The Orlando Magic’s preseason opener Saturday is a checkup of sorts as the team tries to apply all its has learned from the early part of training camp.
By all accounts from coach Scott Skiles, the Orlando Magic are progressing nicely. The energy in practice has been good. The effort and intensity has been good. Things are working great.
That is what a coach can say before he takes his team up against another and sees how they play through these principles under some heat.
When asked what to expect for Saturday’s opener against the Hornets, Skiles simply said, “I don’t know.”
And that is the plain truth, nobody is quite sure what to expect when the Magic take the court Saturday night.
So how have the Magic judged their progress before this (albeit minor) measuring stick Saturday? It has been on effort and energy plays. It has been on trying to do the right thing. It has been on shaking things off and moving forward.
“They are handling it pretty good because they are dealing with it,” Channing Frye told me at Orlando Magic Daily. “Everyone is making mistakes. There is a learning curve for everybody. But everybody is trying. No one is making mistakes based on laziness. They are making mistakes because they are trying to do everything. I like everybody’s attitude. I like what we’re trying to accomplish. And everyone is doing a good job.”
It might be positive practice talk. If the team falls into bad habits during the game, the tenor might change. Saturday’s game is something of a measuring stick because of it.
If the team struggles in that game with things like fighting through negative plays or failing to make the right defensive rotation, urgency might pick up. But then again, that might be the check up the team needs to understand where it is at and how it needs to improve the rest of this month.
We will find out Saturday when the Magic get started.
