The Step Back has been born from the aesthetics and traditions of the Hardwood Paroxysm Basketball Network. In the past, Hardwood Paroxysm has produced a massive stand-alone season preview. This year, that preview effort has been rolled up into the launch of The Step Back. The Step Back’s writers and illustrators have prepared a hefty deep-dive into each team, built from multiple smaller sections. This year’s theme is television comedies and each section is named after some of our favorite sitcoms. For links to all 30 teams, as well as details about the focus of each section, check out our guide on how to read this preview. Community By Philip Rossman-Reich (@omagicdaily) Rebuilds are hard. They take time and a lot of patience — from players, coaches, owners and fans. They are fraught with peril, dependent on luck and require steady progress with a vision for what the team will one day become. Any pitfall or misstep can throw the whole thing off and set the franchise back years. Deviation from the plan can have dire consequences. This new age of “Processes” and tanking have created a new set of rebuilds. Teams patiently collecting assets, dreaming of championships or bust at the end and the willingness to take some short-term pains to make long-term gains. The question is how long can fans and ownership suffer those pains? Rebuilding teams have begun to feel those pains and deviate from their plans. But where the Philadelphia 76ers parted ways with Sam Hinkie and still got the top pick to cement and clarify their massive rebuild, the Orlando Magic did not have that luck. Their steady progress — from 20 to 23 to 25 to 35 wins in the four years of the rebuild — was not enough. The Magic demanded progress. And so they undertook one of the more interesting and hard to explain summers in the league. Young players like Tobias Harris and Victor Oladipo were spun off for cap room and the final year of Serge Ibaka’s deal. That cap space was used to sign Bismack Biyombo — and one year of Jeff Green at $15 million. All this to signal clearly the rebuild was over and the expectation was to win. The Magic were pushing their timeline. The league’s luckiest franchise in the Draft Lottery had crapped out in four trips to the Lottery and three top-five picks. The team had no direction. This summer was about giving the team some semblance of direction — at least one Scott Skiles failed to deliver before his sudden resignation — and the hope for some forced results. Even if that caps out at the playoffs. The Magic are looking to avoid the longest playoff drought in franchise history and simply get in. From there, they will figure everything else out. Like a rebuilding team though, this feels like a mismatched roster. Serge Ibaka seems as if he is on the decline and has not proven he can be a strong offensive option. Whether the Magic and new coach Frank Vogel can rescue his defense and return it to its former glory — like from the Playoffs this past year — is a question they have to answer. Whether the Magic can run a frontcourt that features Nikola Vucevic and Bismack Biyombo coexisting or accepting whatever role Vogel sorts out for them is also a question. As is who ends up scoring the ball on a team without a clear offensive option, outside maybe Vucevic. It is hard to figure out where everything will come from this team and whether everything will come together defensively like the Magic are banking on. This is a team tired of rebuilding, desperate to win and doing whatever it takes to make a splash and get there. The Magic certainly have the talent to make the playoffs, but also a razor thin margin for error. At least unless Aaron Gordon, Evan Fournier, Nikola Vucevic, Elfrid Payton or Mario Hezonja take a major step up as young players sometimes do. There are just so many questions. But the Magic demanded change. They yearned for success. Even if their careful rebuild did not deliver results as quickly as they anticipated, they seemed on the right track in many ways. Then again, five years is a long time for any team to wait. Especially the fan base in a smaller market. And so the Magic made change, forced identity and cashed in their bets. They are all in for the Playoffs, whether this team and organization are ready for it or not.

Third Rock From the Sun By Chris Barnewall (@ChrisBarnewall) Evan Fournier finds himself in a role that he’s never been in during his short NBA career — a key player for his team. For the majority of Fournier’s NBA career he’s been tasked as a bench player, a sixth man expected to shoot the ball well and maybe provide a little bit of creation. However, with Victor Oladipo being traded on draft night the Magic have increased Fournier’s role drastically, and perhaps foolishly. Orlando gave their wing a five-year $85 million contract over the summer, thus locking him in on a pretty expensive deal even in this new NBA climate. There’s obvious value in what he brings, but is he good enough to make his new role worth it? Fournier is not a bad player by any means. He earned that contract by being a consistent source of solid play for Orlando over the last two years, and provides something Orlando is in dire need of: shooting. This Magic team doesn’t just lack shooting. It doesn’t exist. Of players likely to start for Orlando, Serge Ibaka might be their second best shooter from three-point range and if that’s not a scary enough then consider that Mario Hezonja, pegged as a good shooter, only shot 34 percent from deep last season. Fournier is a good player, but the pay day came from their dire need for a player that can hit water as they fall out of the boat. Of course, the smart NBA teams are the ones that are willing to pay for what they need. Nobody is criticizing Orlando for that, and it’s not Evan Fournier’s fault that Orlando has put themselves in this situation where they’re going to rely on him as much as they will. Still, there’s a high level of concern with Orlando thrusting Fournier into this role. If there is one area Fournier has improved on every season it’s efficiency. Every year his number of attempts increases, but his field goal percentage has never once taken a dip. He shot 46 percent from the field and 40 percent from three-point range last season. He’s shown to be more than just a shooter, with an increase in free throw attempts every year he’s been in the NBA and a great knack for finishing when he gets to the rim. How he manages to do this may be the most impressive part of his game. Fournier plays his best basketball in situations where he’s catching the ball, usually on a kick out to the wing or arc, and being able to choose how he’s going to attack his man. If the rotating defender gives Fournier the space to put the ball on the floor he’ll do this and dribble right by his man for easy points, or a chance to kick it right back to the corner. However, play too far off Fournier and he’ll destroy opponents from deep. He’s gotten so incredibly good at attacking the rotating defender, and his numbers have increased as a result. Funny enough, Fournier’s greatest strength also happens to be his biggest weakness. When you play him exclusively in this role as someone meant to attack the weak side, and take advantage of the rotating defender he’s incredible. The problem is when you start getting him more involved with the main offense, where he’s shown a tendency to struggle. Orlando liked to give Fournier the ball in late game situations, and when tasked with creating for himself or others with an entire defense focused on him it led to many contested shots. Fournier is very good at creating offense for himself in certain situations, but when it comes to creating for other players he’s not reliable. He’s not going to be another point guard on the floor for Orlando, and if they ask him to do that he is going to fail. Where most people can’t agree on Fournier is his ability as a defender. Nobody expects him to shut down the opposing team’s greatest scorer, but the eye test usually says that he’s at least passable. However, in the midst of Orlando’s awful defense last season, Fournier was a notable weak spot and the Magic actually gave up 106.8 points per 100 possessions when he was on the floor. Compare this to the 100.8 when he was off the floor and that’s a noticeable difference. However, lineup information is very context driven information and it could be as simple as Fournier played a lot of his minutes with other bad defenders. With Frank Vogel taking over as coach, and a jump in defense to be expected, we should finally know our answer on how capable a defender Fournier is. If he can improve then that defense may be Fournier’s saving grace this season, because his offense is likely to take a hit. With Victor Oladipo and Tobias Harris gone, Fournier remains one of the few creators left on the team, and it’s unlikely the Magic gave him that contract to stay in the same role he’s played so far. Fournier is going to start, and they’re going to be feeding him the ball quite a lot on offense out of necessity. Just imagine, at some point this year Orlando is going to run out a lineup of Elfrid Payton-Evan Fournier-Aaron Gordon-Serge Ibaka-Bismack Biyombo and they’re going to ask Fournier to be the perimeter scorer for them. That is dangerous. The sample size we have now tells us that this is not the proper role for him. He’s still young, and there is potential for improvement, but this could end up being a good player in a bad situation.

Gilligan’s Island By Willy Raedy (@WillyRaedy) “You gotta admit,” said Mario Hezonja, before taking a long drag on his cigarette. “The sunsets are nice here.” He had found one waterlogged pack floating amongst the wreckage and had spent the rest of the afternoon drying them in the sun. After successfully defending them from the active hands of Damjan he leaned back, content with his work. “Man, why you gotta smoke, man? Put that thing out. We gotta stay focused on the season. This is our year,” said Aaron Gordon. His agent had been telling him to take a bigger leadership role. As the “future of the franchise”, he had a responsibility to set the tone. But after a week of beach workouts and no sign of rescue, the other players were starting to bristle at his naive idealism. “What makes you think were gonna have a season at all?” spat Elfrid Payton, the black mass on top of his head getting crazier by the day, proving that this team might have a ceiling but Payton’s hair never will. “You better stay in your lane big fella,” added Jodie Meeks. “Matter of fact, why don’t you go do one of those behind-the-back, windmill, 360, under-the-legs, front-flip, hoverboard dunks you’re so famous for and grab me a coconut. I’m thirsty.” “Nobody say nothin’ about coconuts,” said Biyombo picking up an empty shell and trying to break it with his hands. “If I eat one more coconut I’ll go insane.” “We are wasting away. It’s only been a week and I’m already down to a six pack,” complained Ibaka. “I need some meat!” he yelled throwing a shell at a passing bird and missing it by a few feet. A light bulb of desperation went off. Everyone was up, grabbing shells and firing them at the unsuspecting Albatross. But it was too far away. Each and every shell fell helplessly into the water. “If only they’d fly closer,” said a deflated Vucevic. “Maybe we could sit Elfy down on the beach and wait for a bird to come lay some eggs on his head,” said Meeks, receiving a coconut to the back of his head for his ingenuity. Jodie lunged at Elfrid and it was a few moments before their teammates could pull them apart. Tensions were high. You could feel the team coming unglued with the stress. “We can’t get them to come to us but we can go to them,” muttered C.J. Watson, almost to himself. The vet hadn’t said anything since the crash but he spoke now, turning to his teammates with authority. “We keep missing the birds cause we’re all in one spot. If we spread out along the perimeter we’ll cover more space. The more space we have, the better our chances of hitting something.” So now there was a plan. During the day, everyone spread out along the coast waiting, hoping a bird would fly by within range. The big men, Bis, Serge, Vucevic, Gordon and Green, were responsible for collecting the coconuts and getting the shells to the shooters. It worked, but only up to a point. Some nights they feasted on several downed seagulls but there were too many times when everyone went to bed hungry. They couldn’t last like this and they knew it. Everyone was sitting around the fire after long, unsuccessful day and the talk had turned serious. It was the sixth day in a row with no meat and the big men were late, somewhere in the middle of the island collecting coconuts. “We’ve got to do something,” said Fournier who had brought down three birds, two more than anyone else. “We’re trying but it’s not working.” “There are just too many mouths to feed,” said Watson. A chilling silence descended as everyone considered what that statement implied. Just then, the five big men came storming up to the fire. They were out of breath and they looked terrified. “We found a skeleton at the back of this cave. It was surrounded by thousands and thousands of coconut shells, piled all the way to the ceiling,” panted Green. “And it was wearing this,” added Serge, throwing a tattered and faded jersey near the fire. Number 99. A prominent M.P.L.S. arced across the front. It looked ancient, from another world. “What is it?” asked Gordon, his voice shaky. “It’s a George Mikan jersey,” I said. As the only surviving media member and a relative weakling, this was the first time I had anything to offer the group. “Well, what does it mean?” Gordon continued. “It means collecting coconuts isn’t enough anymore.” There was a mix of concern and confusion so I continued. “Look, it’s simple analytics. We have to be more efficient. Bigger people use up more resources and we don’t need five people to collect coconuts. We obviously can’t lose any shooters cause we’re hitting too few birds as it is.” When I had finished, everyone was looking at the big men or down at the ground. Gordon still seemed confused but Ibaka turned and looked me in the eye searching. He stared at me for a long time before speaking. “And what do you do? How do you help?” “Hey, don’t get mad at me for stating the obvious,” I said, defiantly looking back. But inside I felt like my stomach was climbing up through my esophagus. No one moved. No one spoke. It feel like an eternity until C.J. Watson started pulling grasses. Without a word he showed us the straws in his hand, one shorter than the rest, six in total. Perfect Strangers by Matt D’Anna (@hoop_nerd) Ten Word Analysis: Aaron Gordon is a four. Aaron Gordon is a four! TeamSPACE charts are based on mapped clusters of shot activity. These areas are affectionately called Hunting Grounds, because they are the areas on the court where a player hunts for shots — and successfully scores most often. TeamSPACE takes the Hunting Grounds of all five players in a lineup and puts them on the court together — because, you know, they have to share that physical space, and there is only one ball. In the past, it was one color per player; which meant that blending colors represented overlapping spaces for shot activity. But this time around, these are not your ordinary TeamSPACE shot maps. Each lineup is analyzed in the aggregate — one color! — and that unit is compared that unit to the rest of the league. So you will see a persistent red layer on every chart, highlighting the league’s Hunting Grounds from last season. The most prolific locations should come as no surprise: the paint, the corners, most of the top of the arc, and a couple of dabs at the foul line and top of the key. So…how were these lineups chosen for each team? In the past, it’s been about projecting the starting lineup, estimating the most used lineup, or even designing the “most favoritest” lineup. This year? It’s the these charts represent the “most interestingly feasible” lineups….what? That’s a loaded phrase, so let’s unpack it a bit. The goal is to identify the collection of five players on a team that could potentially play together, and if they did, the offensive results could be glorious. Ideally these lineups aren’t too far-fetched, but also slightly off-kilter and confusing to an opposing defense. While this type of analysis is not conducive for assessing defense, somewhat reasonable decisions are attempted to be made. So while it’s tempting to just put all the best shooters together…how realistic is it (outside of Houston, at least)? And, full disclosure: I favor some stretch in my lineups. It not only provides plenty of high-octane potential, but getting stretchy is also on par with current league-wide trends. Each TeamSPACE chart has a couple of other sitcom-related features: Family Matters: You’ll notice a series of Jaleel White’s across half court. Each lineup is scored on a scale of 0-7 Steve Urkels for how well it matches league-wide trends. Remember, there’s seven league Hunting Grounds (right corner three; at the rim; left corner three; foul line/top of the key; right wing; middle 3pt; left wing). A lineup gains points for matching each area; it loses points for messy excess shot activity. Odd Couple: “Most interestingly feasible” is obviously debatable, so in order to account for some of those decisions, you’ll see Oscar and Felix on each chart. Often, there are players that are in the lineup…and maybe/probably they should not be. They get the Oscar label. And, there are those players that are out of the lineup…and maybe/probably should be included. They are the Felix for their team. And briefly, a word about data. These strange visual displays are based on last season’s shot data, weighted by made buckets — so rookies and season-long injuries are sadly excluded. This analysis is nothing without the help of Darryl Blackport, and the research materials available at Basketball-Reference and NBA.com. Further, these charts feature some of the best logo re-designs I could curate from the ol’ Information Superhighway, including Dribbble.com and Pinterest. I made none of the logos; I merely selected some of my favorites. Enjoy!

Freaks and Geeks By Matt Femrite (@FattMemrite) 17.6. That was Serge Ibaka’s usage rate last season, according to Basketball-Reference. Usage rate is an estimate of the percentage of a team’s plays used by a player that ended with a shot, free throw, or turnover when he was on the floor. Twenty percent is league-average, and after Ibaka arrived in a trade with Orlando that sent Victor Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova, and Domantas Sabonis to Oklahoma City, it’s possible he surpasses that mark now that he’s without Russell Westbrook (31.6 usage rate) and Kevin Durant (30.6). From what we’ve seen from Ibaka throughout his career, expecting a usage above 20 is understandable. He’s been an above the rim threat both on offense and defense. Over his seven-season career, 12 percent of his shots have been dunks (league average was five last season), and he’s led the league in blocks per game twice. It’s tempting to see Ibaka’s athleticism and wonder what he’d be like with more post ups, pick-and-rolls, and whatever else provides more scoring opportunities in the paint. Ibaka’s shooting range also leads to higher expectations. He’s taken 42 percent of his shots from 10 feet to the three-point line over his career, and scored well above-average at 46 percent. League-average field goal percentage from that area is typically 40, which explains why teams are attempting more threes and less long twos, but Ibaka’s made defenses pay for conceding what’s typically an inefficient shot. He recently added the three-point shot to his arsenal, too. During the 2012-13 and 2013-14, seven percent of Ibaka’s shots were from beyond the arc, but that jumped to 24 percent over the last two seasons. He’s a career 36 percent three-point shooter, league average, but struggled last season at just 32. That’s less painful when he’s capable of playing center, where long-range shooting is uncommon. On the flip side, with higher usage comes more shot creation and distribution. With Durant and Westbrook, Ibaka’s shots have been spoon-fed. The percentage of two-pointers assisted across the league is generally in the low-50s and mid-80s for threes. Over Ibaka’s career, his twos were assisted 74 percent of the time (83 percent last season), and 98 percent from three. He also hasn’t shown signs of making plays for others. Among players who logged at least 15,000 minutes in their career and had a usage rate over 15 percent, Ibaka ranks dead last in assist percentage (3.3) and assists per 100 possessions (1.0). It won’t be any easier when Orlando lacks the shooting to ease decision-making. Of the 179 players who averaged over six three-point attempts per 100 possessions last season, just six play for the Magic. Some don’t appear to be key rotation players (Damjan Rudez, C.J. Wilcox) while others have potential positional overlap (Evan Fournier, D.J. Augustin, Mario Hezonja, and the injured Jodie Meeks). Meanwhile, the frontline of Ibaka, Jeff Green, Aaron Gordon, Nikola Vucevic, and Bismack Biyombo has mediocre to no shooting, but given their salaries and/or youth, there will be a minute crunch forcing the Magic to play super big at times. It also hurts that Orlando’s starting point guard, Elfrid Payton, has yet to be a scoring threat outside the paint. That’s why the Ibaka from Oklahoma City could fit fine with Orlando. His defense should help the Magic finish in the top five as a team, but post-ups for Ibaka would clog an offense bound to have multiple non-shooters on the floor. Given their personnel, Orlando needs his shooting to open driving lanes for guards like Payton and Fournier, and offer enough space for Gordon and Biyombo to roll to the rim. For Vucevic, Ibaka’s skill set should complement him nicely on both sides of the floor. Regardless, Ibaka should have the opportunities to expand his offense. After all, Vucevic was the only player left on Orlando to post an above-average usage rating last year at 26.8, but Orlando’s simply the wrong team for that experiment. Besides, plenty of players are looked at positively for playing within themselves. Tyson Chandler, for example, has been paid very well for anchoring a defense while strictly a lob threat on offense. During his prime, that made him something of a unicorn, and now several lob threats exist today. For now, Ibaka’s skill set remains unique. Power forwards who can shoot and make the occasional play for others are percolating across the league, and they’re getting paid, but very few offer the mix of spot-up shooting, excellent rim protection, and positional versatility. It’s obviously fine if Ibaka morphed into a 20-point, 10-rebound player with terrifying defense. That’s the player Orlando’s looked for ever since losing Dwight Howard. But it’s perfectly acceptable to provide the same production as in Oklahoma City, so long as the three-point shooting returns to pre-2016 levels. If that happens, Orlando has a shot at the playoffs, and a massive new contract waits for Ibaka next summer.

Everybody Loves Raymond By Chris Barnewall (@ChrisBarnewall) Entertainment on the basketball court isn’t everything. When it comes to the Orlando Magic this season they’re going to be one of the rougher teams to watch with a lot of questions and not many answers about fit. However, that does not mean this a roster full of unlikable jerks that nobody can cheer for. This team has some fun personalities like Mario Hezonja, Nikola Vucevic, and Serge Ibaka. But none of those personalities are as relatable as Evan Fournier. Okay, so the first thing everybody needs to know about Evan Fournier is to never google his last name. Just, whatever you do for all that is holy, do not google Fournier. It will lead to nothing but sadness, despair, and bleach for the eyes. Now that you know that, it’s fun to know that Evan Fournier is very aware of the fact that you shouldn’t google his nickname. So aware that his nickname on Twitter, and across much of the Internet is “Never Google” which is really fun to tweet during games. “NEVER GOOGLE WITH THE CLUTCH BUCKET!” It’s also given Fournier a very fun Twitter presence. He has fun with his name, telling followers and the uninitiated, to Google his name. Unlike me Evan Fournier enjoys knowing that people suffer from this. That may sound mean, but in fact it’s funny. https://twitter.com/EvanFourmizz/status/769322344460476416 Fournier’s Twitter presence got even better this offseason when NBA2K was releasing the models and faces of NBA players. When they got to Fournier, well, it didn’t look very much like him and he took exception to that. What followed was a very fun set of Tweets where he asked his followers what they thought, and that was immediately followed by him asking his followers to stop roasting him. Here it is guys! What do you think?

Thanks to @Ronnie2K @NBA2K pic.twitter.com/nkuHTw1T2l — Evan Fournier (@EvanFourmizz) August 26, 2016 The next one saying that I look like an unemployed reggaeton artist on 2k17 is getting his ass blocked :'( — Evan Fournier (@EvanFourmizz) August 26, 2016 NO! I am NOT dropping a mixtape soon! Stop it people. — Evan Fournier (@EvanFourmizz) August 27, 2016 They did not stop, and French national team teammate Rudy Gobert got in on the fun as well making Fournier’s 2K face his Twitter avatar. Gobert followed this up by telling everybody to change their Twitter avatars to a picture of Evan Fournier’s 2K face. Of course, Fournier took this all in stride and added some fun to an otherwise dull offseason. Who is the guy with my name and jersey on #2k17 ? — Evan Fournier (@EvanFourmizz) August 27, 2016 The Magic aren’t going to be a very fun team to watch this year, but they’ll be worth keeping an ear out for to see what Evan Fournier is up to. He’s likable, entertaining, and every once in awhile when he has a big game it’ll give us a chance to yell out “NEVER GOOOOGLEEEEEEEE” and isn’t that the whole point of social media anyways? Okay, maybe not, but the point is that Fournier is an interesting personality on a team devoid of entertainment from a basketball sense. These are the players that add a spark in seasons that can be pretty dull without them. If anything else, be sure to give him a follow on Twitter and remember. Do not google Fournier. Just don’t do it.