Taking a Quick Look at Pre-Season Data for the Orlando Magic

In yesterday's news post, I posted a link to Basketball-Reference's blog, in which Neil Paine did a "data dump of advanced numbers" for all the pre-season games leading up to yesterday. I wanted to take a closer and lengthier look at the statistics for the Orlando Magic because I felt it was at least worth glancing at. Granted, one has to take precaution in examining the stats because they don't mean much but we, as observers, should look at how the players have performed in exhibition play. 

• As I noted before, the Magic (before facing off against the Chicago Bulls last night) rank #1 in offensive efficiency and #5 in defensive efficiency. What I find interesting is that in Pro Basketball Prospectus 2009-10, SCHOENE projects Orlando to rank #1 in offensive efficiency and #5 in defensive efficiency during the regular season. Now again, the pre-season (and the numbers that come with them) means almost nothing but it's an interesting parallel to point out in trying to figure out how good the Magic's offensive and defensive units might be once the games start to count.
• How well has Ryan Anderson performed, offensively? Well enough to sport an Offensive Rating of 118.7 (which is a very good number) with a usage rate of 23.2% - impressive .
• Not counting Linton Johnson, who only logged 18 minutes, Orlando has eight players with Offensive Ratings of 115 or higher.
• There's been a lot of talk about Carter's offensive struggles, and the numbers support the notion - as he has an Offensive Rating of 106.2 with a usage rate of 25.5% - but it would appear that he is starting to find his shooting touch following his last two games on the road.
• Howard has a usage rate of 28.6%, which is the highest on the Magic. Unfortunately for Howard, he's been very inefficient offensively - Offensive Rating of 94.2 - but don't be alarmed. It is pre-season.
• Floor% reveals that the team is likely to score a point 62.9% of the time when Brandon Bass uses a possession (23rd-best).
  

  Floor Percentage = Individual scoring possessions / individual possessions used. Floor % answers the question, "when Player X uses a possession, what is the probability that his team scores at least 1 point?" Differences in quality between a player's Floor% and ORtg are frequently due to the 3-point shot.

• Stop% shows that Dwight Howard has stopped opposing possessions 77.7% of the time (6th-best). Marcin Gortat isn't far behind, at 71.7% (12th-best).
  

  Stop Percentage = (Stops * Tm MP) / (Tm Poss * MP). The % of opponent individual possessions directly stopped by a player through steals, blocks, forced misses, defensive rebounds, and forced TO.

• Head coach Stan Van Gundy has done a good job of balancing minutes for all the players, with the exception of Morris Almond, Anthony Johnson, & Linton Johnson.
• The fact that Johnson has barely seen minutes - when he has, he hasn't done much with them - most likely means that Jason Williams will be Jameer Nelson's back-up.

If you'd like, take a look at the numbers yourself and come up with observations!