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Napier: "I Just Have Confidence in Myself"

Josh Cohen
Digital News Manager

By John DentonOct. 8, 2015

ORLANDO – Shabazz Napier is a two-time collegiate national champion, a former Most Outstanding Player in the Final Four and a first-round pick in the 2014 NBA Draft.

Still, the 6-foot-1 guard could be in a battle to make the Magic’s roster when it comes to cut-down day just before the start of the regular season.

Napier almost certainly helped his cause to make the Magic on Wednesday when he drilled a clutch 3-point shot with 3.5 seconds remaining to beat the Miami Heat – coincidentally the team that traded him away to the Magic this past summer.

For Napier, the game-winning shot was more about showing the Magic what he can do as a shooter and to help the team win than it was beating his former team. Head coach Scott Skiles drew the final play up to have the ball in Napier’s hands and the guard delivered with the 24-foot shot from just left of the key.

``I just have confidence in myself and I’ve been in those (late-game) situations many times,’’ Napier said. ``I’ve been fortunate to make some shots. Sometimes it goes in and sometimes it doesn’t and I just have to live with it.’’

Napier is the front-runner to win the third-string point guard job behind Elfrid Payton and C.J. Watson and ahead of Keith Appling, who spent all of last season with the Magic’s D-League team in Eerie, Pa. However, because the Magic have a glut of wing players and others such as Victor Oladipo and Evan Fournier who can initiate the offense, the Magic could choose to keep an extra big man (such as Greg Stiemsma) on the roster. One thing helping Napier’s case is the fact that he can play both guard spots in certain matchups.

Skiles, a former 6-foot-1 point guard himself during his playing days, said that it’s important for Napier to find ways to compensate for his lack of size in a league full of bigger point guards.

``Shabazz has a slight frame,’’ Skiles said. ``It’s not that he’s not tough. There are bigger bodies. He’s always going to have that (size disadvantage). So he’s just got to make up for it with his ability to shoot.

``There are lot of guys that have played in the NBA for a long time … D.J. Augustin is a smaller guy, Dana Barros. There’s a long list,’’ Skiles added. ``They usually do something at a very high level.’’

HAPPY TO BE HOME: Back in his home state of Indiana – he was born in LaPorte 150 miles north of Indianapolis, raised in Plymouth 115 away and keeps an offseason home in the southern part of the Hoosier state – Skiles was asked on Thursday if he would have been content never coaching in the NBA again.

After all, Skiles had been out of the league since Jan. of 2013 when he was fired by the Milwaukee Bucks. Skiles said that while he wasn’t ``sitting by the phone,’’ the fact that the Orlando job came available made him interested in coaching again.

``I wasn’t sitting by the phone or in a panic by (not coaching),’’ Skiles said. ``Honestly, there was only a couple of places that I would have considered and this (Magic job) is one of them. It presented itself and I did a lot of background on the players and all of the information that I got turned out to be true. They’re a bunch of good guys, hard workers and fun to be around. I’m hoping that translates into success.’’

Skiles said that if a NBA coach job had never presented itself again, he would have been fine because he has a lot of different interests outside of basketball. ``But I never tell anybody what (those interests) are,’’ he said with a laugh.

``We were splitting our time between Florida – that’s our home – and (Indiana) and we’d come back up here for about four months. I was living the life of a true retiree and I was having fun,’’ Skiles said.

While out of coaching, Skiles said he stayed close to the NBA game by picking out a game and watching one a night. He said each of his stops with the Suns, Bulls and Bucks taught him things that he will use to be a better coach in Orlando.

``Hopefully you’re always trying to learn something, paying attention and looking at yourself (internally) – even after each game,’’ he said. ``What decisions did I make, what worked and what didn’t?

``I’ve done this before – I’ve taken over a really young team before (in Chicago). Again, if they are good people and they work hard, it ends up being a lot of fun,’’ Skiles said. ``I was hoping it would be that way (with the Magic). We’re not that far in, but I’m pretty comfortable saying that whatever happens this year it will be a fun group to be around.’’

PICK-AND-ROLL PLAYER: The scouting report on Magic rookie forward Mario Hezonja prior to last June’s NBA Draft was that he was an elite-level shooter from the perimeter and very athletic for someone his size. One facet of Hezonja’s game that might have been overlooked, however, is the guard/forward’s ability to initiate offense with his playmaking skills.

Hezonja had one of the prettiest plays of Wednesday night’s 100-97 defeat of the Miami Heat in Louisville, Ky. Inserted in the game and expected to give the Magic a jolt off the bench, Hezonja proved to be instant offense.

With the ball on the wing, Hezonja drove hard to his right and rubbed off a screen set by Dewayne Dedmon. Because he attacked the defense so aggressively two Heat players focused on cutting him off. To the surprise of many, Hezonja deftly dropped off a bounce pass between two defenders that Dedmon dunked with authority.

``Before (when he played professionally in Spain) I had to play in pick-and-rolls and isolation (plays) and I feel comfortable,’’ Hezonja said. ``With an assist two men are involved, but when you shoot it’s only you and nobody else. So I want to involve my teammates when I’m on the court for the growth of the team.’’

Hezonja’s ability to get into the lane and create for others opened him up on the next two possessions and he drilled two 3-pointers over Miami’s Luol Deng. Having his hands in eight straight points helped key a 12-2 run by the Magic in the game’s second quarter.

``Everybody on the bench was saying, `Play aggressive and be sharp and the game will come,’’’ recalled Hezonja, who finished with eight points and one steal. ``So I was just really trying to play the game on another level and it worked out for me.’’