3 presents Orlando Magic want for Christmas

2. Returning to defensive dominance

Part of the reason the Orlando Magic aren’t in a better place right now is because their offense is poor, while their defensive rating has taken a noticeable knock from last season. The last 30 games of 2018-19 saw the Magic never drop out of the top three in that category and early season returns were promising once again in that area.

Since then however, they have seen themselves slip to 12th (106.9) in this category, meaning we can summarize their current woes like this. If you can’t score a lot and you can’t stop your opponent from scoring at a top-10 level, you are going to lose more games than you win. So a return to form in this area is a big must under the tree on Christmas Day.

But how do they get back there? And what has caused these woes in the first place? It is hard to know how exactly they can get back to being top five, or even seven in this category overnight, especially with important past players such as Khem Birch not having the same influence as they did last season.

He was a big reason off the bench that the Magic became rock solid on that end and they had a defensive rating of 102.7 when he was on the court. This year however, despite seeing his minutes go from 12.9 per game to 22.9, the team has a rating on that end of 109.7 when he is on the court.

It is puzzling and coach Steve Clifford’s unwillingness to mix things up doesn’t help either.

Trying to fit Al-Farouq Aminu in and then subsequently seeing him go down was not ideal. The aforementioned play of Aaron Gordon, despite looking like he was on the verge of breaking out last season, has hindered their progress in that area too. Ironically Mo Bamba, who held the Magic back in this regard last year, could be the key to finding their way back on that end.

Despite looking disinterested on the court a lot of the time, the team actually has a defensive rating of 101.9 when he is out there, which is a plus. Where this gets hard to manage however is the fact Bamba also has a horrendous offensive rating of 94.3, which makes playing him a lot difficult (his minutes have dropped from 16.3 as a rookie to 15.6 so far this year).

Clifford needs to figure this out though, and soon, because their defensive style of play and ability to lock up all manner of opponents not only got them to the playoffs last season, but it is the foundation in which they have built their identity. It is no coincidence then that a slip on this end has seen them fall off the radar and frustrate fans.