The Orlando Magic are beginning training camp with the learning of a new offense and defense. These first days are not action packed, but still important.
When the media at Amway Center on Thursday asked Evan Fournier to describe the early days of practice, he said simply one thing.
“We’re going to run,” Fournier said. “We had some new plays today, but it’s nothing new. Basketball plays are basketball plays. You’ve got to learn it and play basketball and make the right reads. The real difference is in the mentality in running and playing physical.”
It is not about playing five-on-five or installing an offense or drilling the playbook. The early days of practice are about setting a tone, getting a lot of learning in for the basics of the principles and drilling those principles and that mentality.
It is why Fournier’s legs are likely feeling so heavy four practices and three days into the new season. Coach Frank Vogel is not running from his belief this team needs to get out in transition. It feels more than the normal conditioning players experience early on in training camp.
The running though is a big emphasis for the Magic early on in camp. That sets the tone for everything the Orlando Magic want to do.
Teaching that tone is the big task for these early days of camp though. And that can mean a lot of slowing down to teach things before getting into drill work. The Magic are not necessarily playing much games or full scrimmages yet — although players said the team played a full quarter in Thursday’s practice as things begin to ramp up toward the first preseason game Monday.
Vogel said the team will remain a work in progress and install a little bit each day. That process continued Thursday and will continue on into the rest of the preseason and even beyond. Vogel did not put bench marks on the team’s progress. There are no deadlines to meet other than being ready for that first game.
The team, he said will continue to evolve as the season goes on.
For now, the Magic are focused on installing the foundations of its system. And that can take a lot of nitty-gritty work.
“There is still a lot to add,” Vogel said. “For me, it’s not about putting stuff in and having it all in by a certain point. I think you evolve every week, every month throughout the year. Ideally, your offense and even your defensive versatility looks very different in April going in tot he Playoffs than it looked in November and December. You have to stay ahead of the curve and ahead of the scouting and continue to evolve.”
At this stage of camp, Vogel is simply laying that foundation. He said he is trying to get the team “functional.” He wants to see how his vision of the team fits what he actually has on the roster and adjust from there.
The constant evolution though comes from a foundation of play.
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That foundation is what Vogel and the Magic are working on at this early stage of practice. The team, Vogel said, will continue to drill the team on those basics and foundations through much of October even. The Magic spent Thursday continuing their defensive shell work and setting up the rules and principles for their defense as well as installing the offense.
What that offense and defense looks like remains behind closed doors until Monday’s preseason game against the Memphis Grizzlies.
“ simple, it’s efficient, it gets everybody involved,” Aaron Gordon said. “There are a lot of different options off it and it’s all reads. It is definitely difficult to guard. We are starting to put our foundation in. We’re pressuring the ball, we’re physical, we’re tough. And we box out.”
The Magic are still pulling those threads together early on in camp. The team is learning the reads they have to make within the offense and defense.
It will take some construction and some teamwork to do. Veterans like Jeff Green and Serge Ibaka will have value in helping bring younger players up to speed. At this point, every player on this team has had to go through a training camp with a new coach — the Magic did it just last year.
It takes a lot of instruction and repetition for the team to get where it is ready to play a game. Or certainly a game that counts.
Those days — even the first preseason game Monday — feel a long way off still.
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What is most important at this point is getting those principles, rules and schemes installed and competing together. The level of competition, according to many players, has been high and things are beginning to sink in.