The Whiteboard: Victor Wembanyama's big night, Magic swarming defense

Today on The Whiteboard, we're breaking down Victor Wembanyama's historic night and the Orlando Magic's swarming defense.
San Antonio Spurs v Phoenix Suns
San Antonio Spurs v Phoenix Suns / Christian Petersen/GettyImages
facebooktwitterreddit

After Thursday night's win over the Utah Jazz, the Orlando Magic are now 3-2 with the ninth-best point differential in the league. They haven't faced the stiffest competition — their losses came to the Lakers and Clippers, their wins came over the Jazz, Trail Blazers and Rockets. Still, they've been playing phenomenal defense and set the template for what could be a very successful season.

The Magic are allowing just 103.6 points per 100 possessions, the third-best mark in the league and a 10-point improvement over last year. Health and continuity have played a role but they've also ramped up the intensity in a way that plays perfectly to the inherent skills and tools of their roster.

Nothing is easy against the Orlando Magic defense

The Magic are incredibly long. Their starting rotation features two big guards — Jalen Suggs at 6-foot-4 and Markelle Fultz at 6-foot-3 with a 6-foot-9 wingspan. On the wing, they have Franz Wagner, at 6-foot-10. Neither Paolo Banchero nor Wendell Carter Jr. are particularly tall for their positions, both listed at 6-foot-10, but they both have large wingspans — 7-foot-1 for Banchero, 7-foot-5 for Carter.

All that means there is a lot less space empty space between offensive players to slip passes into and the Magic have been using a very aggressive scheme with lots of swarming ball pressure and clustering at the rim to make the most of that length.

Through five games, they're leading the league in deflections per game at 22.0. (Last season the Raptors were No. 1 in the league at 18.1). They're second in the league in opponent turnover percentage and third in the league in defensive field goal percentage on defended shots within six feet of the basket.

Simply put, they're extremely hard to pass or dribble through, or shoot over.

Suggs is an absolute ballhawk and his aggression at the point of attack is often a tone-setter but everyone seems to have been empowered to pursue turnovers and to get after the ball. I mean, look at Carter Jr., a center, out way beyond the 3-point line and jumping an inbounds pass to force a turnover.

This kind of aggression on the perimeter asks a lot of the entire team. It requires a lot of energy but the Magic have a deep roster of bench players well suited to play this style with length and intensity — Jonathan Isaac, Gary Harris, rookie Anthony Black, Chuma Okeke.

It also requires everyone to be on a string, aware and rotating quickly, because a gamble on the perimeter that doesn't result in a steal can quickly put the backline at a numbers disadvantage.

To this point, the Magic have been able to hold up in this regard with all sorts of players stepping up to help at the rim. Their four primary guards — Fultz, Suggs, Harris and Cole Anthony — have already combined for eight blocks in five games.

For example, here the Lakers try to take advantage of the Magic's aggression with a very high screen from Anthony Davis for LeBron James. Wagner fights over the top of the screen and the lumbering Goga Bitadze does his best to hedge and keep LeBron contained, putting pressure on the ball and leaving Davis to roll free. What looks like a wide-open layup is erased as the 6-foot-3 Fultz crashes down from the corner to stuff Davis.

The Magic still have a lot of issues to work through. Their halfcourt offense is very much a work in progress and the fact that Suggs and Fultz, who make the defensive scheme work, are completely non-threatening perimeter shooters really raises the level of difficulty.

But if Suggs can nudge his 3-point percentage up even to the mid-30s it would make a big difference and there is plenty of talent at this end of the floor, especially coming off the bench. Head coach Jamahl Mosley may need to be making more in-game offense/defense trade-off decisions on the fly than most coaches. Regardless, the Magic are in a much better position than they were two years or three years ago and this is a team that should absolutely be in the mix for a playoff spot this year through the Play-In Tournament.


Subscribe to The Whiteboard, FanSided's daily email newsletter on everything basketball. If you like The Whiteboard, share it with someone you love! If you don't like The Whiteboard, share it with someone you loathe!


Nov 2, 2023; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) talks with
Nov 2, 2023; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) talks with / Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

The legend of Victor Wembanyama grows

On Halloween, Victor Wembanyama played a solid game against Phoenix, putting up 18 points, 8 rebounds and 4 blocks to help keep the Spurs close enough for Keldon Johnson to steal the ball from Kevin Durant and a win from the Suns in the closing seconds.

Three days later, he dismantled the Suns with a 38-point, 10-rebound work of art. It came in a double-digit win against the Suns, in a game in which both Kevin Durant and Devin Booker were healthy. He was 15-of-26 from the field and 3-of-6 from beyond the arc, adding a steal and 2 blocks and just 2 turnovers. It was the best game we've seen from him yet, a remarkable raising of his floor and a vision of just how high his ceiling is.

READ MORE:


Recommended Reading:

1. When the rich get desperate: "If you look at those changes altogether, this offseason makes significantly more sense because none of the three biggest trades of the summer or the Clippers’ acquisition of James Harden would be possible a year from now. Phoenix both added salary and aggregated contracts to acquire Bradley Beal while Milwaukee took on more money than it sent out to bring in Damian Lillard. The Celtics did both in their Jrue Holiday deal, and the Clippers did both to add Harden. Even if each of those deals does not work out in time, it was basically now or never for these teams that will clearly be over the second apron next summer." CBA’s second apron has made expensive NBA teams even more aggressive

2. When Miami freezes over: "For the record, I’ve been OK with Herro’s inefficient nights because he’s the only one on this team willing to take shots. Butler has been a shell of himself, Bam Adebayo has his hands full doing pretty much everything else on the court, and someone had to remind Kyle Lowry that he was allowed to shoot the ball. The Duncan Robinson evolution is a good story, but sometimes I think he’s too excited to show off that he can dribble into layups and ends up passing up decent catch-and-shoot looks from beyond the arc." Burning Questions: Diagnosing the Miami Heat’s scoring issues

3. Tyrese Maxey is the real deal: "Without James Harden handling the ball, there’s never been a better time to see what he can do. The early returns are fantastic and have Sixers fans thrilled about the possibilities. It’s scary to think that there might even be room to make one more sizable deal to upgrade the roster one more time. But Philly would be wise to be very, very thoughtful about who that incoming player would be. No matter what, you don’t want Maxey to have the ball in his hands far less than he’s handling it now. There’s too much potential there to have him—or reigning MVP Joel Embiid—cede the rock to a ballhandler who isn’t as efficient." Four NBA Players Already in Contention for Most Improved