fans are concerned about with Wagner and his game<\/a>, Wagner is still a dynamo in transition. He is still someone who can squeeze into any space and score with deft footwork while at full speed.<\/p>\nWagner is at his best when he is getting downhill. When he has a head of steam behind him, no defense can stop him. He can weave through defenses with his Euro step and step-through moves. He can stop or side-step to get open and hit floaters. Increasingly, he can stop quickly and hit short mid-range jumpers.<\/p>\n
Everything Wagner seems to do even in the half court is built on the idea of pushing the ball downhill. It is his secret weapon.<\/p>\n
While the Magic get a lot out of Wagner, quite obviously, getting Wagner in transition is still one of the biggest issues. Getting any transition play has been a challenge for the Magic. <\/p>\n
Despite being so good at forcing turnovers and being disruptive on defense, the Magic played at the lowest possession count in the league last year and were a below-average team in transition.<\/p>\n
Orlando relies on Wagner’s troublesome 3-point shooting because they are in the half-court so much. One of the hopes for the upcoming season is that they can unleash Wagner in transition more with the spacing of better shooting and more players eager to push the ball upcourt.<\/p>\n
The potential of that has been on full display throughout Germany’s exhibition games. It was on full display in Wagner’s 29-point, six-rebound showing in Germany’s 95-78 win over Spain on Saturday, the team’s final exhibition game ahead of Eurobasket.<\/p>\n
Wagner did not settle for threes like he did in Thursday’s overtime win — although he made one of two, and the one make was a pump-fake into a leaner from the top of the key. He attacked at every opportunity he could get.<\/p>\n
Nowhere was his potential to get downhill more apparent than in transition. <\/p>\n
Wagner’s 29 points were not from any crazy dribble moves or long scoring binges. They were from simple plays, getting ahead of the ball and filling a lane to the basket. They were from the lane and with the defense scrambling to stay in front of him.<\/p>\n
Wagner can score in a lot of ways. But the Magic have often struggled to unlock him in transition. That is about to change.<\/p>\n
Wagner is an ace in transition<\/p>\n
This is not simply an anecdote based off one game. Most of Franz Wagner’s biggest highlights come in transition. <\/p>\n
His whole rhythmic dribbling is meant to get players off balance so he can attack the paint with speed behind him. That is where Wagner is most effective.<\/p>\n
Wagner scored 1.15 points per possession in transition according to data from Second Spectrum. He averaged 4.6 transition points per game, trailing only Paolo Banchero’s 5.6 points per game.<\/p>\n
Wagner is one of the many Magic players who are very effective in transition.<\/p>\n
But as a team, the Magic struggled to get out on the run. Orlando averaged only 13.8 fast-break points per game, 25th in the league. This is despite being second in the league in forcing turnovers with a 16.8 percent opponent turnover rate.<\/p>\n
Orlando averaged only 1.11 points per possession in transition, according to data from NBA.com. That was 24th in the league. Their 17.9 transition possessions per game was 26th in the league.<\/p>\n
If the Magic are looking to improve their offense, turning more of these turnovers into easy points is a clear way to get better. That is something the Magic hope will happen.<\/p>\n
The Magic could be in line to change their transition<\/p>\n
The belief is that the Orlando Magic will be able to play a bit faster next season. They should be looking for more transition opportunities. And that could unleash the best version of Wagner, where he can get space going downhill in the open court.<\/p>\n
The return of Jalen Suggs will help the most.<\/a><\/p>\nSuggs is someone who constantly looks to push the pace and put pressure on defenses in transition. Particularly off the turnovers he creates.<\/p>\n
The Magic had a pace of 99.0 possessions per 48 minutes with Suggs on the floor last year. It was a team-low 96.3 with him off the floor.<\/p>\n
While Suggs is good at pushing the pace, he is not great at scoring in transition. He scored only 1.08 points per possession in transition this year on 3.4 transition possessions per game. His decisionmaking in transition can be spotty.<\/p>\n
Adding more transition weapons will help. Desmond Bane should help spread the floor and be another pull-up threat on the fast break. Tyus Jones off the bench should be a smart decision-maker, too. He scored 1.18 points per possession on 1.8 transition possessions per game last year.<\/p>\n
The Magic are not going to become a speedy team overnight. But they should be set up to play faster. And that should put Wagner in position to use his best weapon: His downhill attacking.<\/p>\n
That is among the many things he has displayed during his run with Germany so far. Wagner has always found a way to score efficiently, even with his 3-point shooting questions. The Magic have another part of his game that they must continue to unlock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Germany is trying to build a defense like the Orlando Magic’s defense. With few center options available to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-105559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}