Orlando Magic Daily Mailbag Volume 14: Decision time
@OMagicDaily Question: Do you think Skilesnhas stunted the growth of Payton? I think so.
— Boobie Miles (@BoobieMiles468) March 15, 2016
Elfrid Payton was really quite the conundrum this year, wasn’t he?
It was hard to get a good handle on him for sure. Injuries certainly hampered his season from December on and he struggled with that. Throw in the Magic using a more motion-based offense, and it was a difficult year for Payton.
It is important to remember Payton is in his second year in the league. He still has a lot of learning to go. And so I would look at his struggles this year less as “stunting growth” and more as “growing.
Scott Skiles brought in a much more regimented and precise offense. Jacque Vaughn‘s offense was overly simplistic and allowed the players to go out and play. That obviously did not work — the Magic’s offensive rating in 2015 was 27th in the league, this year it rose to 21st — but it did allow Payton to freelance a lot and that is where he found a lot of success. Payton is still really good in the pick and roll and getting to the basket.
It took some time for him to adjust to a little bit of structure. And the injuries did not help.
But I think we saw — and Carson wrote about this really well earlier this week — that when Payton got “it,” the Magic were all the better for it. There was no player that was more important on either end of the floor for the Magic.
Payton had some very basic things he needed to understand. I think there was some youthful resistance to Skiles’ hard-driving coaching. There is no way around it though, Payton was poor on defense for a good chunk of the season — injuries certainly could be one explanation, but his defensive box plus minus dropped from 0.8 points per 100 possessions better than the average player to -0.5 despite the Magic’s general improvement on defense — and it cost the Magic games.
That is something that no coach can teach or change in an individual player. Payton had to find and correct that himself. And really only Payton knows why this slippage occurred.
Offensively, no doubt Payton struggled some with the new offense. But that struggle should create some growth. The hope is that Payton returns this summer with a better understanding of how he fits and how to run this offense, he will be more consistent.
It is far from time to give up on Payton. He has plenty of potential and talent. He showed he can run this offense successfully and be they key player to this team. This was merely a season of growth.
Next: Ch-ch-ch-changes