Orlando Magic strength and conditioning coach Bill Burgos spoke about his approach to training the team and revealed the Iron Magic winners.
The Orlando Magic are still a development outfit. The team wanted to make the Playoffs and certainly should have had that as an on-court goal, but it was still largely a young team. The key players are still at the beginning of their careers and needing development.
Aaron Gordon was key to the team and he is still extremely raw. Elfrid Payton is looking for growth and development to gain consistency. Even Nikola Vucevic and Evan Fournier, on their second contract, are still growing and finding their place int the NBA. That does not get into Mario Hezonja.
All those players would play a key role for the Magic and whether they would make or miss the Playoffs. Whether it was because of roster fit or the roles, their stagnation has been a frustrating part of the story for the Magic.
A lot of the development turns to one of the most important people on the Magic’s coaching staff — strength and conditioning coach Bill Burgos.
Burgos recently sat down with Steve Aschburner of NBA.com to discuss his work with the Magic and he revealed who is the king of the weight room. Continuing and expanding on the “Iron Magic” program, the team awarded Mario Hezonja the championship belt for his improvement and work in the weight room.
"“I have a thing every year I call “Iron Magic,” where I test the guys, and whoever accumulates the most points, they get bragging rights. They get “Iron Magic” [status] for the year, they get a nameplate up and they get a custom-made boxer’s belt. This year, it was Mario Hezonja. The last three years it was Victor Oladipo. Since I’ve been here, everybody lifts. But if I gave them a ranking, Mario is a 1, Damjan [Rudez] is a 1. The foreign players are pretty good. Everyone’s different. Some guys know it’s important so they do it. Some guys want to do it.”"
It has been a rough year for Hezonja on the court. He has had limited opportunities, falling out of the rotation earlier in the year. It still seems like Frank Vogel is figuring out how best to use him on the court. Hezonja has not helped himself struggling on the court on his own.
But, by all accounts from Vogel and several players, Hezonja is one of the hardest workers on the team. It is not surprising to hear he was the “Iron Magic” winner.
Translating it to the court is the difficult part for him.
Making off-court strength gains into on-court production is not Burgos’ responsibility. The longtime Magic strength and conditioning coach is a complement to what is happening on the court.
In his interview, he described his typical day and how he works with the players and coaching staff to create a strength training program and maintain games through the course of a busy season. Because the team is so young, Burgos does have to keep them pretty regimented.
Next: What is next for Orlando Magic?
As a player like Hezonja grows, his work with Burgos during the season and in the offseason will be pretty important. He seems to have this aspect of his preparation down.