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Magic Working on Building Good Team Chemistry

Josh Cohen
Digital News Manager

By John Denton
Oct. 21, 2016

ORLANDO – Professional basketball players often tend to think of themselves as 10-foot tall and bulletproof and able to overcome any obstacle in their path with work ethic, sweat equity and talent that oozes from their every pore.

Patience, however, isn’t always available or necessarily an option, especially with the NBA season bearing down on them, jobs on the line and games that count dead ahead.

The revamped Orlando Magic, a squad assembled over a busy summer with a new coaching staff and as many as eight newcomers on the regular-season roster, have tried using September pick-up scrimmages and a month training-camp practices and exhibition games to shorten the learning curve among the group. If a topsy-turvy, 2-5 preseason showed the Magic anything, it’s that you can’t accelerate chemistry and cohesion and you can’t always see the full potential of a squad until it fully comes together as one.

That, several Magic players admit now, might have been something that they underestimated before taking on the difficult task of trying to learn new coach Frank Vogel and their new teammates at the same time. They know now, however, that for the Magic to fully maximize the talent on hand, they need the kind of togetherness that only time can provide.

``It’s going to take a while and I think some of the guys didn’t understand that because they haven’t been through a process like this,’’ said center Bismack Biyombo, Orlando’s prized free-agency haul from July. ``Here, it’s a different situation and as we go through this process with our guys, it’s going to take some time. That’s the bottom line and we can’t run away from it. But eventually we’re going to get it and learn each other and give ourselves chances to win games.’’

The Magic’s final game of the preseason – a 114-111 overtime defeat of Anthony Davis and the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday night – was a perfect microcosm of the dramatic highs and lows that a team still in the getting-to-know-you phase has experienced. In the first half, Orlando got shelled defensively and fired one pass after another off shins and palms and out of bounds while falling behind by 23 points.

In the second half and overtime, the Magic showed off the vast potential of a deep and versatile roster that is loaded with talent and toughness. Orlando clamped down defensively, rode the hot shooting of guards Evan Fournier and Elfrid Payton, and captured a much-needed, emotion-filled victory in OT.

Their hope is that the momentum garnered from success in the preseason finale will carry over to Wednesday night’s regular-season opener at Amway Center against the rival Miami Heat.

``That (Thursday victory) shows what we’re capable of doing, especially on the defensive end,’’ said Payton, who banked-in a 3-pointer to tie the game in the final 30 seconds of regulation and won it in OT with a tie-breaking floater. ``We all know that we can be really good and winning (the last preseason game) will give us some positive vibes and good momentum going into the season.’’

Vogel, who is in his first season in Orlando after being highly successful the past 5 ½ seasons as Indiana’s head coach, has liked the approach his players have had in a preseason where there is so much of what he calls ``newness.’’ The six players back from last season – Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon, Mario Hezonja, C.J. Watson, Fournier and Payton – have had to learn a fourth system in three years and try and adjust to their new teammates. Newcomers Serge Ibaka, Jeff Green, D.J. Augustin, C.J. Wilcox, Stephen Zimmerman and Biyombo have had to adapt to their Orlando surroundings, lean Vogel’s style and try and mesh with their new teammates.

Having once taken over a team in midseason and constantly needing to adapt his style around injured players and new ones, Vogel knew the Magic had their work cut out for them while trying to find cohesion in the preseason. The process could very well last into the season, but the coach sees no reason why the Magic don’t have enough talent, leadership and experience to still win while they are learning one another.

``There’s a lot of newness and a lot of learning each other,’’ Vogel said. ``Player have to learn each other, players have to learn the coach and the coach has to learn the players. Hopefully, you hit the ground running with all of that and you win your first 10 games. But, if you don’t, that doesn’t mean that we can’t figure it out. We’re going to be positive and encouraged with the parts that we have. We have to figure it all out and get the job done.’’

Two Magic players who know a thing or two about the difficulty in adapting to new teams are Green and Augustin, free-agent signees by Orlando in July. Green, 30, has played for the Super Sonics/Thunder, Celtics, Grizzlies, Clippers and Magic and has been traded midseason three times. Augustin, 28, has played for eight teams total and seven in the last five years alone.

``I think the biggest thing for some guys is the patience part,’’ admitted Green, one of the most experienced players on the Magic roster. ``We all want things to happen quickly and we see the talent that we have and we expect quick results. But we don’t think about the patience and the time that it takes to get the results that we want.

``And I’m not just talking about the young guys; that’s the same with the coaches, players and everybody,’’ Green elaborated. ``You’ve got to develop the patience of the grueling hours that you have to put in to make sure you’re on the same page. It takes time, but the patience is something you forget about because you only see the talent and what you have on paper and you don’t necessarily the time that it takes to get on the same page.’’

Experience has taught Augustin, especially what he learned in the 2012-13 season while playing 76 games for the Pacers, to believe in what Vogel is preaching about patience. That season, the Pacers lost top scorer Danny Granger early in the season, got off to a rocky start and adjusted to some newcomer named Paul George moving into the rotation. In time, Vogel got the group to believe in what he was preaching and Indiana hit its stride well enough that it made it all the way to a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference Finals.

``We started off pretty slow that year with Danny getting hurt and us having to learn a new system,’’ Augustin recalled. ``But then once we started to pick it up and everything began to gel, we went on a run.

``(Vogel) definitely has a plan and it’s on the (Magic) guys to execute and make it all fall into place,’’ Augustin said, shifting his focus to the situation in Orlando. ``Right now we have a bunch of young guys in new positions and some new faces. But we’ve just got to stick to Coach Vogel’s plan, follow through on it and it will all fall into place for us.’’

Vogel’s vision for the Magic is for them to be a dominant defensive team and one that spreads the wealth offensively to take advantage of the versatility on the deep and blossoming roster. Seven preseason games showed flashes of greatness and signs that Orlando’s players are still learning one another. Some of the positives were 37.8 percent shooting from 3-point range and big advantages inside in terms of rebounding and paint points. However, all of the ``newness’’ still led to foes shooting 45.6 percent and scoring 106.1 points a game and the Magic 37 more times than their opponents.

Sure, it might take a month, six weeks or 41 games for all of the Magic’s players and coaches to fully learn one another and mesh as one. In time, however, the group is confident that the team is headed toward big things this season.

``You can’t really put a timeframe on how long it will take because it could click a month after we started (training camp), which is next week,’’ said Biyombo, whose Charlotte teams took a long time to build, but last season’s Toronto team that he was on came together quickly. ``Now, it’s a time for us to all go full speed. It’s going to be a challenge for to come together as quickly as possible, but it’s something I’m looking forward to. It’s going to be great, I’m telling you, it’s going to be great.’’

Note: The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Orlando Magic. All opinions expressed by John Denton are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Orlando Magic or their Basketball Operations staff, partners or sponsors.