Elfrid Payton hitting the rookie wall? Or bursting through?
Elfrid Payton saw his strong January turn into a dreadful February. He has started to come around though and is bursting through the fatigue of a season.
No one realizes how long an NBA season really is until you experience it for the first time.
Last week, the question came up about whether Elfrid Payton would hit that proverbial rookie wall. He is still the only player on the roster to have played every game this season. He was well past the 50-game mark and it was noted. . . he still has pretty much a college season of 30 or so games remaining in this season alone. Ten more games have passed since that point.
It is a crazy thought to have. Payton still has a lot of growth and development to go and much of it will come in his first offseason.
Until then the games keep coming and Payton, following his Rookie of the Month performance in January, saw himself take a bit of a slide.
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In January, Payton averaged 10.7 points and 6.9 assists per game. He actually shot 45.2 percent from the floor. He was aggressive as the team pushed the pace and Payton was the one driving the boat.
February was a different story. He hit that 50-game mark and the numbers dropped. 7.8 points per game, 6.2 assists per games, 41.9 percent field goal shooting. Defenses focused on stopping him more. March has not fared much better as Payton has made just four of 15 shots the last two games entering Friday’s win over Sacramento — and 10 of his last 31.
It begs the easy question: Did Elfrid Payton hit the wall?
“It’s a long year,” coach James Borrego said. “There is a lot of games to a season. This is new for him. The group supports him. We believe in him. We pump him up and we move on to the next game.”
Payton bounced back well with a confident performance against the Suns. Albeit, he shot just 4 of 11 from the floor. He was aggressive again and able to move the ball. Something he has to continue to do to have success as the season closes out.
Payton told Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated the biggest thing he has to learn is balancing when to look for his own shot and when to get others involved. That is typical for a young point guard.
“My whole thing this year is about being consistent and getting consistently better over the year,” Payton said. “That’s just what I’m trying to do.”
He has been great at setting the table all season and as his jumper develops, his offense will come too with development in the summer.
He has consistently been a guy willing to make the extra pass and keep the offense moving. Even though defenses sag way off him, he has found space and found a way to distribute and get into the paint to make the defense collapse or open up cutting lanes for passing options.
“My whole thing this year is about being consistent and getting consistently better over the year.” — Elfrid Payton
The Magic are going to continue to ride him to the end of the season, even through all the growing pains that come with being a rookie.
“He’s a rookie. I had the same growing pains,” Victor Oladipo said. “Things get good. Things aren’t so good. At the end of the day, it’s a process. It’s a process of this whole league. All the greats went through it. Everybody in the league went through it. He’s just got to continue to stay positive, keep an even keel and not get too hard on himself.”
That ultimately is what Payton wants to get out of the rest of this season. That consistency and calm demeanor every point guard needs.
Orlando is not going away from him. The team is going to continue to trust him.
He has started to reward that trust again as he has started to break out of this little funk from the last few weeks and has started to find confidence in his shot again. It would have been a lot to ask a rookie to play 82 games as a starter at that position with all the responsibility he would have to carry.
“He’s a young kid trying to play in this league,” coach James Borrego said. “These are more games than he has ever played in his carer in one season. He’s facing the best point guard every single night. We’re asking him to guard, we’re asking him to set the table for our offense. There’s a lot on his shoulders right now. But We need him to step up, we need him to be aggressive, we need him to be confident.”
That confidence is coming back quickly.
After a few games where the length and rigor of the season seemed to get to him, it looks like Payton is bursting through the wall for the rest of the season.