Orlando Magic Playbook: Communication is key to defensive switching

Cole Anthony was a bit surprised when someone noted the Orlando Magic had the top defense in the league since the All-Star break.

It is just a short six games — hardly a representative sample — and the Magic have feasted on some weaker offensive teams in that time. But it is still something. Especially for a young team still trying to find its way and trying to find some form of identity, it is at least a small step in the right direction.

For the season, the Magic are 20th in the league in defensive rating giving up 111.5 points per 100 possessions. Going beyond the short All-Star Game sample, the Magic are seventh in the league in defensive rating over the last 15 games at 110.7 points allowed per 100 possessions.

After a bit of a down February defensively following a stellar January, the team has picked up its defense clearly. That is a big part of what the team worked on in training camp. It started to click when the Magic went 3-2 during their homestand in January and is starting to click again with a bunch of home games building up at the end of the season.

The Orlando Magic are getting set to start a six-game homestand on Friday against the Minnesota Timberwolves. This will provide a big test for the team’s defense and consistency with the Brooklyn Nets (with Kyrie Irving), Philadelphia 76ers and Golden State Warriors heading to the Amway Center in the next two weeks.

Orlando is going to want to see its defense remain sharp and together.

The Orlando Magic are starting to come together defensively and they can thank better communication and understanding of their scheme. You can see that in how they attack switching now.

Players credited the team for being tied together and more locked in defensively for this sudden upturn. Everyone is more familiar now with what the coaches are asking of them and the terminology to get what they need done.

Nowhere is this more important than in the team’s switching packages. Switching used to be fairly taboo in the league. But with more advanced offensive schemes and teams playing more sophisticated defensive coverages to match, switching is one of the many useful tools teams throw at opponents.

The Magic are no different.

They have tried to collect versatile players who can switch easily between positions to help stifle teams with this defense.

But to switch successfully and pull off the switching packages the Magic run requires constant communication. It is not simply about switching but doing so seamlessly to avoid quick attacks or slips to the basket while there is uncertainty about who is guarding who.

When done effectively, it can stifle offenses. Teams have put switching defenses on the Magic tons of times to halt any chance of getting into the interior — Cole Anthony especially struggles attacking switching defenses.

But the Magic have done it well too:

The above clip from Tuesday’s game is a brief example of what switching can do. Cam Payne draws a switch from a rub screen from Mikal Bridges. So Markelle Fultz follows Mikal Bridges through while Franz Wagner steps up to guard the smaller Cam Payne.

The Suns are trying to take advantage of this confusion with the initial action by bringing Deandre Ayton to set a screen and roll. But the switch has thrown the timing off just enough. Payne does not have the step on his man because Wagner gets to Payne so quickly and Fultz just fights through to cover his man.

That first option is taken away and Payne has to reset himself for the screen. He cannot just go through like he wants to. Ayton is behind the play then because Wagner has gummed things up and commits an offensive foul because Payne tries to run the play as if his man was slowed by the screen. Ayton does not have enough time to get set for the screen.

Even if Payne waits for Ayton to get set, the switch has accomplished its goal. It has slowed the offense enough to let the rest of the defense to recover.

When the Magic switch you can see how the team sets up around it.

Switching is just one of the Magic’s coverages — the team will mix plenty of drop coverage with its bigs along with switching and some hedging — but the big part of the Magic’s defense is using their length and versatility in passing lanes.

The Pacers go with a 1/2 pick and roll. Cole Anthony appears set to go over the screen to try to cut off the ball handler. But he is late and chasing. The Pacers have opened up that side of the floor. So R.J. Hampton starts chasing late and is able to use his speed to cut off his man.

Jalen Suggs is also in a deep help side position to seal off the paint. Franz Wagner is guarding a second screener trying to prevent a flare screen.

What this all does is it congests space. The ballhandler is either going to get to the basket and finish or he is going to find a difficult pass back out to the perimeter through a lot of long arms and hopefully enough time to recover and contest.

As the ball handler gets past Hampton, Suggs crashes down. But watch how Wagner and Anthony position themselves at the elbows. They essentially create a zone defense to prevent kick-outs to the perimeter. As the defense crashes down, they force the pass-out and Wagner is there to make the steal.

This is perfect help defense.

The switch is not perfect from Orlando. But the team is able to rotate and still create havoc. This is an example of how good communication is key to pulling off any defense. Everyone does their jobs here and the team recovers for a stop.

Switching is not just limited to on the ball.

Here the Magic are switching off-ball screens too. Gary Harris successfully passes off his man to Chuma Okeke. The Pacers do not read it correctly and Okeke, who is among the league leaders in steals in the league, easily swipes it to get the fast break going.

This play takes some strong communication and understanding. It is natural for Okeke to run up with his man and try to fight through the screen. If he overextends, he gives up the back door. If Harris does not stop himself and reset to cover his new man, then the Magic give up an open three.

What seems like an easy pass-off becomes tougher without both players knowing the scheme and Harris communicating to Okeke that the screen is coming and what the two are supposed to do.

With a big trying to operate from the high post, this makes it difficult to find an outlet. This switch, even if it does not result in a steal or a turnover gums up the offense and forces the Pacers to reset with time winding down on the shot clock. It limits their options.

That is what the purpose of a switch is. It forces the offense to reset itself because it cannot create space or an advantage so easily using screens or movement. If players are able to simply change their assignment with every screen, it makes screening irrelevant.

When it is done well and as seamlessly as it is in the clip above, an offense has nowhere to go.

Switching requires a high level of communication to work. When that is not present the team runs into trouble. That was as big a part of the Magic’s loss to the Pacers last week as anything else.

The Magic spent much of the fourth quarter of that game switching every position since the Pacers went small without a center. That put the Magic on high alert on everything and they were not as tied together as they have been.

On this play, Markelle Fultz and Chuma Okeke switch on Malcolm Brogdon. They execute this well. But Fultz’s new man immediately goes to set a pin down for Buddy Hield. In fact, Fultz is playing top side on his man and the screener essentially slips it, catching Fultz unaware.

Fultz gets below his man after playing on top of him in preparation for the screen and this puts R.J. Hampton out of position. Like the previous off-ball switch play, if Fultz is above his man, then he can switch with Hampton and defend Hield coming to the top of the key.

The fact the Pacers left the lane wide open, makes it tougher for Terrence Ross or Admiral Schofield to camp in the paint as the low man to cut off or deter any drive. That might be why Fultz rushed to get below his man to protect the paint, the team’s first priority.

But the end result is the Magic missed out on a switch and Hield buried a big three.

Switching can be tricky for sure when shooters are involved. The best way to beat a switch is to slip the screen and leave uncertainty crashing into the paint for the players trying to make the change. That leaves either the opportunity to attack the paint with the pass or a three over the top.

On this play, they do what I would call a “soft switch.”

The coverage is clearly to switch and Franz Wagner passes him off to Wendell Carter. Wagner seals off the diving big man but Carter is late stepping up and in that moment of indecision, Malcolm Brogdon drains a three.

Switching, like with screening, requires clear communication and a quick reaction to the play and to the moment. It still requires all the good help-side communications to lock out any chances of a kick out or penetration too.

But ultimately a good switch starts with a confident call and a step-up from the players involved.

So much of the chess game between offense and defense is about creating that indecision. Teams are trying to take advantage of when their opponent does not quite know what to do.

Switching does that by slowing down the offense and forcing it to reset to find an advantage. That can be difficult to do, especially against a defense that is tied together and covering for each other.

The Magic are trying to get there. And they are increasingly getting closer and closer to that kind of coverage and play. This is a tool the team is making work for them more and more.