Orlando Magic’s three positives from first nine games
By Luke Duffy
3 positives from Orlando Magic’s first nine games
3. Defense is their identity, but it is not everything.
Previous head coach Steve Clifford put high defensive play above all else, and in doing so he got the most out of a limited roster.
Two postseason appearances followed, built on the foundation of Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon and Evan Fournier. Clifford got results, but it hardly captured the imagination.
This version of the Magic is nowhere close to being the competent defensive outfit from before, but it will ultimately become their identity. Already this season we have seen Suggs put in some serious shifts on that end, with Cole Anthony doing the same before suffering an oblique injury. Markelle Fultz is an above-average defender for his position, and we have not even seen all he can do yet.
Kevon Harris has been nothing short of a revelation with his defensive intensity. And Bol Bol is a player we will return to later.
Yet the Magic rank below average in defensive rating (19th at 112.9 points allowed per 100 possessions). A small sample size, but last season they finished the year also in 19th, with a rating of 112.1. So they are on pace to be near where they were before.
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The key difference though, and this is the positive, is that it is no longer all they have got.
In Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, the Magic have two legitimate NBA weapons. We could have posted three slides on Banchero here alone, such is the positive impact he has already had on the franchise. He is averaging a ridiculous 21.8 points per night with a veteran’s game.
Unsurprisingly this leads the team (and all rookies), with Wagner second at 16.1 points per night.
The offensive pillars are now in place, and are only going to get better. While defensively the group is young and willing but is just making a lot of mistakes and missing rotations.
That is acceptable for now, but the balance of defensive identity with real offensive weapons on a young team has been such a positive to take from the early goings of this campaign.