Orlando Magic best friends off the court, accountable on it?
The Orlando Magic are a group of young players who share a common age but also a deep friendship. That was meant to hold them all accountable this past year.
When the Orlando Magic gathered for the 2015 season back in September, their young core was talking unendingly about how they worked out together in and around Orlando.
There were the stories of neighboring teammates seeing each other’s car in the garage and immediate texts urging them to go to work. With so many young players on the roster, it would make sense that they would bond and would try to grow together. That is exactly what the Magic wanted in constructing this team.
That does not guarantee growth or development. Not by any stretch.
It could be a big thing in building chemistry and making for a friendly locker room. But that does not guarantee wins either.
The Magic had the baseline of friendship, now they want that friendship and accountability to create success.
“You can’t let the man on your side down,” Kyle O’Quinn said. “You look to your right or your left, it’s somebody you’re probably going to have dinner with later. You don’t want to be that odd guy out and let him down. If it’s an honest mistake, we’ll deal with that. You don’t want to let anybody down with effort or anything like that.”
Effort was rarely in question for the Magic throughout the season. Sure, there were moments when the team did look — emphasis look — like it had checked out. When Jacque Vaughn was fired, and around that time, the team’s effort seemed to wane. As the season came to a close, the finish line looked tantalizingly close.
For the Magic, they seemed to hold each other’s effort accountable. It was just getting the execution down right that was the problem.
Pushing the execution and schematic problems to the side, the Magic worked well together and you could tell they were close. There were moments when the Magic looked like the team they might one day become. They could hang with any team in the league, coming together defensively and pushing the ball against their opponents.
Liking each other has to be a first step to getting better, right?
“This is a unique group,” Willie Green said. “This is a unique situation for me. It’s a great challenge for all of us. I think this organization is committed to getting better and making improvements. We’ve been together doing a lot of little things together — yoga classes and kickboxing and boxing. I think that builds camaraderie and builds trust. That’s what it is going to take to continue to improve. We’ve got to trust one another.”
The youth on the roster is not going anywhere anytime soon though. So it is a good thing the team continues to build a relationship with each other.
At some point though, players will move on. This summer, the Magic could face the most upheaval they have seen since the rebuild. There is a real possibility Kyle O’Quinn and Tobias Harris will not be with the team next year, meaning two of those young players ingrained with this team’s core could very well be playing elsewhere.
In some sense though, the Magic hope this closeness will help push the team forward. Losing players or having a disappointing season will bring those who remain closer together to fix things and push the team forward.
That is the talk the Magic wanted to have throughout the season.
“I think everybody has got to hold each other accountable but at the same time it’s about the work you put in,” Harris said. “While we’re not here, to help improve our team. If everybody gets better, that is only going to help us going forward.”
The Magic are going to have to work at rebuilding that hope and that chemistry to make marked improvement next season with a new coach.
The newness of everything that will come in October will force the Magic to band together and rely on each other more for familiarity.
Several players said their friendship would help hold them accountable. Maurice Harkless noted it would enable them to bring constructive criticism to each game because they would know at the end of the day they would be eating together.
Perhaps that formula needed some revision after this past season.
Yet, at the end of the season, you could sense the excitement from Victor Oladipo over playing a career with Elfrid Payton. He said the two have come to like each other personally and cannot wait to lead the team through the offseason and into next season.
Of course, that does not guarantee success. It is just a nice thing to have for your work environment.
This is what the Magic have to build with though. The players on the team genuinely seem to like being around each other. They hope that it will hold them accountable when the chips are down and they need to step up for each other.
“I think it’s going to help us a lot,” Elfrid Payton said. “Playing with people that you like I think makes it a little bit easier. As you’re friends, you don’t want to let your friend down. I think it can’t help but translate to the court.”