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By John Denton
Jan. 6, 2016
ORLANDO – The Orlando Magic’s strong showing in December caught the attention of other teams around the NBA – so much so that the Magic have now become a marked team.
Orlando followed up a 9-6 November with an impressive 10-5 December, ripping off five straight wins early in the month and closing 2015 with seven victories in the last nine games.
That success, something that is still a bit foreign to the Magic following seasons of 20, 23 and 25 wins, has led to foes ramping up their intensity against the Magic. That has presented a challenge that Orlando must be ready to accept, head coach Scott Skiles, team captain Tobias Harris and veteran forward Channing Frye said.
“For instance, each time that we’ve played Cleveland this year … there are games where LeBron (James) sort of starts the game getting others involved – I don’t want to say he eases his way in because that implies that he’s not trying – but against us he comes out and just tries to destroy us from the beginning of the game. And they’ve done it,” Skiles said. “Any team that has a winning record – as opposed to a team that has nine wins – from a human nature standpoint, players are going to be more ready to play.”
Harris said another factor in teams ramping up their intensity in an effort to take down the Magic is because of the jumbled nature of the Eastern Conference standings. At the start of play on Wednesday, just five games separated the No. 3 spot in the East and the No. 12 slot. Orlando had the East’s fourth-most wins on Dec. 31, but a three-game losing streak dropped it to ninth going into Wednesday night’s game.
“You can see it early on with the teams that we’re playing and the energy that they are coming out with in the first quarter,” Harris said. “That’s got to hit us and we’ve got to know that we’ve got to bring out energy in the first quarter. Channing is right – teams are sleeping on us. They know about our team and they know what we’re capable of. So that’s a challenge that we have to embrace.”
FLORIDA AFFILIATE: Since the advent of the NBA Development League in 2001 and their single-affiliation partnership with the Eerie Bayhawks, the Magic have wanted their own minor league team in Florida so that they can maximize the usage of it.
To that end, the Magic have begun the process of bringing its own D-League franchise to Central or Northern Florida. The franchise would be a direct affiliate of the Magic and could begin play in the 2017-18 season.
The Magic sent Request for Proposals to four locations in metropolitan Orlando and four others throughout the Sunshine State in an effort to find the best home for the team. The four potential sites the closest to Orlando: Kissimmee (Silver Spurs Arena); Lakeland (Lakeland Center); Orlando/ESPN Wide World of Sports (HP Field House) and Orlando/UCF (CFE Arena). The other four possible sites are: Daytona Beach (Ocean Center); Estero (Germain Arena); Fort Myers (Lee Civic County Center); Jacksonville (Veterans Memorial Arena). Other municipalities interested can contact the Magic.
The Magic want to have a D-League affiliate closer to their Orlando home base so they can more easily shuttle young players to the minor leagues for playing time. Currently the Magic and the Erie Bayhawks are in the second year of a three-year single affiliation partnership. While the Magic control the basketball operations, the Bayhawks are responsible for the team’s off-the-court business operations.
“Our goal is to have our Development League team closer to home, and we are beginning our due diligence to look at options in Central and Northern Florida,” Orlando Magic CEO Alex Martins said. “Having our D-League team closer to Orlando would give us the best opportunity to continue to develop our young players, while also extending the Magic brand in our region.”
CONSISTENT FOCUS AND ENERGY: When he played in the NBA for 10 seasons, Skiles often argued with coaches and trainers to let him play in games even though he was suffering through various injuries from time to time.
Current Magic point guard Elfrid Payton did the same thing twice before this season, convincing the Magic to allow him to play even though he was suffering from sprains of both ankles. Twice, Skiles didn’t like what he saw from Payton’s movement while playing in pain and lifted him from games.
On Monday night in Detroit, the Magic held Payton out of action because of a bone bruise in his left ankle. The point guard pushed the team to let him play, but he was rested – a move that ended his consecutive games played streak at 116.
Skiles’ primary motivation in resting Payton was to see whether the ankle issues were a factor in the 21-year-old point guard’s struggles of late. Payton has had issues staying in front of opposing point guards and battling through screens of late – something that could have been caused by spraining both ankles and getting kicked in the left one last Saturday night in Cleveland.
Skiles is hopeful that when Payton is back – possibly as soon as Friday’s game in Brooklyn – that the point guard will return with fresh legs and a much sharper focus in games. Skiles has tried to impress upon Payton that the Magic need him playing with an extremely high level of energy and not the diminished version who has played through pain much of the past two weeks.
“When he’s turned on, he’s very valuable,” Skiles said of Payton’s focus and energy. “When he’s going through the motions out there he falls in that group (of playing with wavering focus). It’s not a full-blown habit for him yet either. We have no reason to believe that it won’t become a full-blown habit for guys. We’re optimistic about that, yet we’re coming off a three-game stretch where we’ve shown we don’t have it mastered yet. We’ve got to stay with it and talk to them about it.”
