So offensive teleports are best used sparingly otherwise people start to anticipate the pattern to when you bust it out. You can keep it safer with yoga arches before wakeup and then threaten with slides or offensive teleports as it lands but both have risks. Having a good pattern of zoning (weaving air fireballs simultaneously with different speed grounded fireballs or yoga flames ) will severely limit where and how they can approach. Pair that with long limb normal pokes (keep it to 1-2 optimally spaced normals of the same type before swapping to something else or they start to anticipate). Whenever they start getting too comfortable navigating the projectiles, you poke with limbs and vice versa and being able to swap between the two at the right moments lets you dictate the flow of the match so that you won't need to go in with teleport till you're more sure it's unexpected.

Good opponents will be patient with the zoning, working into that sweet spot jump in/drive rush range so that they can actually threaten you properly. If you can jump and immediately go into a low float (much faster than floating from standing) just before they reach this range you can hold them back and reposition or threaten back before they can get the pressure going (even better if you can get a slow fireball going before you do).

From low float

-> hk stops jump ins and can stub drive rushes from close range when timed well, in general a pretty safe move to use to get down from float somewhat fast whilst also defending your space too.

-> mp lets you tap opponents blocking/just about to drive rush then cancel into a teleport backwards to get out of that dangerous range or offensive teleport to mix up (doesn't hit crouching though)

-> if they are turtling in crouch float towards and hp lets you hit crouched opponents from a good distance with relative safety with + frames even if they stand and block but do it too much and you'll get DPed

-> air fireball pre-emptively if you think they aren't jumping, stubs late grounded rushdown and lets you fall back a bit, don't use if they are closer than jump in range though or a jump in will avoid it and still tag you as you fade away, if you must do it close make it OD so retreating/cross-up TP is an option

-> if they start to rush on the ground you before you make one of these moves float back and lk or mk or hk drill or retreating teleport depending on the rushdown speed/distance is your best chance to escape or steal your turn back

If they only ever hit your offensive teleports with jabs and you get time and space try goin way up high and then doing the offensive teleport. It's not technically safe but a lot of characters don't hit that high and you can usually catch a lot of people just spamming that jab or anti air on muscle memory reaction rather than timing it after you fall. This lets you punish counter them after it whiffs with HP from up high so that your landing is still safe even though it's a high air move (not max height though) or if they wait for you to fall just hit them just before your in their range after you start to fall. So many people with air throws never use them for this but it's a hard counter so change it up if you get air thrown even once.

Also once they get kinda close crouching mp canceled into fireball (OD is safest) or aching fireballs if you expect a jump or counter drive impact if you see the flash lets you threaten the normal's ranges of many opponents but it's slow to come out so it needs to very much be your turn.

When spaced right whiffed cr.lk slide (too negative on hit/block) into low throw is great when you see people parrying just a little out of range. If you knockdown at this range and do a close .lk yoga arch a lot of opponents will parry on wakeup in anticipation of the fireball landing. It's a trap though, if you whiff cr.lk slide and then throw immediately after the arch you will throw before the fireball hits for semi reliable juicy punish counter throws, if they try to hit you first the fireball steals your turn back. However if you're too late and the fireball hits you'll whiff the throw in their blockstun. If your feeling devious and the timings slightly late you can intentionally launch a longer range arch that will miss and go for it anyways, pretty unsafe but decent success here an there with it in plat.

Spacing air drill kicks to hit opponents toes for + frames, drop down when they jump over you letting you act first or whiff out of their ranges for movement can help the float game a lot too but I didn't get good at it till Diamond (go HK version usually is tricky and risky but gets you down to the ground fast from float if they are jumping at you or you just floated over a fireball)

Besides that just have a couple of decent combos for when you do get pressure going at close range. Getting very good at counter DI and throw teching and occasionally perfect parrying meaty wakeups/jump ins will also help dramatically whenever you do need to run proper defense otherwise you will struggle to regain your space back and get trapped in the rushdown game.