Elfrid Payton learning to think like a shooter
Often in his rookie year, Elfrid Payton would drive looking to probe as defenses dared him to shoot. The Orlando Magic want him taking those shots now.
Elfrid Payton is not known for his offense. He shot just 42.8 percent from the floor and just 30.7 percent on shots outside 10 feet.
Payton has been hard at work on his jump shot throughout the offseason, and fans will get to see the product of that work once the Magic play their first exhibition game Oct. 3.
It is the biggest improvement Payton has to make to open up his and the Magic’s offense. It is just difficult to run much of anything if Payton cannot shoot the ball.
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No one is expecting him to turn into Ray Allen overnight. But the Magic need Payton at least to be a threat to shoot the ball. Defenses need to know they cannot sag off him and that he will make them pay when he shoots.
It has been the thing Payton has worked on all summer — getting his shot better. But more than that, Payton has had to learn to think like a scorer, something he was sometimes reluctant to do as a rookie.
“We want him to take his open shots and knock them down,” coach Scott Skiles said. “And he can do that. He’s worked really really hard this summer on trying to get the ball not as far back and get it more in front of him and kind of coming off and shooting that stop-and-pop 15 footer. And of course he has the floater.
“He just needs to stay with it. It’s interesting now because he’s not just standing and spot shooting, we’re in live game-type scenarios. As long as he keeps it together, it will start going in for him. It’s important for us, it’s important for him. If he is one of those guys who can become fairly reliable and at some point mix in a corner 3, with the way he can penetrate, the sky is the limit for him.”
Even Skiles had to admit Payton’s jumper is ultimately what will decide his NBA future and what kind of player he would be. The whole team, it seems has been encouraging him to shoot it more.
Last year, Payton had his troubles as the numbers show.
His uncertainty though hurt him at the end. As Josh Cohen of OrlandoMagic.com points out, Payton’s percentages drop the more dribbles he takes before he shoots.
According to NBA.com, Payton made 45.1 percent of his shot taken without any dribble. These would be like spot-up shots. The kind of shots Payton has sometimes been reluctant to take. Often he will think to attack first or begin probing the defense rather than let it fly.
That is fine if he is doing it to shoot. He made 48.9 percent of his field goals off of one dribble. That only happened for 6.7 percent of his shots.
The least efficient category for Payton was his shooting 30.4 percent of his shots on 3-6 dribbles. He made just 37.1 percent of his shots after taking 3-6 dribbles before shooting. Payton took most of his shots after taking seven or more dribbles — 249 field goal attempts — making a more respectable 44.6 percent on those kind of shots.
This would all suggest Payton needs to be more decisive when he is attacking the basket. Indecision about when and where to shoot hampered him throughout his rookie year.
The thing Skiles and the Magic have encouraged Payton to do is be a little more selfish and have a scorer’s mentality.
“It’s been all right,” Payton said. “I think I am doing a better job of it [having a scorer’s mentality]. It’s somthing I did in college. I still remember that.”
Payton did have seemingly better success at Louisiana-Lafayette as a scorer. He averaged 19.2 points per game his final year with the Ragin’ Cajuns while shooting 50.9 percent from the floor. He does have a scorer within him. The Magic are hoping an improved jumper and some experience can help unlock it.
His jumper does look better. Payton is still working with shooting coach Dave Love after practices to get it better. And teammates say they have noticed Payton’s jumper and confidence in the jumper has gotten better too.
“At the end of the day, he’s just got to shoot it. He’s just got to do it now.” — Victor Oladipo
“You can help him, but at the end of the day EP just has to want to shoot it,” Victor Oladipo said. “He has gotten a lot better. His jumper has gotten a lot better. We’re going to need him to shoot it so he can spread the floor out. At the end of the day, he’s just got to shoot it. He’s just got to do it now.”
It all goes into his development plan for his second season. Payton said he wants to be a better leader and help his team execute. He said he put some of the team’s failures to close out games on himself as he learned how to lead his mostly older teammates and get the ball to the right person at the right time.
A part of accomplishing that is becoming more confident as a NBA scorer.
No matter how many dribbles it takes for Payton to get comfortable with his shot, the Magic want him to let it fly when it is open.
“I want him to take the shot first,” Skiles said. “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.”
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