Let’s make the 2018-19 Orlando Magic a truly brutal defensive team

The phrase is not: “A five-out offensive attack wins championships.” The phrase is also not: “A versatile pick-and-roll duo wins championships.” Even though the phrase became cliché oh so long ago, let us proceed as if it still holds significant, timeless truth: “Defense wins championships.”

Never mind a championship — a team that could really use an above-.500 season right now is the Orlando Magic. They haven’t had a winning year since 2011-12, when Quentin Richardson, Chris Duhon, and Von Wafer were on the team, getting coached by Stan Van Gundy. Since then: two GM’s, five coaches, six straight losing seasons. And now, with my help, the Magic are going to change their fortunes before descending into a Sacrament-ian epoch of teeth-gnashing and garment-rending.

I see the direction where GM John Hammond wants to lead Orlando. Hammond began his tenure with the Magic last June by using his lottery selection on the offensively limited, defensively imposing Jonathan Isaac. After going through perhaps the quietest 12 months of any team in the league, the Magic were back in the high lottery in 2018, with established defensive guru Steve Clifford installed as the head coach. Hammond used the opportunity to take…the offensively limited, defensively imposing Mohamed Bamba. Keep in mind that, when Hammond came aboard, the Magic already had the — well, the offensively limited, defensively imposing Bismack Biyombo locked into a completely immovable four-year, $72 million deal.

Read More: 

An end to exceptionalism is only a deal away

I can hear the haters wailing now about Orlando’s restricting lack of spacing, their self-defeating absence of individual shot creators, yada yada. But I say: Hammond hasn’t gone far enough. Based on this foundation of lockdown bigs, I say Hammond should absolutely spend his summer not worrying about offensive skill-sets whatsoever. I say Hammond should ensure that his Opening Night roster consists of 15 brutal, tenacious, suffocating defenders.

Because: what happens if you score 58 points in a game, and your opponent scores 54? You win the game.

Maybe it feels like I’m saying all of this tongue-in-cheek — and, well, maybe I am — but here is a startling tidbit of statistical truth to bolster my argument. Of the 100 best per-possession defenses of the 3-point era, 94 of them have winning records. 94!

Of course: the roster I am proposing that the Magic build is going to be such a belligerent monster, they would probably be the exception to this rule. But what’s the worst-case scenario? The 2002-03 Denver Nuggets are the only truly bad team out of that top 100, finishing 17-65 with a league-worst offense. Then: bam, they draft Carmelo Anthony and rip off a 10-year run of going to the playoffs each and every year.

If the Magic want to enter next regular season as the odds-on favorite to be the best defensive team of all-time, they can get there in these eight easy steps:

1. As defensive non-factors, free agents Mario Hezonja, Arron Afflalo, Marreese Speights are allowed to depart. Rodney Purvis, who is on a non-guaranteed deal, is cut. (For some reason I feel very bad about this because, shoot, I have nothing against Rodney Purvis. Look, though: he almost had a negative Defensive Box Plus-Minus in college. When the Magic say they are “moving in a different direction,” that phrase is the truth for like the first time in human history.)

2. Re-sign Aaron Gordon at whatever cost. This step is probably a darned good idea in just about any future iteration of the Magic. No controversial moves yet. Until:

3. The Charlotte Hornets are looking to fill in a gap at center, having just traded away Dwight Howard, and they also want to move on from some of what has constituted their disappointing “core” over the last five years or so. Now the Magic send Nikola Vucevic to the Hornets in exchange for Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and a future top-14-protected first-round pick. MKG and Clifford are lovingly reunited. And, check that out: since the Magic are willing to take on inefficient short-term deals because of the sheer defensive value, like MKG’s, they’re even getting assets for the future.

4. The Oklahoma City Thunder are tired of the annual playoff tradition of watching an opponent defender play free safety, roaming off of Andre Roberson. Plus, the Thunder have yet to resolve their perpetual lack of floor-spacing, only finishing a lowly 24th in three-point accuracy last year. The Magic receive Roberson in exchange for Terrence Ross.

5. After the first season where Lawrence Frank and Jerry West ran the front office for the Clippers, the team is left stinging from two inefficiencies: they were completely gutted by injuries, and they are tired of having nearly zero draft picks each year. The Magic send two 2019 second-round picks, plus the incredibly durable backup point guard D.J. Augustin, in exchange for Patrick Beverly and Sindarius Thornwell.

6. The Wizards praise the heavens above when they receive a call that offers to swap one of the most burdensome contracts in the league in exchange for a near-20 PPG scorer. Evan Fournier goes to Washington, while Ian Mahinmi and a top-14-protected first-rounder come back to Orlando.

7. The Chicago Bulls are eager to end their uncomfortable reunion with Omer Asik by whatever means necessary. When the Magic offer to take on the final year of Asik’s onerous deal, plus the contract of Cameron Payne, plus send Jonathon Simmons, Wesley Iwundu, and Shelvin Mack to the Bulls, Chicago is willing to re-balance the scales by sending away a top-7-protected first-round pick in 2021. (Mack’s contract, unfortunately for him, could be shuttled around a bit this summer, as only $1 million of the $6 million is guaranteed, making it something of a positive cap asset.) The Magic waive and stretch Payne’s contract. While Chicago doesn’t mind parting with such a distant pick, Orlando remembers what Brett Brown remembers: since that draft class could see both high school seniors and college freshman, any pick in that year could offer insane value.

8. Now it’s time to get the roster up to 15 players with free agents who are available at or near the minimum. Actually: this team needs point guards real bad. Orlando signs Michael Carter-Williams and NCAA steals maestro Briante Weber. Both are reuniting with Coach Clifford.

In addition to the foundational defensive trio of Bamba, Isaac, and Biyombo, only three other Magic players have survived the violent whirlwind of my proposed trades. Two of them are second-round picks Orlando just added to the team last week: Melvin Frazier and Justin Jackson. The other is Khem Birch, who debuted in the league last year as a 25-year-old, and was one of the best defensive rookies overall.

The roster is set. Behold this ungodly beast I have created:

While there is a 95+ percent plus chance that a roster this limited offensively would be a spectacular failure, we also can’t be 100 percent certain, since an experiment of this kind simply hasn’t been conducted. But even if it is a spectacular failure, defense remains largely undervalued in the NBA marketplace. If you were to assemble an all-defense team like this, the odds are you would either be taking on low-cost contracts, or reaping additional draft assets as you take on one of the league’s very few overpriced contracts for defense-first players. In the depths of league history, there have been worse ways to spend a rebuilding season.

Next: The self-inflicted plight of Dwight Howard

Let me conclude this bizarre daydream of an article with an idea I truly believe is very, very good. In the same way Daryl Morey turned the Rio Grande Valley Vipers into a demented 3-point shooting laboratory, it would be a resourceful use of a G League season to assemble a 15-deep rotation of plus defenders and…see what the heck happens. Let’s get all the Prince Ibeh’s and Anas Mahmoud’s and Chris Obekpa’s on one roster and sic them on a league full of players who still have holes in their offensive games. If defense can win a G League championship, wouldn’t you want your team’s affiliate to be the ones who found out?