You might think that the Orlando Magic, given their young roster and talented lob-passer of a point guard in Jameer Nelson, would have ranked as one of the NBA's better alley-ooping teams in the 2012/13 season, but you'd be wrong.
On Tuesday, Brian Martin of NBA.com ran down the league's alley-oop stats from that season and showed that the Magic had just 14 lob dunks, tying them with the Phoenix Suns for the sixth-lowest figure in the league. On the plus side, Orlando had 14 times as many alley-oop jams as the San Antonio Spurs.
To no one's surprise, the Los Angeles Clippers led the league with 148 alley-oop dunks in 2012/13, edging the Denver Nuggets by one slam for top honors.
In the video above, I compiled all 14 of the Magic's alley-oops from their first post-Dwight Howard year. Have a look.
While the Magic ought to aim for 25 alley-oop dunks in the season ahead, given that the team is celebrating its 25th anniversary, reaching that target will be difficult with DeQuan Jones and Josh McRoberts no longer in the fold. Perhaps the addition of Victor Oladipo, an athletic marvel who excels in the open floor, can compensate for their absences.
Through four preseason games, Orlando has one alley-oop slam to its credit: Nelson hit Kyle O'Quinn on a fast break in Friday's loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.