Scott Skiles guaranteeing nothing in rotation

There is no set closing rotation for the Orlando Magic. Instead Scott Skiles is sending out the players who give him the best chance to win night by night.

Scott Skiles has not been afraid to send messages to established players when it is warranted.

Come out sluggish to start the third quarter? Skiles will do a line change and find players that are ready to go. Struggle through the first half? It might be tough to find minutes again.

While Skiles said at the beginning of the season he would like a consistent starting unit to establish something, that was about all he promised. From then on, the rotation has been relatively unpredictable.

One thing has been predictable though, if a player is playing well, he will get a chance to finish.

“Nobody can say I’m not equal opportunity,” Skiles said. “Everybody gets a chance to play at some point. We’re trying our best to have a really high standard and hold guys to it. It doesn’t mean I’m always right, but I’m doing my best so everybody on the roster knows we’re having a high standard. If you are out there and sluggish and not getting the job done, we’ve got to look somewhere else because we’re trying to win the game.”

The Magic have seemingly used a different lineup to end just about every game this year. C.J. Watson closed the Magic’s win over Toronto two weeks ago, leaving stalwart Elfrid Payton on the bench. Aaron Gordon closed the Magic’s loss to the Rockets, sending Tobias Harris to the bench.

And, of course, Wednesday night, Jason Smith closed with Nikola Vucevic riding the pine the entire second half.

It is not that Vucevic or any of these players could never get back into late-game situations — Vucevic and Harris and Payton have all proven themselves in these moments — it is more Skiles is more willing to trust and play the players who are delivering for him on a night-by-night basis rather than rewarding some form of seniority.

Vucevic will be back in the starting lineup Saturday lineup (unless there is some crazy unforeseen rift nobody is publicly acknowledging yet). Like everyone else though, his playing time is dependent on what he can contribute to the team on a particular evening.

Vucevic said Skiles told the team he would not have a set rotation. he would play whatever was working that particularly night. The players would have to adjust and show they deserved to be on the court.

Most nights it will be Vucevic at center. And most nights it will be Elfrid Payton or Tobias Harris or Victor Oladipo or Evan Fournier closing games out or being a key part of the rotation.

“It doesn’t affect my confidence at all,” Vucevic said. “Obviously I would have liked to be out there with my teammates. But coach made the call to not play me. I did what I could to support the team and help any way I could. I felt I could help them by being more vocal on the bench. It doesn’t matter who plays, what matters is that we win. I didn’t play last night, but we won. That’s what’s important.”

Nothing is guaranteed though. Nor should it be.

The Magic are sitting at 6-6 but have largely been frustrated with their inconsistent play so far this season. It is something the team is working to improve and talking about constantly. The team is certainly happy to be hanging around the .500 mark, but remains hungry to get to that next step they have teased so much throughout this season.

“Some teams are probably really angry they are there, they had higher expectations than that, there are other teams that feel fortunate. I would hope we are on the angry side.” –Scott Skiles

“There’s a bunch of teams fluttering around .500 in both conferences,” Skiles said. “Some teams are probably really angry they are there, they had higher expectations than that, there are other teams that feel fortunate. I would hope we are on the angry side. In reality, if you want to have success, a good way to go about it is don’t blame anybody else, expect nothing and perform, execute. Those are three pretty standard things. It’s something we’re still working on those areas for sure.”

And that whole higher standard has been a big reason why Skiles has kept the rotation so inconsistent it would seem. His concern is with winning the game in front of him, not placating anyone who should be playing.

That has become the Magic’s way. They will put the lineup that theoretically gives them the best chance to win at the end of the day.

The Magic are expecting more of themselves and the coach is too. He will play who helps him get the win. The team is still finding its footing and consistency early on in the season.

At leas they are winning while doing so.

“We put a high standard for ourselves,” Vucevic said. “We expect ourselves to go into every game and be capable of winning that game. We obviously know that we haven’t been very consistent, but we have shown flashes of what we can do. We talk about it every day that we have to become more consisent, do what we do and not go away from that. It hasn’t always been pretty, but I think we can be pretty satisfied with where we are right now. But we have a long way to go to get to where we want. Being .500 isn’t our goal. We just have to keep growing.”