average clip of 35.8 percent from three this season on a historically high rate of 37.5 attempts per game.

When one team shoots five percentage points fewer than the league average, they are essentially handicapped. 

Case in point: the Orlando Magic. Jamahl Mosley's team is dead last in the NBA in 3P%, converting on only 30.4 percent of its shots from deep. The Magic are shooting 9.5 percent points worse than the top-ranked Cavaliers, who make 39.4 percent of their threes from 41.1 attempts per game.

In other words, Orlando generates 32.4 points from threes, while Cleveland generates 48.6 from the same shot. Boston, who leads in attempts, generates 53.4 points from threes — 21.1 more than Orlando. 

One doesn't have to be a math wiz to conclude that the Magic are behind the eight ball. It's nearly impossible for a team to succeed when its top conference rivals outscore them so prodigiously from the same shot. On Tuesday, for example, the Magic shot 5-of-28 from three against the Cavs, who went 19-of-32. The outcome? A 40-point loss. 

Orlando's broken offense

Another red flag for the Magic is that, despite ranking last in 3P%, they're not last in attempts. Orlando attempts 35.7 threes per game, which ranks No. 21 in the league. In comparison, the Nuggets attempt the fewest threes (31.4) but convert at the third-best clip of 38.1 percent. As such, they extract the three-point shot without going bombs away.

The Magic need to bolster their shooting this offseason, be it via free agency or trades. It doesn't help that their two best players, Franz Wagner (30.8 percent) and Paolo Banchero (29.3 percent), are subpar shooters from three, and no other rotational player is shooting more than 36 percent.

Orlando's subpar shooting was similarly exposed in last year's playoffs when it lost to Cleveland in the first round. To fix those woes, the Magic signed Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who shot over 40 percent from three in his last two seasons in Denver. However, KCP has been a mighty flop for the Magic, shooting 30.7 percent from deep in 57 games thus far.

There's little doubt that the Magic have a talented roster that can eventually be a force to reckoned with. But they need to surround Wagner and Banchero with shooters to compete with the titans of the East.