The Orlando Magic spent their 2023 season trying to establish who they would be. In Jamahl Mosley's second season, he was still getting a feel for his new team. Their new star in top overall pick Paolo Banchero was still unproven. They were still mapping out what their future might look like.
But one thing everyone at least believed in part about their new young star was he was not a top-level defender. If the team was building around him, most figured they would have to cover for him on defense.
After the team struggled with injuries to a 5-20 start, the Magic had to find themselves to get back on the right course for their team. They found it on defense with simple directives that the team executed well.
That gave the team the confidence to buy in and deliver a dominant season.
The Magic's breakthrough in 2024 was on the back of the team’s defense. Orlando finished third in the league in defensive rating, giving up 110.8 points per 100 possessions. Considering how bad the Magic's offense was last year, this was the backbone of the team's success.
They played a frantic, intense, pressure-based defense that forced turnovers and deterred shots at the rim. Teams hated playing them because of all the length and energy they played with.
Jalen Suggs made the All-Defensive team for the first time in his career. Almost every analyst called Jonathan Isaac the "best per-minute defender" in the league considering his limited minutes (he was not eligible to make the All-Defensive team).
This was an excellent defensive team with some excellent defenders.
The Magic were one of the best defensive teams in the league and so many numbers back that up. And somehow they spent their offseason getting better on defense—adding Kentavious Caldwell-Pope who got 11 votes for the all-defensive team.
The Magic do not seem to be going anywhere defensively and could be gunning for the top spot.
What makes their defense so good? These numbers give some clues.
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.
26.2: Field Goals Defended at the Rim
One of the perceived weaknesses of the Orlando Magic's defense is that they are not great rim protectors.
Jonathan Isaac and Goga Bitadze are probably the team's best shot blockers. Wendell Carter Jr. can block shots, but is not an above-the-rim center, or at least is not perceived as one. Moe Wagner's rim protection strategy is to take charges, where he finished third in the league last year.
The Magic may have a weakness with rim protection, but they have another secret weapon in that category: They do not give up a lot of shots at the rim to begin with.
According to data from Second Spectrum, the Magic gave up 26.2 field goal attempts per game at the rim, the seventh-fewest in the league. Opponents shot 64.1 percent at the rim, ranking the Magic 12th in the league in that category.
The Magic were led in this category by Isaac, who gave up 52.7 percent shooting at the rim on 2.3 attempts per game. That ranked him 11th in the league among players who played at least 15 minutes per game (fourth among non-centers) and 13th among players who faced at least two field goal attempts per game at the rim.
Bitadze gave up a respectable 55.1 percent field goal percentage at the rim. And the sometimes maligned Carter took a small step back but still gave up only 58.4 percent shooting at the rim. Those are pretty solid numbers if not as spectacular as Isaac or among the best defensive big men in the league.
Knowing the Magic do not have a great individual shot blocker—although they finished 13th in the league with 5.2 blocks per game—their strategy was to limit field goal attempts at the rim altogether. And Orlando was fairly effective at that.
The Magic gave up only 28.7 field goal attempts per game within six feet, according to NBA.com's tracking stats, the fifth-fewest in the league. Opponents shot 62.5 percent on these shots, 0.2 percentage points worse than expected.
The Magic gave up 25.1 field goal attempts per game in the restricted area, the 10th fewest in the league. Opponents shot 65.8 percent on these shots, 11th in the league.
Further, Orlando gave up 16.1 field goal attempts per game in the paint outside of the restricted area, the ninth-fewest in the league. Opponents shot 44.8 percent, one of the few areas the Magic were not among the elite on defense.
All of this culminates in this important number too: The Magic gave up 47.5 points in the paint per game, eighth in the league. They were a solid team on the interior overall.
The point though is the Magic worked hard to prevent shots in these prime areas on the floor. That is something the team was good at. They can congest space and deter shots around the paint.
That is something the Magic should look to improve, even if they are not the strongest team at the rim.
102.1: Jonathan Isaac's on-court defensive rating
If there is a lot of excitement for the Orlando Magic's untapped defensive potential, it likely begins with the fact that Jonathan Isaac was on something of a pitch count throughout his recovery season last year.
After making a cameo in the 2023 season after nearly three years out with various knee injuries, the Magic carefully guarded Isaac throughout the 2024 season. He did not play in back-to-backs and played limited minutes. Orlando was quick to hold him out if things were not feeling right.
Still, the impact Isaac made was abundantly clear. He earned the moniker of the best per-minute defender just because there was no other way to measure his defensive impact.
The Magic's 102.1 defensive rating with Isaac on the floor is a pretty good measure of that. The Magic's most-used lineup with Jonathan Isaac—playing alongside Cole Anthony, Gary Harris, Joe Ingles and Moe Wagner—had a 101.8 defensive rating in 102 minutes.
Those are not exactly dominant defenders Isaac is paired with.
The criticism of Isaac is that he knew he was playing so few minutes (he averaged a little more than 15 minutes per game) that he could go all out. And there is a criticism that Isaac was a drain on offense, but always gave more defensively than he took away offensively—the team had only a 113.0 offensive rating with him on the floor, slightly better than the team's overall average.
The hope though is that a healthy offseason will allow the Magic to unleash Isaac further. He may not be this game-changing on defense, but he will still have a positive impact.
His minutes increased after the All-Star Break and the Magic maintained a 104.2 defensive rating with Isaac on the floor, 4.0 points per 100 possessions better than their average. In the Playoffs, the Magic had a 98.7 defensive rating with Isaac on the floor, 1.3 points per 100 possessions better than the team's postseason average.
And that includes the struggles he had defending Jarrett Allen in Games 1 and 2 as the starting center.
There is still a lot of areas for Isaac to grow. And the Magic will be looking for as many ways they can use him as they can. Isaac could be in for a much bigger role.
And that should make the Magic's defense a whole lot better.