Brandon Jennings, Ersan Ilyasova know the work ahead

Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova have a familiarity with Scott Skiles and what he wants. They know the work ahead and that will help in the transition.

As the media entered the Amway Center practice facility to speak to the Orlando Magic on trade deadline Thursday with new players already in town and getting their first reps with their new team, the work was already beginning.

Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova already have plenty of familiarity with Scott Skiles and what he is looking for from his team. Still, a little extra work would not help.

On the far court, Ilyasova and Jennings were running through basic offensive sets with coaches guiding them through each step. The familiarity was there for sure, Jennings said when he spoke to the Orlando media for the first time, but there was still the rust of the All-Star Break to knock off and everything else.

With a Playoff goal — the Magic still sit just 3.5 games out of the final playoff spot — still in mind, there is no time to waste and precious little time to experiment, if any at all. And that will make getting Jennings and Ilyasova up to speed all the more important.

The players already on the roster already know how the team plays and what it has to do to win. They seemed eager and ready to dive back in when the team returned from the All-Star Break on Wednesday.

The new players will have to do that too. The good news is they know exactly what Skiles is going to expect from them.

“Playing for Scott Skiles, we know what his expectation is for the players and what his expectation is for us being with him in Milwaukee for five years,” Ilyasova said. “We are familiar with the system. We know what he is expecting from us. I’m looking forward to playing for him.”

Jennings said he was able to pick things up quickly during his first practice. They ran similar plays to what he ran with Milwaukee when Skiles coached him before.  There will still be a transition though for these players.

Jennings played his first four years of his career with Skiles while he was in Milwaukee. Ilyasova was also on the Bucks while Skiles was coaching as Jennings’ teammates. That helped them immediately, Jennings said. They were already familiar with what Skiles was trying to accomplish.

Especially with Jennings, there is an appreciation for what Skiles did for his career even if it was not all that clear in the moment.

Jennings entered the league at 19 years old, having foregone college to play a year in Italy before returning for the Draft. He put up impressive scoring numbers but inevitably that old Skiles narrative of running thin on his player creeped up.

He said though now looking back on that time, Skiles gave him the necessary preparation for life in the NBA.

“I was young,” Jennings said. “At 19, 20, 21 coming into the league, I didn’t want to do certain things. Now as I have gotten older, I realize everything he was trying to teach me of being a professional and staying engaged and locking in and taking the game seriously and the way to approach the game.”

Of course, Skiles last coached Milwaukee in 2013 and a few seasons away from the NBA certainly could have seen those players change some.

Ilyasova has continued developing his 3-point shot and Jennings has flourished more as a point guard in his time since Skiles coached him. They have changed some. Or, perhaps better, have defined their skills as NBA players more since Skiles coached them earlier in their careers.

“I don’t know if they have changed that much,” Skiles said. “Both guys have a defined game. Brandon is a good pick and roll player and is good on the break. Ersan is a good 3-point shooter, a good rebounder, an active, hard-playing guy. Once you kind of figure that out, you can keep trying to refine each skill. But once you figure out your game in the NBA, it tends to stay the same.”

The expectation for both is to play hard and add what they can do to this team. Both having the ability to make 3-pointers and at least threaten a defense with their shooting — both Ilyasova and Jennings are shooting below their career averages from beyond the arc.

The Magic brought these players in to provide veteran leadership and guidance to this young team. A lot of it will come through example as it always seems to. But these are steady players that, as Skiles said, know who they are in the NBA. Skiles helped form that.

The experience both Jennings and Ilyasova have will benefit the Magic. It struck both pretty quickly how much talent was on the roster. And how much they can help.

“It’s all about setting an example,” Ilyasova said. “It’s hard to win games with just offense. But if you bring energy and play defense each night and every day, you can be really successful in this league. I remember when I was with [Skiles] and we made the playoffs [against the Hawks in 2010], we didn’t have a lot of guys who were all stars. We had a group of guys who were willing to sacrifice themselves for others. When I look at this team, we have a lot of those guys.”

That is much the mentality Skiles has tried to imprint on the team throughout the year so far. He has repeated the margin for error for his team is unfortunately small with the way it is built without a star. To succeed the team needs everyone pulling together.

Jennings and Ilyasova seem to know and understand this message from having experienced it and succeeded with it before.

Jennings said he can teach the younger players the approach and what Skiles is looking for out of the guards. He can help pinpoint those lessons he learned and maybe fought against at an early age that he appreciates more now.

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The main thing Skiles wants, Jennings said, is to compete and play hard. As long as everyone understands that the team’s goals remain ahead.

And as for that playoff goal, Jennings knew the moment the team hired Scott Skiles it would improve and become a fun team to watch, much like the Bucks did when Jennings was drafted and Skiles arrived.