Orlando Magic Daily
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Five takeaways from Orlando Magic Summer League

By Philip Rossman-Reich

SOUTH BEND, IN - FEBRUARY 11: Jonathan Isaac #1 of the Florida State Seminoles reaches for the shot put up by Bonzie Colson #35 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Purcell Pavilion on February 11, 2017 in South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame defeated Florida State 84-72. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
SOUTH BEND, IN - FEBRUARY 11: Jonathan Isaac #1 of the Florida State Seminoles reaches for the shot put up by Bonzie Colson #35 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Purcell Pavilion on February 11, 2017 in South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame defeated Florida State 84-72. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /
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Developing Defense

Coach Frank Vogel wants to build his team on defense. That is what he has done before with the Indiana Pacers and it is the ethos he lives by.

Yes, offense overran the league last year, but defense still wins championships. And that is ultimately how the Magic want to build their team.

President of basketball operations Jeff Weltman has shown a penchant for picking players with length and athleticism. That would fit Vogel’s defensive schemes perfectly.

It will take time to get the Magic where they need to go. Their team needs a bit of a reset to fit the new group and new mentality. But there is still lots of potential. And Summer League showed exactly how the Magic want to play on defense.

Especially when Jonathan Isaac was on the floor, the Magic were a terror defensively. They could switch almost every position and defend any perimeter player ably. It created no space for drivers to get into the lane or beat the Magic’s defense.

Orlando as a team had a decent defensive rating — roughly 98.7 points per 100 possessions — and gave up just 40.4 percent shooting from the floor. It is Summer League, so those stats may not have much meaning.

What did have meaning was the way the team played and looked. They were playing together and switching seamlessly, suffocating any path to the basket. This is how Vogel wants to play. This is what he believed in with the Pacers. And this is what modern defenses do.

The Magic are trying to grow into a more modern team on offense and, clearly, on defense. They are increasingly positionless. Defensively during Summer League, the Magic played that way. It was a good sign for what the team wants to build next year.

The question is whether the Magic can build that way with how much the team struggled at the end of last season on defense.