Orlando Magic might have a stronger defensive base to build from

Orlando Magic coach Steve Clifford is sure to use defense as the basis for his team’s identity. A strong finish to the year suggests he has tools to use.

There is no secret what kind of team Steve Clifford likes to coach and build. His Charlotte Hornets teams all had a strong defensive identity. It was the one that that was consistent about his entire five-year run with the Hornets.

They were top 10 in defensive rating for three of the five years he was there. The fourth year, the Hornets were top-10 until injuries hit after the All-Star Break. Only last year did the Hornets fall outside the top-10.

Defense was always his team’s identity. It was the base for the team’s entire measure of success — as limited as it might be. And that is part of what the Orlando Magic wanted to bring when they hired Clifford.

The Magic are not a team that has been strong defensively in the past six years. Last year, Orlando finished 20th in the league defensive rating with 107.7 points allowed per 100 possessions.

Defense was not the team’s forte and it was a struggle to get stops consistently. That is part of the problem with the team. They longed for a defensive identity but never could find one. Even at its best last year, the offense took all the attention over the defense. And the offense was very good.

But that was not the way to success for this team. Not with the way it was built. The Magic always wanted a defensive-minded team. And hiring Steve Clifford proved that as much as the decision to draft defensive-minded players in Mohamed Bamba and Jonathan Isaac to form the core of this team.

If the Magic are planning to build a defensive team, what kind of base do they have to build from?

The numbers last year were not good defensive overall, but there were at least a few signs the team was turning a corner. Or at least it strung together a small run of solid defensive play.

After the All-Star Break, virtually after the Magic traded Elfrid Payton, the Magic ranked 13th in the league with a 105.5 defensive rating. That is quite a significant difference from the 107.7 points allowed per 100 possession the Magic gave up for the entire season.

The easiest change to point to in that time period was the loss of Payton. Payton struggled a lot on the defensive end for the Magic. As the head of the snake, his weakness hurt everyone else.

It may have been a product of playing with a lot of the Magic’s poorer defensive lineups and playing with a starting group that had its struggles, but the Magic had a 113.6 defensive rating with Payton on the court. That was the worst mark of any rotation player on the Magic.

Losing Payton defensively helped the team a bit. Even if it meant the Magic’s offense struggled a whole lot more — they had the worst offensive rating in the league after the All-Star Break, scoring just 98.6 points per 100 possessions.

But there was something there defensively, even if it was a very small thing.

Here the Magic saw players like Jonathan Isaac and Aaron Gordon make a big defensive impact. After admittedly having a poor defensive year, the Magic had a 100.6 defensive rating with Aaron Gordon on the floor afte the All-Star Break. The Magic were even effective defensively with Nikola Vucevic on the floor with a 103.2 defensive rating.

Gordon put a lot more focus on the offensive end last year. He took a major step back defensively last year it seemed. But he has tremendous defensive ability and potential still.

D.J. Augustin is not known around the league as a defensive player but even he seemed to have a positive defensive impact.

Observationally, the Magic did not look much better defensively in the latter half of the season. It was not something anyone talked about specifically as the season came to a close.  This was not a team demonstrably and clearly putting in better efforts on that end.

But the proof is in the numbers.

The Magic were a better defensive team to close the year. And a significantly better team.

It is hard to say whether anything late in the season should be believed. Orlando saw a similar uptick offensively at the end of the 2017 season after a mid-season trade. Coach Frank Vogel seemed willing to experiment with a faster, smaller lineup in an effort to modernize his team.

Perhaps as some of these teams often do, they simplified things toward the end of the season with a focus on some form of growth. And in simplifying their defense, they found something that clicked. Much the same way a more simplified defensive strategy and goal helped the Magic under James Borrego in 2015.

The Magic had their best overall defensive rating of this rebuild following that strong finish after hiring a similarly defensive-minded taskmaster in Scott Skiles as head coach.

There are plenty of indicators the Magic could be a better defensive team next year and build off this surprisingly strong base.

Orlando Magic

The first is Isaac returning from his injury healthy. Even in his 27 games, Isaac made a clear defensive impact. The Magic had their best defensive rating with Isaac on the floor. In Summer League, Isaac averaged 2.7 blocks per game. He will not hit that height in the regular season, but that gives some idea of the kind of defensive play Isaac might bring.

Mohamed Bamba should be a strong defensive player too. He had 2.3 blocks per game and nearly four blocks per game as a freshman with the Texas Longhorns. With a 7-foot-10 wingspan, the general expectation is Bamba will make an impact defensively immediately, no matter how raw he is in other parts of his game.

The Magic are likely to bring him along slowly. But they also added several other strong defenders including rookie Melvin Frazier.

The return of Terrence Ross should also help. He was a solid team defender before his injury in early November. He is another reliable player who will not make a ton of mistakes.

Up and down the roster, there are players who at least have solid defensive reputations — Wesley Iwundu, Aaron Gordon and Jonathon Simmons chief among them. The Magic are not likely to be a standout, stellar defensive team. But there is something to build upon.

For a coach who wants to establish a culture more than anything in Clifford, there seem to be players at his disposal he can use. There seem to be tools to build the foundation defensively that Clifford is so well known for.

The question left for the Magic then is whether they can finally put all those pieces together. That has been the most frustrating and difficult part for the Magic this entire rebuild. Orlando has shown various flashes of strong play when the games no longer matter but then cannot carry it over.

A new coach will hope to change the team’s identity for the better this time around. At least it seems like he has something to work with to get the team there.