Orlando Magic: 5 takeaways from 2018 NBA Summer League
By Chris Murch
1. Defense, defense and more defense
Length and more length as well. Yikes. Defense is going to be the Magic’s calling card this year. That continues to be the modus operandi of Orlando this offseason. The team had an opportunity to improve its scoring this offseason by signing someone like Isaiah Thomas or Wayne Ellington in free agency, but opted for guys like Jerian Grant and Briscoe instead.
While it was pretty disappointing to see Thomas go to the Denver Nuggets for the veteran minimum, the Magic have made it clear that defense is priority numero uno and Thomas doesn’t provide much upside on that end.
With Bamba and Isaac enforcing the paint and guys like Evan Fournier, Aaron Gordon, D.J. Augustin, Jonathon Simmons and Terrence Ross getting after it on the perimeter, it’s going to be hard for teams to regularly score on the Magic.
Last season, the Magic finished 20th in defensive rating with a rating of 107.0. They ranked 26th in defensive rebounding (33.2 per game), 20th in steals (7.6 per game) and 13th in blocks per game (4.9 per game). The Magic are looking to improve in all of those categories, and with the addition of Bamba and increased production of Jonathan Isaac, those numbers will surely go up.
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While consistent scoring in Orlando might be hard to come by, especially early in the season with Bamba and Isaac getting their feet under them, look for Orlando to be very consistent on the defensive end and use this added length to terrorize opponents in the paint.