Magic experiment with defensive array
The Golden State Warriors have their “Death Lineup.” One day, a lineup Orlando Magic coach
has tinkered with this preseason might merit a nickname of its own. The quintet consists of at point guard,
at guard,
and at the forward spots and
at center. Think: defense, defense, defense.
All five players are so athletic and agile that they should, with rare exceptions, be able to switch freely whenever opponents set screens. In the modern NBA — a world in which teams spread the floor with four or more 3-point shooters and the pick-and-roll reigns supreme — a defense can never have enough people who can play positionless basketball, who can guard speedy point guards as effectively as they can guard muscular big men.
“That’s what we’re trying to build,” Vogel said. “We’ve got a lot of length at those positions, and they have the ability to do a good job on point guards. That’s important. We’ve just got to make sure that all of our perimeter guys just commit. They’ve got to think positionless defense. Point guards aren’t just guarding point guards anymore. They’ve got to guard bigger guys, both on the perimeter and have to deal with what it looks like when they get posted up. And everybody’s got to be tied together.”
Vogel has employed the Payton, Simmons, Gordon, Isaac and Birch quintet sparingly so far, including at the start of Thursday night’s third quarter against the Dallas Mavericks. shooting But the lineup has potential, especially in lategame situations when the Magic must have their best defenders on the floor.
Baseball offers a parallel. Just as managers often bring in a left-handed reliever to face a left-handed batter and then replace the reliever when a right-handed batter is due to the plate, Vogel could employ a Payton, Simmons, Gordon, Isaac and Birch lineup for one defensive possession at a time.
That specific group would be good offensively in transition but could struggle in the halfcourt because it wouldn’t stretch the floor.
“It’s not the best shooting group on the offensive end,” Vogel said. “So we’d have to cover some things on that end of the floor and make sure we’re executing, being smart with our offensive attack. But defensively, it looks pretty good.”
Because this preseason has been shortened to create rest days during the regular season, Vogel knows that some players on the fringes of the rotation could receive fewer minutes than they would’ve received in prior preseasons. So he’ll attempt to rest some of his key players, which would, in turn, create minutes for the rest of the roster.
On Saturday, Vogel employed the Magic’s regular starting five of Payton,
Gordon and
in an exhibition game against the Miami Heat at Amway Center.
But Vogel said he intends to give some “core guys” the night off Monday against the Mavericks in Dallas and others the night off Tuesday against the San Antonio Spurs in San Antonio.
The Magic are playing six exhibition games this season after they played seven last year and eight in 2015. Vogel thinks the team doesn’t need as many games this preseason because the Magic have coaching continuity for the first time the 2014-15 preseason.
“It’s not a full system implementation where everybody’s getting used to each other or everybody’s getting used to a coach like we had last year,” Vogel said.