15.2: Deflections and Disruption
The Orlando Magic have built a general philosophy of finding players with length. The joke that Magic fans make is to find the players with the longest wingspans and assume the Magic are interested.
There is something to that. With the way offenses are built in the modern NBA, having versatile defenders who can guard multiple positions or switch screens is vital to bottling up opposing defenses.
The Magic were among the best teams in the league last year at this kind of disruption as measured by deflections in NBA.com's Hustle stats.
Orlando finished last year eighth in the league with 15.2 deflections per game. They were fifth in the league with 3.0 defensive loose balls recovered. A key part of the defense was forcing turnovers, where the Magic forced a 15.4 percent turnover rate, second in the league.
No matter how you slice it, the Magic were one of the most disruptive teams in the league, getting after teams and forcing turnovers.
Jalen Suggs was at the center of all of this. He averaged 2.5 deflections per game, ranking 19th among guards.
Deflections should not be the be-all, end-all of disruption and defense. But it is an indication of activity and how much players get after opponents and get in their way. The deflections list is filled with some of the best defenders in the league.
That includes Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. He averaged 2.4 deflections per game last year while defending the best perimeter player for the Denver Nuggets last year.
What that suggests is that the Magic will have a backcourt that is especially disruptive, able to mix and match and switch defensively no matter what.
Both Suggs and Caldwell-Pope were excellent with their one-on-one defense too. Opponents shot 46.4 percent against Suggs as the primary defender, according to NBA.com's tracking stats. Opponents shot just 44.3 percent against Caldwell-Pope, 2.2 percentage points worse than expected.
Having those two guards being all-defensive team-level players, will enable both of them to be aggressive. Caldwell-Pope believes he and Suggs will enhance each other.
"Being disciplined and not gambling as much as possible," Caldwell-Pope said of being paired with a defender like Suggs in July. "Just staying within the gameplan that the coach has defensively. Using your knowledge and your skill and what you have to get around screens. I feel like staying within the gameplan will put you in the right position to be successful."
The goal may be to have Caldwell-Pope handle whoever is on the ball more and let Suggs be a roamer and chaos agent off the ball. It could lead to the Magic being that much more disruptive with their long arms and intensity.
The Magic certainly know that their success depends on their ability to create turnovers. That is a big part of their success. Having two guards who are this capable on defense and potentially all-defensive team players is going to be a big part of the team's success and potential defensively.