Azir's ult in melee range just makes people bounce instead of moving them. [GAMEPLAY]
When you are in melee range of a champion and you ult the expected result is that it will move them AWAY from you in the direction that you target it. What ends up happening about half the time is that they receive the damage, bounce in place, and remain right on top of you. The most common application of Azir's ult is as a space creator between you and bruisers/assassins. When you ult them and they remain right on top of you you're pretty screwed over.
I try to ult Pantheon away to create space and put him in range of my soldiers but he just plops right back down next to me.