By a mile, this year's Magic offense is the worst in team history (-6.8 points/100 possessions worse than league average). The gap between this year's Magic's offense and the team's second-worst offense (1.7 points/100) is as big as the gap between second and seventh.

regarding this afternoon's team-account tweet about the it having its "highest" DRtg ever, that's true, but relative to league average, this group has been pretty much OK on defense: just 0.8 points/100 worse, which is the 12th-worst mark in team history.

by far the worst defensive team in Magic history was the 2003/04 squad--the final Tracy McGrady year/first Steve Francis year--which was 7.5 points/100 worse than league average. That group allowed 110.4 points/100 when league average was 102.9

the lesson is not to use raw efficiency ratings, but instead to compare them to league average.

anyway, here's every Magic team ever. I drew a janky red arrow pointing to this season. Again: worst offense by a mile, but despite high raw DRtg, it's actually mediocre relative to league average and franchise history.

another way to look at it is this year's Magic team is as bad offensively as the franchise's first Finals team was good offensively. Margin of 6.8 points/100 relative to league average is identical, just in different directions, obviously

there's a broader discussion to be had about how the game has changed over time, one I'll let much more intelligent people get into if they want. But here's how the league's average offensive rating has changed since the Magic's inaugural season.

(all data in this thread via @bball_ref)