It was clear Noah Penda was feeling confident after dipping his toes into the water of his second Summer League season.
It started with a kickback three to the top of the key. Then, in transition, he ran the lane to the corner and drained a corner three. He followed that up by blocking a shot out of bounds near the rim.
The flurry of activity made Penda look like more than a rookie. Suddenly he had everything under command. Suddenly he looked like the best player on the floor.
If Summer League for second-year players is supposed to show how much they learned from their first year in the NBA, Penda looked like a second-year player who knew exactly what he was supposed to do and where he was supposed to be.
And then there were moments where he still looked like an overzealous rookie. He picked up five fouls and was overly physical. Maybe that was by design. But it was not always smart.
That Penda turned in such an encouraging and intriguing game showed off his potential. That there were still all these rough edges showed that there is still a lot of work ahead.
It was the perfect way to encapsulate an uneven 86-74 loss to the Charlotte Hornets in the Orlando Magic's Summer League opener.
Sean Sweeney and his staff are establishing how the team wants to play. Summer League is certainly an imperfect way to assess that progress. But it should be clear, as the Magic struggled to build off a strong first half and gave away their lead, that there are still a lot of rough edges to pull together.
Summer League is indeed a process. And no one exemplified that better than Penda.
Penda showed his progress
It is hard to know what to expect from Noah Penda.
Of the Orlando Magic's two rookies, he got the most opportunity, appearing in 59 games and getting rotation minutes through a good chunk of the middle of the season. Penda had some impactful moments doing the grimy work around the basket and displaying his potential as a defender.
Ultimately, he looked like a raw rookie, often in the wrong spots and trying to catch up to the play. That is one of the reasons the Magic never turned him in the Playoffs. They needed him to watch and learn.
Summer League is a chance for those rookies to show what they learned. It is a chance for them to show that they understand what it takes to compete in the NBA.
That is what Penda showed in this Summer League opener. He showed progress.
Penda scored a team-high 23 points and grabbed seven rebounds. He hit five of his 10 3-pointers, showing improved confidence from three. He was willing to shoot it.
"I've worked a ton on my shot this summer," Noah Penda said after Thursday's loss. "It's about the shot selection. You want to take good shots. Even though it's Summer League, don't take shots you aren't going to take during the regular season. I'm happy with the results of the shooting tonight. Now we've got to do a better job as a team finding those good shots."
Magic Summer League coach D.J. Bakker said the team is encouraging Noah Penda to take those shots. The goal is to make sure he is taking the right shots. But he can do a lot more. And he put that on display throughout the game too.
Penda put on display several pivot and step-through moves on his two-point field goals. He created space for his own shot and delivered points when his team needed them. He created for himself.
He played with supreme confidence. Something to build on.
"He's worked on that all summer," Jase Richardson said after Thursday's loss. "He has become a lot more confident with his shot. When you see those tough ones go down, the basket gets bigger and bigger for him. His intensity today was amazing. It helps us. We feed off his energy.
That was never something anybody expected Penda to be able to do. It is not something the Magic necessarily need from him. But that is a good step for him. It showed his strength and patience.
It showed what he learned from his rookie season.
Still rough spots
This is Summer League though, there are still a lot of rough edges and things that he needs to improve.
Noah Penda had a breakout game offensively. But he still had his rough moments. He still had those moments where the game looked too fast for him or Penda did not know how to control his physical talents.
Penda finished with five fouls in the game -- far below the 10 allowed in Summer League. But that was symbolic of how Penda and the Magic still had not quite put things together.
The Orlando Magic ended up losing its lead in part because the Charlotte Hornets had nine of their 15 free throw attempts and 11 of their 16 free throw attempts in the second half. The Magic may have been trying to exert their physicality as a point.
The offense lost much of its fluidity and ball movement that helped Orlando build a 10-point lead. The Hornets won all the hustle points and the Magic lost some of their energy.
Orlando still has a lot of work to do to be the team it wants to be. This is not a team that is NBA-ready. Then again, this is not their NBA roster. It is not clear exactly what will translate.
But progress is still the point. Summer League is for grabbing moments of progress, holding them up and building on them.
"This thing to me is about continual improvement," Magic Summer League coach D.J. Bakker said. "Win this game, lose this game, we're here for the next 10 days. We've got to go to film tomorrow, watch and make the corrections. Keep teaching, keep improving and keep coming together as a group. Proud of the guys for fighting and competing. We've just got to sustain it for longer periods of time."
The pieces may still be all over the place. But there is something to put together. There is a puzzle to assemble.
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