Orlando Magic Daily Mailbag Volume 9: Find your role

It may seem very silly after the Orlando Magic ranked 25th in the league in defensive efficiency, but this team should be better on defense. They seem to have a lot of the tools necessary to be a good defensive team.

Most observers would say Victor Oladipo and Elfrid Payton have the makings of good defenders. Evan Fournier has the tools to be a good defender. Dewayne Dedmon is already a pretty solid rim protector — when he stays out of foul trouble. As much criticism as Tobias Harris and Nikola Vucevic get as defenders, they did show slight improvement.

On top of all that, the Magic hired Scott Skiles who is known for his defensive acumen as a coach above everything else. So it seems the focus on defense has to produce some results, right?

And if the defense does produce some results that should generate more fast breaking opportunities. I think Skiles sees the youth as a strength and will try to implement what Jacque Vaughn was publicly preaching at the beginning of last season. We saw how that worked, though.

The weaknesses for the team probably remain the same from last year. There are some shooting struggles — although the Magic addresses at least some of those needs in the offseason with C.J. Watson and Mario Hezonja — and the team is relying on players like Victor Oladipo and Tobias Harris to continue to improve their 3-point shooting to help spread the floor.

It is just hard to get a handle on this team as a whole. No one quite knows how Scott Skiles will integrate all the pieces on this team. And, at the end of the day, it is largely the same as last year. This was a 25-win team.

Sitting here today, it is hard to say exactly what this Magic team is going to become and who it is as a team. The fact these questions are so open ended is part of the failure of the 2015 season.

I think the team is better and an identity will emerge this year — Scott Skiles will almost force it. But what that is and whether it can succeed is still kind of hard to say. This team is a complete mystery if it is going to improve as we seem to expect it to.

Next: Playoff forecasts