Orlando Magic’s defense has to start with ball pressure

The Dallas Mavericks under Jamahl Mosley when he was defensive coordinator were not known for being the most efficient. The team in his three years in that role never finished in the top half of the league (they hit 18th twice).

Dallas was not a defensive team. But the team still had a distinctive style.

Mosley’s defenses in Dallas got a lot of ball pressure. They were physical and chased after teams. You might be able to break them down, but it would not be an easy or comfortable time.

The team’s offense was so strong and the Mavericks seemed to believe if they could just tire teams out they could dominate in the fourth quarter. Indeed, Dallas’ defensive rating in the fourth quarter ranked third and seventh in Mosley’s first two years before bottoming out at 25th last year.

With a young roster, the Orlando Magic were hoping to implement a more energetic defensive style too. They were going to build and grow and learn to defend by getting after opponents and pressuring them, forcing them into mistakes they can turn into easy baskets.

Implementing that has been difficult. The team’s injuries have not helped. Neither has the team’s youth and the lack of discipline that sometimes comes with inexperience.

There are pockets of the defense the Magic want to play. That much is clear. But they are hard to find in the big picture.

The Orlando Magic’s defense continues to be a point of major contention as the team struggles to implement a style and consistency to befit the identity they want.

Orlando’s defense is falling flat at this point of the season. The positive signs that have been apparent earlier in the season and especially in wins have become even rarer as the team has struggled to get the finer points of its system down.

"“I think us being able to pick up the ball pressure is very important,” Mosley said after Wednesday’s 111-99 loss to the Atlanta Hawks. “[When Trae Young] gets downhill and we talked about our bigs being able to keep our chest in front. And we have that backside help to make sure they are not throwing lobs at the rim. We have to make sure that when we get into the basketball our weakside is ready to come over and protect and help each other out and keep flying around. It starts with ball pressure and protecting the rim after that.”"

The Hawks, a difficult cover with Trae Young’s craftiness on the ball and their ability to spread the floor with shooters, put all those deficiencies on display.

From the jump the undermanned Magic had to make some difficult decisions, trying Franz Wagner to guard Trae Young as a start with Gary Harris out.. But immediately Young got wherever he wanted without meeting much ball pressure.

Young finished with 28 points and four assists on 11-for-22 shooting. He made only one of his eight 3-pointers and picked up five free throws. It was a bit of a mixed bag on that front then.

Part of that was the game plan for Young. The team wanted him to be in the paint rather than out at the 3-point line. The team just needed to make sure it covered his options on the perimeter.

Young may have tallied only four assists but the effect of him getting into the lane was pretty apparent as the Hawks scored 93 points through three quarters.

Moritz Wagner said the team perhaps made it a bit too easy for Young to make decisions once he got in the paint. He had plenty of floaters and runners in the lane with Wendell Carter sitting back. Either that or he was able to kick it out to shooters and they were able to swing the ball effectively.

That is an area the team needed to be a bit more disciplined.

Atlanta ended the game with an offensive rating of 111.0 points per 100 possessions (still better than the Magic’s season average). But through three quarters, the Hawks scored 122.4 points per 100 possessions.

Orlando certainly needed to hit shots, something the team struggled to do all game with their “big three” of Cole Anthony, Wendell Carter and Franz Wagner shooting a combined 12 for 38 (31.6-percent). But the team’s defense has consistently been a problem too.

Orlando currently ranks 29th in the league in defensive rating, giving up 112.9 points per 100 possessions. For a team that has put an emphasis on defense and wants to be about that side of the floor, this is certainly a poor sign.

And it has been a lot of the same things — poor rotations and giving up open threes in addition to turnovers leading to transition opportunities. In this game, it was simply letting the Hawks choose how they were going to beat them.

"“We’ve got to talk,” Wagner said after Wednesday’s game. “You can only do so many things in basketball. There are only five players out there. Somebody go get the ball, somebody go get the rima nd box out. A big part is communication and probably experience as well.”"

The Magic are a team that is about progression and improvement. They are hunting for minor victories and signs they are getting better.

Wagner said he felt the team was doing better at staying disciplined with the game plan and limiting transition points. The Hawks had only six fast-break points on 2-for-7 shooting in transition and only 14 points off the Magic’s 17 turnovers.

The team continued to fight despite the large deficit and the difficulties shooting with even Mosley standing up on the bench throughout the second half and urging his team on.

The team has never stopped fighting this year.

And there were a few pockets where the team played some solid defense. Most of those came when the team went to a 1-through-5 switching defense that forced players to get into the ball a lot more and keep pressure on the ball handler.

In the early third quarter especially, Orlando was able to create some deflections and dictate some of the flow. But the team was never really able to cut into the deficit and Atlanta still managed to pull away.

"“I think it’s communication,” R.J. Hampton said after Wednesday’s game. “I think we have to be better at that. That’s something we work on all the time. We can’t just do it one out of five games or two out of every five games, it has to be an every game thing. We know we have to get better at that. Just to keep learning and growing together, it’s going to come in time.”"

The Magic are still trying to get that finer point down. Whether it is executing a game plan to try to lock out a star or just simply defending, it has to start with the energy and ball pressure they put on.

It was no coincidence the Magic’s best moments in the game came with an energetic bench unit playing together or when the team was able to crawl into the ball a bit more and try to make ball handlers a bit more uncomfortable.

The team was constantly standing and cheering deflections when they were able to get them. Those efforts simply did not and have not happened long enough as teams have scored with ease against this team.

The Magic want to be about their defense and that end of the floor. It takes a lot to get there. But it starts with the ball pressure and getting into the ball more.