Orlando Magic: 5 biggest disappointments from 2017-18 NBA season

4. The continued defensive problems

Vogel may be gone now, but he was brought in two years ago with one of his main objectives being to improve the Magic defensively. They had zero identity before that, and his time with the Indiana Pacers (where they were the top defensive team in the league on two occasions) was meant to change that.

It didn’t happen in his first campaign in charge, with the team finishing 24th (108 points allowed per 100 possessions) in that category. Year two was supposed to be the time the big leap was made, with the additions of Jonathon Simmons and rookie Jonathan Isaac being central to that.

Injuries didn’t help, but when all was said and done the Magic looked clueless on that end most nights. The desire to play hard simply wasn’t there either.

The team finished the season 20th in defensive rating this time out, allowing 107.7 points per 100 possessions — only a slight improvement of 0.3 points per 100 possessions.

That doesn’t tell the whole story though, as a late-season commitment to playing better on this end (for some reason even though they were tanking?) helped that figure immensely.

The last 15 games of the season the team had the ninth-best defense at 103 points per 100 possessions, thanks to Isaac being back in the lineup for most of that period. Before the All-Star break though, when games in theory still meant something, they ranked 27th, giving up 108.6 points per 100 possessions.

To see the team sputter this badly when it was clear this was how they were going to amass some wins was disheartening.