How to DEFEAT the Orlando Magic: The HOLES the team still has to cover for
We’re going to be learning a lot about the Orlando Magic over the next month as we begin to see this team actually play basketball. So, let’s poke some holes in the balloon. Where can they be beat today on Locked On Magic? You are Locked on Magic, your daily Orlando Magic podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. And you are indeed locked on Magic. Today is September 12th, 2025. My name is Phil Prosman. I’m the senior writer over at Orlando Magicaily.com. Credential member of the Orlando Magic media since the 2012 season. On today’s episode of Locked On Magic, we’re gonna start poking some holes in the balloon. just just stress test the balloon a little bit. We’re talk about where the Magic might get beat, especially when we compare them to the teams the Magic will have to beat. We’ll talk about where this team is going to have some weaknesses. We’re going to dive a little bit into that today coming up in just a moment. But first, we want to thank you again for making Lockdown Magic part of your day every day. No matter when you listen to us, whether it’s first thing in the morning, whether it’s right when we upload, we truly appreciate you making Lockdown Magic part of your day every day. You can be one of our Orlando Magic dailies and listen five days a week. Get in the habit now, kids, because the season’s here. We’re two weeks away from training camp, two weeks away from media day. Get in that habit now and be in that habit all the way till June. It’s all part of Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Today’s episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code lockdown NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. Let me start today’s episode by saying this. I am very very optimistic about the Orlando Magic. We’ll do a whole season preview and and I’ll I’ll do the the yang to this end we’re about to do, but it’s still very important to understand this is not a perfect team and and there’s still a lot we don’t know about this team. We we think we know how Desmond Bane is going to fit into this group and and and obviously like we talked about this, the talent level is up. There’s more talent on this team than there has been in more than a decade. optimism is the right emotion, but that doesn’t mean there still aren’t things that we’re going to learn and we aren’t going to see kind of play out through the course of the year, especially when we think about how it’s going to fit into how they play against those elite teams. Um, it is not a small thing, but the Magic have struggled against the best teams in the league and some of that and and even though they’ve had this stellar record against bad teams and they they’ve done a really good job kind of stacking that up, the fact of the matter is there is still a lot of work to do and a lot we don’t know yet. And we’re going to find out pretty quickly and pretty early and I think the Magic get off to a pretty good start. But we’re going to find out in some early games just how the Magics stack up against their competition in the Eastern Conference. Now, let’s lay down some ground rules, some base things here. I think it is safe to assume the Magic are going to have one of the best defenses in the league. Again, they’re a second in league in defensive rating and it wouldn’t, you know, they’ll be about there again. There’s no reason to think the Magic won’t copy that. They’re bringing Jaylen Suggs back into the fold. They acquired Desmond Bane who’s a solid defender. France Vagner, in my opinion, is an alldefensive team level defender. Wendo Carter is a solid defender. As long as they are still committed and bought in, defense is going to be a given. This team is going to be competitive. So, even if some of the things I am describing do not go right, the Mads are going to be as good as they were last year, certainly as good as they were in 2024. We’re looking at again we are looking at a baseline of 41 41 wins. If they win 41 wins, if they only win 41 games, something has gone wrong. Something that we expect didn’t expect to has happened. This is a 50 win level team. So I want to be very very careful about saying that before we dive into negatives and before you accuse me of being just overly negative. Having said that, when you look at a team like the Cleveland Cavaliers, they are following a newer trend around the league and look, some of it is Evan Mobley is really good. Like he is really good uh and is I don’t know how good I don’t know like what his ceiling is quite yet, but his defense is incredible. And if you look at the Magic matching up with the Cleveland Cavaliers, that too big lineup, which is something that we’re seeing a little bit more of around the league, to me, that too big lineup is still something that concerns me. Now, the Magic and the C, the Magic should feel comfortable against the Cavs, as comfortable as you can against them. They took him to seven games two years ago. They’re virtually the same rosters. I know they’ve added DeAndre Hunter. I know they’ve added Lonzo Ball. They’re they’re they’re a better team than they were in 2024. Don’t do not get me wrong on them. The Magic are a better team than they were in 2024 as well. But let’s not forget one of the big factors in that seven game series was Jared Allen getting hurt in game three and leaving game four, not coming back for the rest of the series. Now, it’s not that Cleveland was so good um with both Allen and Moley on the floor, but the bottom line was this. Evan, you know, and again, you can go back into my archives. I said this was a key to the series. The Magic were going to have to attack the player that isn’t Evan Mobley. Evan Mobley is such a good defender that you kind of assumed he he would counteract one of the Magic’s two big players in that series. And when Evan Mobley was out of that series, or not when Evan Moy, when Jared Allen was out of that series, and Evan Mobley had to slide more fulltime to center, that opened things up for Paulo and Fron to have a really strong final four games of that series. Now, obviously, like Evan Mobley made the crazy block in game five. Um, that probably, you know, at the end of the day won that series for Cleveland. Um, and the Magic won game six and were mostly competitive in game seven before they ran out of gas. the the the presence of two bigs is still a factor. Now, it’s not that the Magic can’t counteract that. Goabat and Wendell Carter Jr. played with each other all the time. Played together, not regularly, but they have in p have in the past. And honestly, I would expect the Magic to try lineups with Wendo Carter and Goabat together when they can. Goabat is an extreme luxury. I’ve said this a million times, the Magic have to find ways to use it. But if you look around the Eastern Conference and you look around the league, teams are starting to try lineups with two centers a little bit more often. The New York Knicks with Mike Brown are likely to try a Mitchell Robinson, Carl Anthony Towns lineup. The Milwaukee Bucks are going to play Miles Turner and Jannis Antarmpo. Not that Giannis is a pure center. Those are two big guys who are traditional centers. So whereas the Magic’s advantage is typically Paulo is quicker and faster than most fours when you play especially when you play small and you have two 610 guys and you kind of interchange on the perimeter. Now teams are just going to say well we’re going to wall up and have only bigs on the floor have these two centers on the floor. Both of them potentially rim protectors. Both both of them potentially paint protectors and especially against the Magic team that you know we still don’t know much about their shooting and and I think their shooting will be better but we don’t know much. Size is important. Now there is this perception about the Magic among Magic fans that they’re not a good rebounding team. They are a rebound by committee team. They don’t have one dominant rebounder. Wendo Carter, it’s going to get you seven, eight rebounds per game, but he isn’t that like 11, 12 rebound per game night guy. And I think a lot of people assume because his rebounding totals are low that the Magic aren’t a good rebounding team. Statistically, that’s not true. The Magic were one of the best rebounding teams in the league last year. I think they were second or third in the league in defensive rebound rate. They gobbled up rebounds, but they had everybody contribute to that. Like Cole Anthony is an exceptional rebounder for a guard. He’s no longer on the team. um like Fraud Zagger didn’t get a ton of rebounds, but Paulo got his share of rebounds. Rebounding is a team sport for the Magic, but when you’re facing teams with a little bit more size, they struggled with that against Houston, the best offensive rebounding team in the league. And they Houston’s a great example of a team that plays two centers fairly often with Alpurn ShenGun and Steven Adams. And then they have Jabari Smith in there and all that. This is a trend. I wouldn’t say it that it’s set in. I wouldn’t say that it’s like firm and it’s like, okay, this is a thing everybody’s doing. The Magic need to get in on it, but it’s something they need to be prepared for. And while, and I’ve said this a bunch and I still think it’s kind of true about this team. While they are a long, lengthy, athletic team, they’re not a big team. Like Paulo and Frons are forwards. They’re not centers. They’re 6’10”, but they don’t always play like they’re 610, especially around the basket on the glass. You know, they got three centers, three solid centers, but not a lot of versatility, not a lot of just like kind of behemoth big dudes. And so I think one of the concerns for the Orlando Magic and one of the concerns and one of the things that they have to be a little bit worried about is how are they going to measure up and how are they going to match up against size and that’s going to be important because the Cleveland Cavaliers aren’t going anywhere and they’re not going to be going anywhere for a little while. Figuring out how to beat the Jared Allen, Evan Mobley lineups is going to be key to the Magic eventually reaching the NBA Finals. So, what about spacing? Let’s talk about the big advantage that the New York Knicks have on the Orlando Magic and why that’s a big factor for a lot of their matchups. We’ll get to that coming up here in just a moment. But first, today’s episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to my friends over at Monarch Money. Most people cannot name all their financial accounts or even what they’re worth, whether it’s 401ks, properties, or investments. 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Use code locked on NBA at monarchmoney.com in your browser for half off your first year. That’s 50% off your first year at monarchmoney.com with code locked on NBA. when it comes to the Eastern Conference Finals and getting to the conference finals and and obviously like the two behemoths that st there’s two behemoths that kind of stand above all the others if you look at the early tiering and the early predictions for the Eastern Conference. There’s the Cleveland Cavaliers talked extensively about them and they’re more than just their size. Like Donovan Mitchell’s a really good player, Darius Garland’s a really good player. Their three-point shooting is super dangerous. The Magic know that firsthand. know that as well as anybody in the league. The other behemoth right now is the New York Knicks. And the Knicks are that, you know, like just like everybody else, it feels like the door is wide open. It feels like there’s a lot of opportunity. And it feels like anything is possible. And it feels like this is the Knicks moment or this is at least the moment they have to seize, the moment they have to take advantage of. Whether they do or not, we’re going to find out here very, very soon. The thing that concerns me about the Knicks is spacing is the way that they’re able to space the floor and and how much that stretches the Orlando Magic. It stretches every team and and and this will go double with the Atlanta Hawks, who are also a team whose spacing and their ability to spread the floor concerns me. just the way that they could twist a defense. Because again, I’ve said this a million times, good defense in the league is about making the right bets on what you’re willing to give up. When you look at the Magic, what they’re typically willing to give up is they’ll give up shots in the paint. They will not that they’ll let you into the paint, they’re going to resist everything, but their main goal is we’re going to stop transition. Magic are good at that. We’re gonna stop transition. We’re gonna get deflections and steals. and we’re going to limit your three-point attempts. Big factor against the Boston Celtics. And when you look at that series against Boston, you saw how the Magic did it. They’re comfortable switching one through five. They will do a one through five switching package when they really want to stop threes. And dare you to beat them one-on-one. Credit to the Boston Celtics. They beat them one-on-one. Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum had this incredible shooting series from mid-range. And then the Celtics were able to supplement that enough with with periods where the Magic were missing shots. Boston was able to get out in transition. That was the Magic’s biggest fear in that series was Boston getting out in transition and just draining threes on them. You know, trading misses for threes or the Magics did not have the firepower to get back to get back up. What they wanted to do was turn that into an isolation series where Boston was, you know, not getting three-pointers and having to rely on beating the beating the Magic one-on-one. In the half court, the Magic did a really good job. I know the Magic lost that series and and their defense defensive numbers weren’t particularly good, but everybody came away from that series impressed with the Magic’s half court defense and saying, “No, this Magic team defended Boston really well. They just they just didn’t have enough on the offensive end to make up for it.” The Knicks present this challenge especially because of Carl Anthony Towns unlike Chris Porzingis um who’s now on the Atlanta Hawks and will also present huge challenges. Christophs Porzingis didn’t want to post up. Like I I couldn’t understand it. The Magic discovered very quickly that they could switch Cory Joseph on to Christophs Porzingis and they weren’t going to look to him in the post and that allowed them to switch and limit the three-point shots the way that they did. Boston became a, you know, became a little bit beholden to their style and the Magic used that against them. Certainly New York used that against them as well in the second round series when Boston shot really really poorly from three. Boston couldn’t adjust and couldn’t change who they were. The Knicks have perhaps the best three-point shooting center in the le in the league’s history and Carl Anthony Towns. And when the Magic play five out teams, whether it’s the Heat, whether it’s the Knicks, whether it’s now the Hawks, that exposes a potential weakness in their defense. Yes, they have a lot of length, a lot of size, a lot of switchability, a lot of versatility, but at the end of the day, the easiest shot in the in the le in the game is in the paint is right near the basket. And as the Magics switch and switch and switch and switch, they give up driving lanes or they give up ways for players to seek out matchups that allow them to get to the paint. And because you’re so scared of three-point shooting, whether it’s Mall Bridges, Jaylen Brunson, Carl Anthony Towns, whether it’s Trey Young, Jaylen Johnson, not the best shooter in the world, Christophs Rozingius or whoever, you can’t give help at the rim. And like, it’s not like the Magic are an overhelp team. They’re not like New Orleans, which is a nailhelp team. They’re not like, you know, they’re very heavy on switching. They they want to they’ll switch. They want to keep guys at the three-point line and just just frustrate you with with arms and disrupt your rhythm and disrupt your flow within your set. The Knicks, especially with like a guy like Jaylen Brunson who’s so good at breaking guys down one-on-one, the Knicks advantage against Orlando is their ability to space the floor and just be a threat from three. Now, it’s not like Josh Hart is some crazy good three-point shooter, but every player in that Knicks lineup is a danger from three. And like look this this is every team has to deal with this but Orlando is so good at limiting threes. New York is so good or at least they were under Tom Tibido so good at winning these extra possessions and and look I think Mike Brown’s going to do a really good job there too but they’re so good at winning these possessions. how the Magic are able to defend these five out offenses, these offenses that really stretch you thin and stretch your ability to help get the low man over like like crash down in the paint, prevent shots at the paint, how they prevent those is going to be absolutely key in a series like that. And again, we’re going to see how the Magic play and and the Magic are going to have to say about because they’re going to be able to structure the floor a little bit better. Desmond Payne is a bigger three-point threat. If Wendell Carter is a consistent three-point threat, he’s not gonna be Carl Town’s good, but the Magic should be able to do more of these sets and create a little bit more of this space, too. It’s a problem that every team has to deal with, but there are certain ways to beat this Magic defense, and we’ll talk about one coming up here in a minute. Um, but stretching them out with five outs and forcing them into switches and picking matchups and trying to beat them one-on-one and force help, that is a big way to frustrate an otherwise really strong defense. Now, there aren’t many teams that are going to be able to stretch the Magic out like that. New York is one. Boston, when they’re healthy, is one. I don’t think Boston will be able to do it as well. I think Atlanta is a much more dangerous team this year. I think Atlanta’s won. Uh Chicago to some extent um because they they are able to hit threes, but we’ll see. They they made some personnel changes. Uh Miami, I think Cleveland has certainly won. Cleveland is very good at stretching the floor and Jared Allen isn’t a three-point shooter, but they have four guys and they can go small with Evan Mobley at the five and stretch the floor with five three-point shooters. Miami, I think, is a very dangerous team in that regard. Even though Khloe Wear and Bam Adabio, another two center lineup, they’re not going to shoot threes. There are enough of these teams and the Magic will find ways to figure it out. It’s not like they can’t defend it, but at the elite elite level, it could be something that derails them. I hinted at it before, the other way to beat this Orlando Magic defense, don’t let them get set. We’ll talk about transition points and how the Magic go about getting get playing faster but limiting transition points. We’ll get to that coming up here in just a moment. But first, today’s episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to our friends over at FanDuel. The NFL season is here. Week two is here. 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This team’s identity is still on defense and they’re just kind of hoping that it’s enough to or they’re hoping that they can get enough offense and certainly improve their offense enough that maybe their defense doesn’t have to carry the day every game, but that they can make take advantage of this defense. It doesn’t have to be otherworldly every single night. But teams like the Chicago Bulls who take a lot of threes and get up and down the court. Teams like the Toronto Raptors who were one of the best transition teams in the league last year, beat the Magic three times last year if you remember. Um teams that are able to run, not so much the Indiana Pacers, but the Pacers got themselves back in games against Orlando because of their ability to push the pace. Getting out in transition and speeding up the tempo is something the Magic have historically not wanted to do. Last year they were last in the league in pace. They were last in the league in possessions for 48 minutes. They were not a team that got up and down the court. They were not a team that was looking to run at all costs. Now, we all think that’s going to change. Jaylen Suggs being back in the lineup. He’s someone that wants to push push the pace and get up and down the floor. Um Desmond Bane is an excellent spot up three-point shooter. There there’s every expectation in the Magic going to be a better transition team. Ron Vagner, as we’ve seen in Euro Basket, unstoppable in transition. The Magic need to play faster and get more transition opportunities just for him just because you can easily get two, four, five, six more points from Fron Vagner running the floor. It it it’s not not complicated at all. Defensively, this is an area not necessarily where the Magic were weak, but it was an area where the Magic at times gave something up. The Magic were six in the league last year, giving up 13.9 fast break points per game. Now, some of that is, of course, they play a little slower, fewer possessions, but they’re not like the creme de la creme in stopping transition. And obviously like they got beat a few times by fast-breaking teams. Chicago beat them what twice last year. Um Chicago beat them twice last year, two out of three games. Toronto beat them three out of four games. Toronto is one of the best teams despite all the problems they have. They’re one of the best teams in the league at getting out in transition. They still are. You the way you let some of these young teams that you can’t lose to, the Brooklyn’s, the Washingtons, the Charlottes, is you let them control tempo and get out in transition. That’s something the Magic cannot afford to let happen. So, what does that all mean? What does that all mean? So, it’s not that it’s going to be easy to run on this magic team. They don’t commit a lot to the offensive glass. So, they get their share of offensive rebounds. They get back and they use their length to slow you down. And because they’re so versatile, because they switch so much, they’re comfortable defending one through five. They don’t care if Ron Fagner’s matched up on a point guard where a lot of teams might care if their six foot 10 forward is. The Magic are the Magic don’t mind that. And they communicate really really well to make sure that they’re not in some crazy bad matchups on those cross switches. And that that’s one of the reasons why the Magic are so good in transition. But as the Magic tried to push the tempo a little bit more, there is the opportunity or there’s the chance that the tempo will get pushed back at them. And making sure you’re organized on defense in transition is one of the biggest challenges still in the league. Um there’s a reason why you try to get as many fast break points as you can and the Magic again need to do more of that. And so, especially against the teams at the bottom of the standings, the Magic must continue to be excellent in transition. They must continue to be excellent at controlling the tempo of the game. Again, not pace so much, but tempo. That it’s fast when they want it fast, it’s slow when they want it slow. That’s that’s tempo. That’s what I mean by tempo. And there not many teams that theoretically can beat the Magic by playing fast. Indiana, for whatever reason, struggles a ton against Orlando. Now, we don’t know what Indiana’s going to look like without Tyresese Hallebert. A big part of their piece and the speed that they play at and and the tempo that they play at is because Tyresese Hallebertton has so much control over that offense. It’s not the same with Andrew Nebard. It’s not the same with TJ McConnell. Now, I do think Indiana’s going to still play pretty fast. I think they’re going to keep their pace up. Um, and so that’s going to be a key matchup in that regard. But the top teams in the East, they’re not going up and down the court. New York’s not. Jaylen Brunson’s like Paulo, very isolationheavy, like I’m going to dribble the ball, air out of the ball guy. Same with Kate Cunningham. You know, the TR Cleveland has their avalanches um where they score a bunch of points and and a lot of those do come in transition, but they’re very comfortable in the half court, too. uh Milwaukee like Giannis is a freight train in transition like they’re going to try and they’re going to try and run just through through Giannis but outside Giannis they don’t have a ton of weapons you’re super worried about. Detroit’s a very slow it down team too. Really the teams to watch out for are the teams at the bottom. Like this is how the teams at the bottom are going to give the Magic some trouble. Now again I want to close and repeat this. We’re talking about really fine margins here. We’re talking about really small things and and things that the Magic are prepared to handle. They know how to handle five out offenses. They know how to handle transition breaks. They know how to handle physicality. They know how to handle um they know how to handle all of these things. They’ve done it before and they’ve done it at a very high level. The question is, can they do it against the elite teams? Can they do it against Cleveland and their size? Can they do it against New York and their ability to spread the ball? Can they do it against Boston, their three-point volume? Against Detroit and their toughness, against Giannis and Milwaukee, against the Heat’s versatility and their ability to switch back at them. These are the questions that linger heading into the season. And look, against probably 75% of this league, the Magic are going to be fine executing against those teams. But no offense to that 75%, that’s not the 75% of the league we’re worried about anymore. Right now, we’re worried about how do the Magic beat the Knicks, how do the Magic beat the Cavs, how do the Magic beat the Wolves, how do the Magic beat the Nuggets, how did the Magic beat the Thunder? And the margin for error to beat those teams is very, very small. It is it is the smallest things that will determine whether the Magic are able to win and compete in those series. And those small things are the things we think we know right now, but we don’t because we really haven’t seen this team play yet. Patch up that balloon. Things are okay. We’re going to be fine. The Magic are going to have a great season, but keep an eye out as we prepare for these big games coming up in the next few months. But that’s going to do it for me today. I want to thank you all again for listening to today’s episode of Lockdown Magic. You can viewers find me on Twitter, philipr_omd and on blue sky, philipr. You can subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcast him on Google Play Odyssey and all the fun places you download podcast to your podcast enabled listening device. You can also check us out on YouTube. Just search for lockdown magic. For the latest on the Orlando Magic, be sure to check out Orlando Magicaily.com. You can find us on Twitter, oh Magic Daily. And for even more Orlando Magic content, be sure to check out my Patreon page, Orlando Magicub, at patreon.com/orland Magicub. doing the newsletter style now. Coming out with a new post every day around every Monday through Friday around noon. So definitely check that out. And as always, thank you for your support. Now that you’re done listening to Lockdown Magic, get ready for the Lockdown NBA Top 100 because it is here. Voted on by the NBA host of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Our top 100 was formed by experts that cover these teams and players every day. Find the full list on Lockdown Sports Today on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. Don’t miss my reaction. That was on the episode two days ago. Was Wednesday’s episode or Tuesday’s episode. Uh Wednesday’s episode. Tuesday we did the episode with with Cuck Cookahill of Locked on Pistons talking about Powell Ben Carro and Kate Cunningham. Wednesday’s episode we did the top 100. So you got two episodes on the top 100 on my feed. Go check that out on YouTube or wherever you download podcasts. That’s going to do it for me today though. I want to thank you all again for listening to today’s episode of Lockdown Magic. We will be back Sunday to talk about Eurob Basket, to put a bow on Euro Basket, wrap it up as Germany plays Finland on Friday, 10:00 a.m. Eastern time. May may have already happened by the time you listen to this. Um, in the semifinals and then the bronze medal game and gold medal game on Sunday. So, we’ll get at least two more games with team Germany here at Eurobasket. We’ll be back Sunday to put a bow on Eurob basket and start the countdown to training camp 2 weeks from Monday. But that’s going to do it for me today. I want to thank you all again for listening to today’s episode of Lockdown Magic for Orlando Magic Daily and Lockdown Magic. This has been Phil Broson. We’ll see you again next time for another episode of Locked On Magic.
The Orlando Magic are expected to contend in the Eastern Conference this year. But we still do not know exactly who this team is. Or where their weaknesses will be.
To be sure, the Magic have a tall challenge ahead of them going up against the East’s elite. What can they do that will give the Magic trouble? Whether it is Cleveland’s size or New York’s spacing, Orlando has a lot to prove this season.
Will Orlando’s defensive prowess and offensive adjustments be enough to secure 50 wins?
0:00 Intro: Analyzing Orlando Magic’s weaknesses
5:45 Challenges of defending two-big lineups
11:50 New York Knicks’ spacing poses problems
18:57 Transition defense: Magic’s potential vulnerability
24:33 Controlling tempo crucial against weaker teams
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