Mario Hezonja, Orlando Magic ready for first NBA game
Mario Hezonja will step onto the court in an Orlando Magic uniform for the first time Saturday. Both he and the team are ready to gauge their progress.
Mario Hezonja will step onto the Amway Center floor for the first time Saturday morning. The Magic will do their shootaround on the main floor before Saturday’s preseason opener.
Hezonja has been one to brush off the “being a rookie” storylines. He has been a pro before and has stated that it feels like a normal training camp. The NBA, he continued to admit, is a different game almost a different sport than anything he has played before.
Saturday, like it is for the entire Magic roster, is an important day. It is the first time Hezonja and the Magic will be able to apply the things they have learned in training camp to a new setting. It is the first time they will put on the uniform and go out in front of the fans.
Everyone seems at least more than interested in what the results will be.
“I have no idea [what to expect],” Scott Skiles said. “I have had many teams where I feel like we’re ready and we’ll play really well in our first exhibition game and we haven’t and vice versa. If we play anything like we’ve played in here, we’ll play really well and try to share the ball and look organized. You just don’t know.”
The Magic and the coaching staff will have a better gauge of where the team is after tomorrow night’s game. It will not be an all-encompassing view, but it is something of a checkup of the Magic’s status.
Skiles is hoping to see some carryover from practice into the game. They want to see how the players react to opponents they cannot predict and whether the team’s defensive and offensive principles stick.
“I hope we look great,” Tobias Harris said. “I hope we bring a lot of the things that we’re doing and learning in training camp and bring that onto the court tomorrow. The main thing I hope is that we just come out there and play with a lot of energy and focus on a lot of things that we’ve worked on offensively and defensively. We’ve had a pretty good training camp. It has been intense. It’s going to be fun to come out tomorrow and play.”
That might go double for a guy like Mario Hezonja.
Hezonja remains a bit of a mystery to the Magic and their fans. The only bits they have seen of him came from Summer League and the little bit in Eurobasket. Neither seems an appropriate judge of what he can do when he is turned loose on the basketball court.
The practice reports so far have been good.
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Skiles said Hezonja has shot the ball well and played defense. He is just learning what to do on the court and the proper spacing for the offense, as everyone is.
“It will be good to see him play in a real game,” Skiles said. “Even though, typically especially early in exhibition season, teams aren’t playing their main guys a ton of minutes. But it’s still, it’s another step in the process, putting him out there, seeing where he is at, matching up against legitimate NBA players and kind of seeing where he is at. We’ll try to get him enough minutes to make that type of judgment Sunday and have a better understanding of where we think he is right now.”
Hezonja as everyone seems to know, is not shy about putting up shots. He is confident. Skiles is curious what happens when the league inevitably humbles him. At that point, Skiles and players like Harris will have to be there to help him and guide him through those lows.
When Hezonja and the Magic step on the court for the first time Saturday though, they will have a blank slate on which to write on.
The game tomorrow is a chance to see where the Magic are at and find out where the team is at with what Skiles has taught them.
“I’m very excited to get out there and play against people other than ourselves,” Elfrid Payton said. “It will be fun to get out there and compete and get ready for the regular season.”