Orlando Magic will struggle as they gain trust on defense

The Orlando Magic are trying to build their defense up. But building trust will take time, as the Cleveland Cavaliers proved to them Wednesday.

117. 156. 102. 38. Final

Kevin Love flung a blind pass across the length of the court to LeBron James as if he were a wide receiver running a streak pattern.

In football, that pass is a difficult throw. An exercise of trust for the receiver to turn around, adjust and make a play without tipping off the cornerback. The play can as easily get caught as it is intercepted. That trust between quarterback and receiver to make the right play is integral to a successful offense.

On this play, James made the adjustment. Evan Fournier tried to undercut the pass and pick it off. He was too late. James caught it and laid it in.

Here, in the starkest form, was the difference between the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers returning virtually everyone from last year’s roster and an Orlando Magic team with a new coach and a bevy of new players. Not to mention three players on the shelf with injuries early in training camp.

Even though it is early in the preseason, the Cavaliers showed the Magic on Wednesday in a 117-102 victory at Quicken Loans Arena exactly how far the team still has to go.

The Magic’s second preseason game was far from perfect. It may not have been a progression from Monday’s first game, in fact.

Orlando’s identity has yet to take hold. The Magic still seem tentative and hesitant on their rotations, especially when put under extreme pressure.

Anything positive to take away cam in brief glimpses and snippets. Individual plays here and there.

The overall impression for the Magic was this is a team perhaps still fighting off bad habits from previous years and still understanding the team’s principles and defensive schemes.

That will certainly lead to some ugly play. Some unsure play. Especially when the other team has LeBron James, a player who exploits every weakness even when he plays at half speed.

Orlando’s defense looked largely like it did last year. Players played off their opponents trying to protect the lack of rim protection behind them. They switched instead of fighting through screens. The defense did not swarm and rotate and collapse and close out as a unit. Orlando will have some switching in their lineup, but some of the switching created poor matchups for Orlando.

In other words, the conclusion following Wednesay is the Magic are a long way from that point.

There were moments for sure.

The Magic seemed to snap back to some attention in the second half after trailing by 26 points at halftime. The fast-break opportunities decreased as Orlando’s offensive ball movement improved and they stopped taking bad jumpers and committing turnovers.

Mario Hezonja had a nice sequence where he made multiple efforts with Iman Shumpert trying to isolate him. But he also had a sequence where he overran a closeout on Mike Dunleavy, Jr. and saw Dunleavy run past him for a dunk.

The Magic had plenty of sequences where the perimeter players were too far off and allowed him an easy sightline to pass to a cutter or another player. When the Magic did put some pressure and collapse into the paint to dig out a roller, the team got stops.

Orlando talked a lot about being able to increase pressure with the rim protectors behind them. That was not evident. Instead, the Magic seemed passive switching even 1/5 pick and rolls.

Following the game, Frank Vogel lamented his team’s inability to respond competitively to the Cavaliers’ first punch. The Magic’s somewhat conservative defensive approach was like blood in the water to the Cavaliers’ aggressive style.

The style the Magic played is the style of defense of a team that does not have complete trust in each other. The Cavaliers were swarming.

This is not how the Magic want to play. They want to apply pressure and dictate where the offense goes. They want to use the rim protectors as a back stop and a menace, but not as something to over rely on.

Wednesday, the Magic were not doing much of that.

Certainly part of the problem is being without three starters — and three good defenders at that. Elfrid Payton, Serge Ibaka and Aaron Gordon were all out Wednesday, but appear close to a return (two extra days of rest Thursday and Friday should further help their recoveries). Their returns will complete this team and give them more weapons to install and run their defense.

At the same time though, they are new players to integrate into the roster. They have all missed virtually all of practice to this point.

Like on offense, the Magic’s success is dependent on every player trusting each other to execute. Just like they have to trust that their pressure will slow the offensive player enough to allow for the defense to recover and shift or to give them the time to recover.

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This trust does not come overnight. Everyone recognizes this.

All the players on the team recognized before the season that building chemistry would be critical to their success. And they would have to do it quickly when the regular season begins.

This game was a reminder of how far that work has to go. There is still a lot of work to do to build that trust in the system and to execute it properly and aggressively.

Next: Frank Vogel challenges conventional rebounding wisdom

Orlando still has plenty of time to correct it.