If Magic fans were to use word association for Earl Clark, the first word that would probably come out of their mouths? Potential. After languishing on the bench with the Phoenix Suns for two seasons, Clark came over in the Orlando Magic’s trade for Hedo Turkoglu and Jason Richardson last season. And although he didn’t get a lot of playing time with the Magic, when he did see the floor, it became clear that head coach Stan Van Gundy had the makings of a defensive stopper on his hands. With his length and athleticism, Clark showed flashes of a player that could make an impact defensively.

Standing at 6-foot-10 with a 7-foot-2 wingspan, Clark has a unique ability to defend small forwards and power forwards in the NBA. Clark’s interchangeability of quickness and strength, depending on the matchup, is what makes him a versatile defender. The problem for Clark, however, is that he’s a poor player on offense, which negates any of the positives he brings to the table defensively. Clark tries too often to be someone he’s not when he plays — a player that’s looking to score rather than a player that’s looking to defend. That’s precisely the reason that Van Gundy hasn’t used Clark much in Orlando’s rotation this season.

Yet against the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday, Clark got a chance to play extended minutes. Normally Van Gundy pairs Glen Davis with Ryan Anderson or Dwight Howard as part of the second unit in the second quarter of games. But with Howard saddled with foul trouble after picking up his third foul less than 30 seconds into the second quarter and Anderson needing rest after playing the entire first quarter for the Magic, Van Gundy turned to Clark on the bench. At this point in the game, Orlando was losing. But thanks in large part to Clark’s defensive impact, the Magic were able to withstand a lack of Howard on defense.

When Clark entered the game, Orlando was down by seven points at 29-22. By the end of the second quarter, the Magic were tied with the Pacers at 45 apiece. Clark and his defense was a game-changer for Orlando.

In the period, Clark had five points, three rebounds, one steal, and three blocks in a little more than 11 minutes of playing time. Clark made so many plays defensively, it seemed like he was a mini-Howard.

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An emerging storyline this season for the Orlando Magic so far has been Hedo Turkoglu’s renaissance on offense. In 12 games, Turkoglu’s True Shooting percentage is 61.6 percent, which is a career-high. Likewise, Turkgolu’s usage rate is 20.4 percent, which is important to note because it means that he’s been more involved on offense for the Magic, which is a stark contrast from his disappearing act last season (his usage rate in 2011 was the lowest percentage he put up since his rookie year with the Sacramento Kings in 2001). With Turkoglu scoring with efficiency and becoming more of a threat with the basketball once again, he’s aided Orlando to an 9-3 start to the regular season.

In some of those wins, Turkoglu stepped up in crunch time during the fourth quarter, reminding Magic fans that he can still be “Mr. Fourth Quarter” like he was in 2008 and 2009. During the Magic’s four-game road trip, the Portland Trail Blazers Golden State Warriors, and New York Knicks got a stark reminder of Turkoglu’s effectiveness in the final period of games. And the beauty of it, from Orlando’s perspective, is that Turkoglu did damage both by scoring and passing. In essence, Turkoglu was being the go-to guy in fourth quarters by doing what he does best — being a playmaker and making sound basketball decisions on the court. This is the Turkoglu that the Magic need.

Against the Blazers on Wednesday, Turkoglu stepped up as a safety valve for Orlando with his scoring. To set the stage, the Magic led by as many as 23 points in the third quarter. However, Portland put together a spirited rally in the fourth quarter and were able to cut Orlando’s lead down to three. With the Magic trying to hang on for dear life, head coach Stan Van Gundy entrusted Turkoglu during crunch time to help the team weather the storm. Which means that Turkoglu will run Orlando’s best play in the playbook and that’s the 3/5 pick-and-roll. That’s the play that Van Gundy wants to use with the Magic up by three points and needing a bucket.

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On this possession, Turkoglu waits for Howard to set the screen. Turkoglu quickly surveys the manner in which Gerald Wallace is defending him. Turkoglu disregards Howard’s screen and chooses to go to his left. For whatever reason, Wallace is allowing Turkoglu to go to his left uninhibited. Turkoglu takes the opening and begins to dribble penetrate into the lane. At this point, Wallace is behind Turkoglu and LaMarcus Aldridge is cheating towards Howard, perhaps anticipating a lob pass attempt. That doesn’t happen. Instead, Turkoglu — with Aldridge not providing much resistance defensively — makes the layup off the dribble.

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For head coach Stan Van Gundy, his defense-first philosophy is one of the main reasons that the Orlando Magic have won 52 games or more in four seasons under his watch. With Dwight Howard manning the middle, some of the Magic’s defensive tenets are as followed: limit shot opportunities at the rim, don’t foul as to prevent free-throw opportunities, and coerce as many jumpshots as possible. Also, rebounding the basketball and getting back in transition (thus sacrificing chances for offensive rebounds) are things that matter a great deal to Van Gundy. Rarely will you see Orlando try and go for steals, for example, because Van Gundy would rather rely on fundamentals on defense than gamble and be out of position.

Which is why witnessing Van Gundy rely on a zone defense to win a game for the Magic is plain shocking. It just doesn’t happen. Van Gundy doesn’t use a zone because he doesn’t want to nor does he need to. Given that Orlando has finished sixth or better in Defensive Rating since 2008 and has a three-time Defensive Player of the Year at his disposal, can you blame Van Gundy? Yet with the Magic ranked 18th in Defensive Rating entering their contest with the New York Knicks on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Van Gundy decided to go into his bag of tricks and use a rarely-used defensive scheme. With the Knicks attacking the rim, drawing fouls, and racking up points in the paint, Van Gundy went with a zone.

It’s not so much that Van Gundy utilized a zone. With Howard in foul trouble with five fouls and Orlando going neck-and-neck with New York in crunch time, it’s that Van Gundy threw the zone out there at the perfect time. It served as the Magic’s trump card and the Knicks had no answer for it.

And it wasn’t like Orlando’s zone defense was spectacular. New York just generally did a poor job of attacking it. There’s a lot of ways to attack a zone and strategies can vary, whether it’s high school, college, whatever, but some of the basic things that players are taught is to attack the middle and keep the ball moving.

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It’s no secret that the Orlando Magic lack a shot creator on the perimeter. This has been the case since Vince Carter was traded last season, though it was an issue at times even when he was around. The Magic don’t have a LeBron James on the roster, someone that can get them a bucket on offense at any time. Instead, head coach Stan Van Gundy — as stated elsewhere — has to make up for it offensively by creating a lot of pick-and-roll, post-up, or spot-up opportunities. Very rarely will you see Van Gundy call for an isolation play.

Put it this way. Hedo Turkoglu, the likeliest candidate for Orlando to run an isolation play, given that he’s 6-foot-10 and can get his shot off without much resistance from the defense, has been involved in 12 such possessions this season. And that number is a team-high! In isolation, Turkoglu is averaging 0.67 points per possession according to Synergy Sports Technology, which isn’t very good. To compare, James has run 50 isolation plays for himself and has averaged 0.90 points per possession, which ranks eighth in the NBA.

It’s a night-and-day comparison and worth illustrating how the Magic don’t rely on isolation plays, as the Sacramento Kings were the latest team to find out.

SLIDE 1:

Orlando runs so many pick-and-roll variations, it’s hard to keep track of them, but a lot of their plays come out of staggered pick-and-rolls. A staggered pick-and-roll is when an offense sets two screens, instead of one, for the ballhandler to create for either himself, one of the screeners, or someone else. It’s a great pick-and-roll variation to run because it creates extra space for the ballhander to wreak havoc on a defense. On this possession, Glen Davis and Ryan Anderson are the two screeners while Jameer Nelson is the ballhander.

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If there’s one thing that’ll never change for the Orlando Magic under head coach Stan Van Gundy, regardless of the talent on the floor, it’s the coaching. Van Gundy is one of the best coaches in the NBA for many reasons, but one of them is his ability to draw up the perfect play coming out of a timeout. Perhaps Van Gundy’s most infamous play that he drew up came in the 2009 NBA Finals when he was able to create an alley-oop layup opportunity for Courtney Lee out of thin air. Lee missed the layup, yes, but it exemplified Van Gundy’s coaching genius. On Sunday, the Toronto Raptors saw that genius firsthand.

As the Magic propelled themselves to the lead in the fourth quarter thanks to a 20-2 scoring run after trailing by 11 points to begin the period, certain plays were ran to perfection that aided in the surge. One of them is a play called out of a timeout after Orlando began to chip away at their deficit. The score was 89-83 in favor of the Raptors with a little less than six minutes remaining in the game and with Hedo Turkoglu leading the comeback charge, Van Gundy wisely put the basketball in his hands and let him be a playmaker.

SLIDE 1:

What’s fascinating about this particular play is that it’s an amalgamation of certain elements in the Magic’s offensive playbook. Orlando initially sets themselves up in a Horns set, with Turkoglu and Dwight Howard standing at the elbows of the free-throw line. Orlando runs a myriad of play variations in the Horns set. This variation is unique because instead of Ryan Anderson standing at the elbow adjacent to Howard, it’s Turkoglu. And instead of Anderson handing off the ball to a wing player on his half of the court, thus initiating the action on the play, it’s Turkoglu that’s going to run a 3/5 pick-and-roll with Howard.

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Photo by Fernando Medina

Fast break points.

Any team in the NBA, during games, would like to score in transition as many times as possible. But not all teams in the league are created equal, and some of them are better at scoring on fast breaks than others. And it can’t be underestimated the power of capitalizing on transition opportunities.

For example, there are many reasons that the San Antonio Spurs are 37-7 and have the best record in the NBA, but one of them is their improved ability to score on a fast break. In 2009, the Spurs scored 12.7 fast break points per game. In 2010? That number has skyrocketed to 17.3 fast break points per game. It is worth noting that San Antonio has increased their pace from last season to this season, which means they have more chances to score due to a higher amount of possessions, but it’s still a noteworthy jump.

The Orlando Magic, on the other hand, are at the other end of the spectrum.

The Magic have never really pushed the pace since head coach Stan Van Gundy has been roaming the sidelines, usually ranking in the lower half of the category year after year. As a result, fast break points weren’t going to be high for Orlando but they were competent at executing in transition. However, before the blockbuster trades, the Magic were less than competent on fast breaks. In fact, Orlando was dreadful — ranking last in the league with 7.6 fast break points per game.

To put that number in perspective, the next worst team — the Milwaukee Bucks — averaged 9.9 fast break points per game. What makes it worse is that the Bucks play at one of the slowest tempos in the NBA, ranking 25th in pace. Slower than the Magic, yet they were able to muster more fast break opportunities. Thus, it’s no surprise that general manager Otis Smith acquired Gilbert Arenas, Jason Richardson, and Hedo Turkoglu to breathe life into Orlando’s offense, particularly in transition.

It’s worked.

Now, the Magic are averaging 10.1 fast break points per game.

Granted, that places Orlando 29th out of 30 teams in the league but it’s something.

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Photo by Fernando Medina

The 3/5 pick and roll.

At its core, the 3/5 pick and roll with Hedo Turkoglu and Dwight Howard is one of the most devastating plays in the NBA. On Saturday, the Dallas Mavericks’ defense found out the hard way as Turkoglu ripped them apart in the pick and roll, totaling up 17 assists en route to the Orlando Magic‘s ninth consecutive win.

And in 2009, it was the Turkoglu-Howard pick and roll that led the Magic to the NBA Finals. What makes it a potent play?

It starts with Turkoglu.

At 6-foot-10, Turkoglu is a small forward that has the court vision and playmaking ability of a point guard, which puts a lot of strain on defenders that aren’t accustomed playing against an individual with that skill-set. Additionally, because Turkoglu has a height advantage against virtually every opposing small forward, that makes it easy for him to create off the dribble in the pick and roll. Turkoglu can look over his defender, literally, which allows him to find either Howard or Orlando’s shooters around the perimeter. Also, it can’t be understated the chemistry that Turkoglu has with Howard. That adds to the potency of the pick and roll because of that aforementioned synergy.

People talk about Jameer Nelson‘s chemistry with Howard, but it doesn’t compare to Turkoglu’s relationship with the big fella. Ever since Turkoglu and Howard linked up for a game-winning alley-oop against the San Antonio Spurs in 2007, they’ve been communicating in a telepathic manner for the last few seasons.

Turkoglu’s willingness to be a dual-threat in the pick and roll, whether it’s to be a facilitator or scorer, makes it go-to play for the Magic in crunch time. Why? Because opponents can’t hone in one specific option. That’s the difference between the pick and roll with Turkoglu and Howard, as opposed to Vince Carter.

Carter, more often than not, looked to score in pick and rolls. That made Orlando a predictable team down the stretch in games. But with Turkoglu, the unpredictability on offense is back to where it used to be. There are many reasons why the Magic are enjoying a nine game winning streak.

Turkoglu’s return and the revival of the 3/5 pick and roll is one of them.

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Photo by Fernando Medina

Tweaks and adjustments.

For the Orlando Magic, tweaks and adjustments have been made not only with the roster but also with strategy. This season, head coach Stan Van Gundy has made a commitment to make the Magic’s offense less predictable, and the results — even if it was pre-season — have been good.

There’s a lot of new wrinkles offensively for Orlando, but one of them has been the insertion of the “Horns” set. In short, two big men stand at both elbows on the court and set screens for the wing player with the basketball. The play design has lots of potential for success because of the diversity of options. Examples will be provided in a second.

The main attraction of the “Horns” set, however, is that it solves some of the spacing problems the Magic have when Rashard Lewis is at small forward and Brandon Bass is at power forward.

Because Bass is not a stretch four in the mold of Lewis or Ryan Anderson, it’s been difficult for Orlando’s offense to operate seamlessly as it usually does because he doesn’t have three-point range. As such, there were times last year when the Magic would get bogged down offensively because no plays were designed to take into account Bass’ skill-set, which centers around an efficient mid-range game.

That problem has been solved, somewhat.

Let’s take a look.

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Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Over the last three years, the three-point shot has been used by the Orlando Magic as one of the primary weapons of choice in their offensive attack. There are many critics that bemoan head coach Stan Van Gundy‘s dependence of the three-pointer in the Magic’s philosophy on offense, yet they ignore the fact that threes are one of the most efficient shots in basketball — to be more specific, the corner three.

Why take a long two?

It’s no coincidence, then, that Orlando led the NBA in three-pointers made and attempted, while also putting up less shots from 16-23 feet than any other team. It should be noted that the Houston Rockets, noted for their basketball analytics, were second in the latter category. The Magic, too, dedicate themselves to the numbers, so there’s a method to the madness when it comes to their three-point happy ways.

A lot of people assume that the method primarily surrounds just chucking up threes and seeing what happens, but that’s not the case. Orlando makes an effort to seek out the corner three-pointer when executing some of their sets offensively. It’s why the Boston Celtics, in the 2010 NBA Eastern Conference Finals, made sure to not allow the Magic to get those shots.

It’s an easy thing to overlook because nearly everyone remembers the end result when it comes to certain plays. But like Bret “Hitman” Hart, Orlando takes pride in the excellence of execution. There is a grand design taking place when the Magic go through the motions on each possession on offense, trying to find the optimum shot to take as the situation presents itself.

How does Orlando maneuver the offense to create corner three-point shots?

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Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

The Orlando Magic have a number of pick and roll variations in their playbook. This is not a new revelation. Yet there’s one variation, in particular, that has proven to be lethal in specific situations for the Magic and that’s the 1/2 pick and roll with Jameer Nelson and Vince Carter.

Carter’s career-worst swoon in January was well-documented, as he was unable to do much of anything on offense. However, Carter’s former head coach with the New Jersey Nets — Lawrence Frank — paid a visit to Orlando in early February as a guest of head coach Stan Van Gundy to share his knowledge with the coaching staff and provide a different perspective on things. The irony is that Van Gundy intended for Frank to come sooner, but things couldn’t be worked out with both parties in either December or January. Talk about perfect timing, eh?

Hence the addition of the 1/2 pick and roll in the middle of the regular season, which was a play that Carter was familiar with from his time with the Nets.

And in the fourth quarter of a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers in late February, the 1/2 pick and roll was unveiled by Van Gundy.

Boy, did it work.

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