Preseason Observations

[Emory889 353]

The East will be better this year. I don't think teams will be able to suck and still make the playoffs like last season.

[~O~ 565]

Great. Thanks to you guys, I'm actually looking forward to today's game.

[The Neighborhood Bully 266]

Just like Vucevic and Harris, Elfrid Payton appears to have hit a nice consistent groove in the first two preseason games. He is progressing, and possibly pushing for playing time, much faster than many of us thought.

 

Payton scored eight points on a perfect 4-for-4 shooting, adding five assists and, more importantly, one turnover. This following his big outing against Miami with eight assists.

 

Payton is clearly a player that is going to make an impact pretty quickly. He still has to look for his own scoring, but he has great vision and loves to push the pace. The Magic are working on increasing the pace and Payton fits that perfectly. He really has, as Aaron Gordon said at media day, found different speeds.

 

Things are going to change in the regular season. But this is a very promising start for Elfrid Payton. He already has a good base to build off of.

 

http://network.yardb...pacers/17470076

[chosen12 75]

I think that Payton already has shown that he has the poise to start. Yeah he may average a high turnover rate, but the more minutes we give him against quality opposition, the quicker he will be to adjust to the NBA game.

 

This season is going to be exciting even if we only finish in the 20 win column. The development of our group, defensive strategy and athletic ability should make it the most enjoyable season to watch since our Championship run in '09 in my opinion. Also I still see us having the ability to make the playoffs.

 

I can only agree with you here!

 

Good post with solid points. I may be expecting to much, but if our guys continue this into the regular season, my hopes for this team will be over achievement!

 

If we can get off to a good/fast start, it will be December, January before we are taken seriously around the NBA! Just a theory!

[VintageGarrity 13]

Another thriller last night. This preseason has been fun! I don't know how you guys watched this one, but I found a stream that was seemingly a direct camera feed from Charlotte (there were no commercials) overlaid with the Magic's radio broadcast. What was crazy about this was that the camera went overhead at the beginning of possessions and then abruptly switched to a baseline camera under the basket when teams got into their half-court offense. Combined with the radio announcer's uber detailed play-by-play, this was probably one of the most nauseating multimedia spectacles I've ever witnessed. It was still great.

 

I think my main takeaway from this game was that the team is definitely poised to play near their ceiling this year (as long as we're relatively healthy). Overall, I thought Payton played well despite his poor shooting night. He's turning it over way too much (1:1 assist to turnover ratio in this game!) and will probably do this a good amount this season, but he's making these perceptive interior passes that are an absolute pleasure to watch. I was perfectly okay with his missed game-tying shot at the end, since he was wide open and he needs to get comfortable with those situations. In a regular season game this year, it's going to be Victor or Tobias taking that shot, but soon enough Elfrid will be asked to step up to the occasion as well.

 

Swinging the ball around is going to be key this year. The Magic have looked great when they are getting everyone involved. They've been doing that so far, but there was a notable dip in team assists in last night's game: 24 against Miami, 24 against Indiana, and 16 against Charlotte. Something to keep an eye on I guess.

 

I thought O'Quinn's performance was once again extremely promising. He's averaging 10.7 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1.7 blocks, and 1.7 TOs on around 47% shooting so far this preseason. His passing really stands out. His FG% is a little low, but given that he's taking a good amount of midrange jumpers I'm not overly concerned with him being under 50% at his position.

 

Lastly, I have to praise Ben Gordon's shooting performance last night, particularly after I lambasted his performance in game 1. Still, he's going to be streaky and I wasn't surprised that he did it against his former team.

[CTMagicUK 1,482]

Willie Green sighting!

[KandiKane 136]

And Aaron Gordon stuffing the box score.

[MagicFanInNevada 51]

And Aaron Gordon stuffing the box score.

 

Yeah I saw that! He seemed to have a pretty good game

[Optimist Prime 197]

How did AG's shot look? I saw he made some threes, which is good.

[Jay Magic 1,244]

How did AG's shot look? I saw he made some threes, which is good.

 

if he improves his shooting and a few more things he will be devastating!!

 

He looked good. The potential is clear as day...

[Jay Magic 1,244]

Before tip off, SVG was asked to evaluate the Magic.

 

``The first thing is that they play at a very, very high energy level. They play at a good pace, not only up and down the floor, but they play with a great pace in their offense,’’ Van Gundy said.

 

``A lot of pick-and-rolls and they play with great quickness and freedom. I think they've got a lot of skilled guys and it’s a talented young team. And then I think when they need to slow the game down they have a great anchor down low in Vucevic, a very, very skilled guy.

 

Tonight, in particular, because we didn't spend a ton of time in preparation like we would in the regular season, stopping them will be a big problem. But I think it’s going to be a very big problem for everybody all year long.

 

They've got a lot of guys they can run in and out of the game, they can play at a high pace and I think they have a chance to be a very good offensive team.’’

 

Not mention our Defense also...

[Spaceman 58]

Just realized there's not a single player on this years Magic form Stans old team. I like this team.