Trying to make sense of the struggling Orlando Magic

So, the Orlando Magic are something bad this season. They rank 29th on offense, 28th on defense, and in an effort to fix their issues, replaced Aaron Gordon in their starting lineup with Jeff Green on Friday.

Against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday, they eked out a pretty nice win with some of their best ball on the season and a revenge game from Serge Ibaka. Against the Indiana Pacers on Monday, when they mustered all of 69 points, they looked more like the team they probably are.

Inserting Green into the starting lineup has had no material effect on Orlando’s lack of spacing. In three games as a starter, Green has put up scoring performances of four points, 11 points and then three points, with just one 3-pointer on nine tries.

Gordon hasn’t been a whole lot better on the season — both players are shooting about 30 percent from deep — but even then, what does Green do for you over Gordon either now or later? Is every team in the league going to have to learn about Jeff Green the hard way, as their starting small forward? (Maybe, because Doc Rivers needed two tries.)

The Magic were never going to be a scoring dynamo. They hired Frank Vogel and added Ibaka and Bismack Biyombo this offseason, and those are very clearly the makings of a defensive identity. They thought Ibaka was the 3-point shooting and rim protecting unicorn that could stabilize Nikola Vucevic in the starting center role, but that reality hasn’t taken hold yet.

Maybe Vuce is just too bad for even Ibaka to cover for on defense, sort of like Enes Kanter was previously, or maybe things will slowly come along as everyone begins to gel in Vogel’s system. Elfrid Payton is a feisty defender at point and Evan Fournier passable. They’re giving up a few too many 3s right now, but didn’t look too bad in holding the Pacers to 88 points. So this thing might get to being OK.

Then what? We can probably assume that Green returns to bench sooner or later, and that Gordon retakes his place in the starting lineup, because Damjan Rudez certainly isn’t holding that down for you.

But Gordon should be getting minutes at power forward, especially as his offensive skills are still coming into bloom and most of his best stuff is still catch-and-go work. As a small forward on a team with no spacing, the Magic run the risk of masking Gordon’s yet-unknown strengths, or inhibiting their development flat-out.

Let’s be clear: They cannot do that. Gordon is the best prospect they’ve had since the Dwight Howard era — or really just since Dwight Howard.

The same applies on a lesser scale to Mario Hezonja. Last season, poor defense kept him in a minor role, and this season, he’s shooting 30.8 percent from the field. Vogel pulled the plug, giving him a DNP-CD against the Thunder and playing him for just five garbage time minutes against the Pacers.

Hezonja might not be good. He might also be able to improve off last season’s 43.3 percent field goal shooting and 34.9 percent 3-point shooting, and you don’t find out a whole lot about a guy by benching him after an eight-game slump. There was a better argument for it last season, when Victor Oladipo and Fournier both played ahead of him, but you’re just gonna play yourself giving his minutes to Rudez and C.J. Watson.

What the Magic need right now, ideally, is Fournier and Hezonja playing together, spacing the floor around a defensive core of Payton, Gordon, and Ibaka. Hezonja has a long way to go to play himself into the starting lineup, but that’s the best case scenario long-term.

For sure, taking Vucevic’s post scoring to the bench would be a steady loss of some needed go-to scoring, but the Magic are already trying to capitalize on Ibaka’s hidden post tools and they need the shooting more either way. They might be able to lean on more dribble-drive work from Payton, who never really had the ball like that next to Oladipo and around shaky shooters. At least as far as defensive minuses go, Hezonja is easier to hide than Vucevic.

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The Magic would have to figure out how to split minutes between Vuce and Biyombo (their best rim protector so far) and probably that ends in a trade, but it was always bound to be a crowded frontcourt as long as Gordon needed some of those minutes. They can’t be good on offense and defense and play those bigs and develop Gordon and Hezonja all at once. This is a very muddled team, same as it has been for a long time. Something has to give.

At a guess, Vogel’s leanings are towards winning now more so than nurturing young guys, but the Magic need to know where they are. Around this time last year they benched Oladipo, who we once thought was the next big something in Orlando, and the hallmark of this Magic era has been ill-fitting young players and wonky basketball pieces that haven’t stuck.

Benching Gordon spells doom. Don’t do it.

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