Signed in the offseason to provide the Orlando Magic with staunch post defense, Bismack Biyombo has not quite lived up to expectations so far — and it may be time to reevaluate his place in the rotation.
As the Orlando Magic’s season unfolds, many of the team’s tendencies have progressed (or regressed) to the mean.
The team has started to win like they are supposed to – with defense. The team’s defense is performing much closer to expectations than it was at the beginning of the year, gradually climbing the statistical leaderboards to reach where it currently sits in the top 12 in points allowed per 100 possessions (down from the top five in the past week).
Stats around the league as a whole have begun to stabilize around the league because of a growing sample size, and Magic fans should feel optimistic about most of the team’s trends at this point in the season.
But there is one surprising blemish – Bismack Biyombo has been underperforming on defense. At least in some key areas — Biyombo is still 15th in the league with a 2.8 defensive box plus-minus, according to Basketball-Reference.
Frank Vogel has made a few rotation changes over the last couple of weeks that seem to work around the weaknesses Biyombo has been showing — defending post-ups, bogging down the paint on offense, and defending away from the basket. And the results have been good so far.
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