Elfrid Payton took the NBA by storm with a strong rookie campaign. For him and the Orlando Magic to jump up, Elfrid Payton will have to become a shooter.
One of the pleasant surprises for the Orlando Magic last season was the emergence of Elfrid Payton.
When the Magic took him in the draft, fans were not sure what to think of him. He came from a small school in Louisiana-Lafayette and was known more for his hair than his game. He did not have much of the same appeal as some of the bigger names in that draft (including Dante Exum, the point guard the Magic passed up on).
Payton quickly made the fans and the rest of the NBA notice him for his play. He averaged 8.9 points per game and 6.5 assists per game, recording back-to-back triple doubles in one instance and becoming a stat sheet stuffer.
There was a glaring weakness to his game, one that Payton will have to overcome to have true staying power in this league. For the Magic to get to that level, he will have to start making shots.
Payton shot 42.5 percent from the floor last year and was particularly bad on jumpers and shots outside of 10 feet.
A big part of Payton’s development this summer was not just working with shooting coach Dave Love, but also working on gaining a scoring mentality.
That is what Scott Skiles told me as I wrote at Orlando Magic Daily:
I want him to take the shot first. Elfrid has never really thought like a shooter. He thinks like a penetrator. We want him to think and look for his shot. And that should evolve.
He has some more confidence in it because he has worked so much on it. Now the next step is to start to look for it a little bit rather than it being the afterthought. Just look for it and make good decisions. Enough of them will go down. It won’t be long.
Payton still has a lot of work to do to get that mentality and have it fit his game. Teammates have been very encouraging and have reported Payton has more actively looked for and taken his shots when they come. But it is still going to be a work in progress. He is not going to be able to flip that switch quickly.
For sure, though, Payton’s jump shooting will be one of the internal improvements the Magic will need to see to accomplish their Playoff goals this year.
We get our first look at Payton and his jumper Saturday in the Magic’s first exhibition game.
