The Orlando Magic have had a preseason to prepare and learn a new offense. Now the step up begins with a tough game against the Washington Wizards.
The schedule makers did the Orlando Magic no favors to start the season. Six of the team’s first seven games will be against opponents who made the Playoffs last year — and the only one who did not is Friday’s opponent, the Oklahoma City Thunder.
For a team that is learning so much and preparing to implement a new offense and defense for the first time, this is a major test in every way.
Maybe not the ideal start, but the start the Magic have to go through.
“It changes a lot,” Scott Skiles said on the changing approach to the regular season now. “We’re going into games in the exhibition season trying to get our work in, but also trying not to put 35 or 38 minutes on any player. Whereas tonight, we’re not that concerned about that. We’re going to play and whoever is playing the best, we’re trying to win the game.”
The Wizards will provide a more interesting challenge. Washington led the league in the preseason with a 106.8 offensive rating. The Wizards appear set to transform themselves into the latest small-ball offensive juggernaut. There are even reports Nene could come off the bench tonight to make way for a stretch-4 in the starting lineup.
It is unclear how the Orlando Magic will match. Scott Skiles said all the players should be available tonight, although Jason Smith could be held out with an ankle injury. Elfrid Payton and Aaron Gordon should play and Payton will be in the starting lineup.
Skiles has repeatedly said his team has performed well in practice. What he does not know at this point is how things will translate onto the game court.
That is something no coach can ever know until they actually do it. And the Wizards provide a pretty big challenge on that front.
“We go hard in practice every single day versus each other,” Tobias Harris said. “We want to play somebody else. I think everybody is excited just to be in our arena, with our fans, be in our home and to really start this year off. We are not putting too much pressure on ourselves. We just want to play and have fun.”
The Magic are expecting a lot of big things this year. And right off the bat the team will get challenged in a lot of ways. Both the offense and defense are going to get stretched. The confidence the team has right now could easily dissipate with a few losses.
The regular season will require a lot more precision and focus than the preseason for the Magic to be successful. And while still learning an entirely new offense, that could remain a work in progress.
The Wizards themselves have “punked” the Magic, as Victor Oladipo said at shootaround, winning the last eight regular season matchups between the teams.
Orlando is still learning itself while Washington is a team with title aspirations.
“I think we had a very good preseason as far as practicing and playing in games,” Nikola Vucevic said. “We really took it as if it was the regular season for us. I think guys did a good job. We can be happy with where we are at right now. There is obviously still a lot of work to where we want to be. It’s on us to show the work and improvement that we have made so far.”
And part of that learning will be setting a rotation and building off the strong play in practice, applying it to the game. The players are ready to take on that challenge.
The Magic are still a work in progress and discovering who they are as a team with this new coaching staff. Everyone has to be ready to go because everyone could contribute.
“We think of our team as we may play a lot of guys,” Skiles said. “We have a lot of versatility, but we haven’t had much success. All of our guys got to be ready to play. On any given night, it’s not impossible we play 12, we might play eight or nine. Hopefully we’ll play the way that we practice. If we do that, we’ll be really good.”