But something more important was missing from last year’s team that disappointed on its way to the 8-seed. The Magic lost their identity.<\/p>\n
Jamahl Mosley’s tenure was defined by the team’s growth defensively. They cut their teeth on defense and gained the reputation as a physical team that nobody could break.<\/p>\n
The Orlando Magic got blown out in a five-game series with the Boston Celtics in 2025, but they gained respect for how they defended the high-powered Celtics and pushed them despite their offensive flaws.<\/p>\n
The 2026 series with the Detroit Pistons was all about the Orlando Magic being able to go toe-to-toe and match the Pistons’ physicality.<\/p>\n
This is a defensive team.<\/p>\n
But you would not know it from last season. The Magic’s season did not fall apart because of an anemic offense. The offense, for all of its flaws, improved.<\/p>\n
The Magic’s defense dropped like a rock, from second in the league to 13th in the league in defensive rating. It was the inconsistency on defense that changed the Magic and led to their disappointing season.<\/p>\n
Sean Sweeney’s first task to unlocking this team’s potential is to restore its defense.<\/p>\n
“The key with getting Sean Sweeney is: Will that elevate your defense back to where you need it to be for all the rest to work,” Steve Jones said on The Dunker Spot podcast<\/a>. “I don’t know what they are going to run offensively as of now. We’re in July. I felt like the defense slipping last year really exacerbated all of the issues. Injuries didn’t help. You can’t afford for your defense to not be really good with this current roster. If you fix that and you defend at a high level, does that now re-unlock a lot of things? Can you try different concepts to unlock Paolo? You have the talent, you have the size and length. Can you get the defense back up to a certain level and make a run based on that?”<\/p>\n That is the essential question for the Magic <\/p>\n This is a defensive team that struggled all season on defense. And hiring Sweeney was as much about getting a new voice as restoring this defensive identity.<\/p>\n Where did the defense go?<\/p>\n The question the Orlando Magic have been quietly asking themselves all offseason is where did their defense go?<\/p>\n They were third in the league with a 110.8 defensive rating in 2024 and second in the league with a 109.1 defensive rating in 2025. Last year, the team fell to 13th at 113.6 points allowed per 100 possessions. <\/p>\n That is quite a drop.<\/p>\n Injuries were certainly part of the reason. <\/p>\n Franz Wagner is one of the team’s best and most versatile defenders and played in only 34 games last season. The Magic had a 113.5 defensive rating with Wagner on the floor, according to Databallr, 2.7 points per 100 possessions better than the team’s overall average. <\/p>\n Wagner made a bigger impact on defense than he did on offense. His absence cut out part of the Magic’s defensive force.<\/p>\n Injuries explain part of the problem. But the Magic slipped in many areas.<\/p>\n During the 2025 season, the Magic allowed 120.0 points per 100 possessions in eight games. They had 26 in the 2026 season. They had nine games where they gave up 130 points per 100 possessions or more in the 2026 season, compared to three the year before.<\/p>\n A big part of that downturn was the team’s inability to force turnovers at the same rate. The Magic went from second in the league in opponent turnover rate in 2025 at 16.8 percent to 14th at 14.7 percent.<\/p>\n
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