Training camp begins with defense, championship in mind
By Marc D'Amico | September 30, 2008
Two words have been synonymous with the first two days of the Orlando Magic season. The first is defense. The second is championship.
These two words could be heard spilling out of many members of the team, from the coaching staff to the players to former players.
With those two words comes great expectations, but Head Coach Stan Van Gundy isn’t letting his team lose sight of what has happened to teams in their shoes in the past.
“You can’t take anything for granted,” he said on Monday. “As I said to them today, last year at this time the Chicago Bulls were in the same situation we’re in. They had thought they had really taken a step, had lost in the second round, a lot of people were talking about them as contenders in the East, and then they don’t even get back to the playoffs… Every season’s a brand new season, even when you have the core back, and I think you have to start at square one.”
For the Orlando Magic, square one means practice number one, and that happened today at the RDV Sportsplex. For the first “official” practice, all 16 Magic players were on the court from 9:30 a.m. until about 12:30 p.m., the first of two practices on the day.
Throughout the summer, players have been rotating in and out of the Sportsplex practicing with each other and drilling with their coaches. Still, with six newcomers and Tony Battie coming back from a season-ending injury, one topic touched upon early by the media is team chemistry. Van Gundy, however, feels that is an issue with every team, every year.
“Even if you didn’t change anybody, every year is different,” Van Gundy said. “… On paper, I really like what we did (in the off-season) and I think it could help us. But again, until we see it on the floor and until we see how the team comes together and they play the season, you just don’t know. We’ll find out.”
Monday was the coaching staff’s first opportunity to see it all come together during practice. The team played three full quarters of scrimmage time in the morning practice, rotating players to different positions and evaluating how the team looked as a whole. Each player played about 24 minutes of scrimmage time.
One player who rotated between positions was rookie Courtney Lee. Drafted as a shooting guard out of Western Kentucky with the 21st overall selection, Lee has been mentioned as a possible backup at the point guard position for the Magic. Tuesday, he played a full six minutes at the point in practice, as did Hedo Turkoglu. Dwight Howard told the media that Lee was, “all over the court,” and played great defense. Lee made it clear that playing two positions won’t change his intensity or defense.
“I’m comfortable playing the one. It’s just a transition I’ve got to make from mostly being the two…” said Lee. “… Probably the hardest thing to do is just memorize the position and the spots you need to be at in two positions out on the court, but ones you get that down it’s a pretty easy adjustment.”
Two other players who are making adjustments to their game are newly acquired Mickael Pietrus and franchise player Dwight Howard. Pietrus is moving into a new system with the Magic, much different from his days in Golden State. Howard is adjusting his game, attempting to lengthen the range on his jump shot. Under the circumstances, some would expect their adjustments to be visible on the court. Instead, they both turned heads in the morning practice.
Speaking of Pietrus, Van Gundy noted, “He had a couple of good attacks of the basket today. He really attacked the rim today, which he’s certainly capable of doing. He’s very, very athletic. He also rebounded the ball, especially early in the scrimmage.”
Van Gundy and other players also brought up the fact that Pietrus showed his abilities on defense. Those are the type of descriptions you’d often hear of Howard after a practice or game. Today, though, he showed that he has been working on his outside touch.
“He hit a couple of jumpers today, turn around jumpers,” Van Gundy said. “(And) a free throw line jumper off of a pick-and-roll, so he looked good there.”
Howard realizes that is a part of his game that he needs to expand in order to help his team win now and in the future.
“My teammates need me to expand my game and get better for us to win…” he said. “Nobody’s perfect, so that’s the biggest thing that Pat and Stan and all of the coaches have, even my teammates, just saying to me ‘shoot the ball’ … I’ve got to really work on my game, knowing that one day I’m going to be older in age, I won’t be 22 or 23 and able to do some things.”
With Howard, poised to add to his offensive repertoire and lead the league in blocked shots, coupled with Lee, Pietrus, Lewis and Turkoglu, talk around Orlando is centered around competing for a championship. Pietrus, one of the newer members of the team, isn’t shy about making that clear.
“We are very excited because, you know, they had a great run last year and I’m very excited because I think that this team can go to the next level,” he said. “I think that we can win a championship. I don’t want to think about that too much, because we have to take care of business first on the floor, but I think we have a great shot and we just have to stay together.”
Still, you can always go back to Coach and realize where the team is at. It’s day one of preseason, no more, no less.
“The real drilling, refining and getting to the details will come more next week,” Van Gundy said. “This is really to understand how we want to play and try to get our tempo. We’re not focused on who looks good and bad, we’re more focused on the team right now.”
Two words have been synonymous with the first two days of the Orlando Magic season. The first is defense. The second is championship.
These two words could be heard spilling out of many members of the team, from the coaching staff to the players to former players.
With those two words comes great expectations, but Head Coach Stan Van Gundy isn’t letting his team lose sight of what has happened to teams in their shoes in the past.
“You can’t take anything for granted,” he said on Monday. “As I said to them today, last year at this time the Chicago Bulls were in the same situation we’re in. They had thought they had really taken a step, had lost in the second round, a lot of people were talking about them as contenders in the East, and then they don’t even get back to the playoffs… Every season’s a brand new season, even when you have the core back, and I think you have to start at square one.”
For the Orlando Magic, square one means practice number one, and that happened today at the RDV Sportsplex. For the first “official” practice, all 16 Magic players were on the court from 9:30 a.m. until about 12:30 p.m., the first of two practices on the day.
Throughout the summer, players have been rotating in and out of the Sportsplex practicing with each other and drilling with their coaches. Still, with six newcomers and Tony Battie coming back from a season-ending injury, one topic touched upon early by the media is team chemistry. Van Gundy, however, feels that is an issue with every team, every year.
“Even if you didn’t change anybody, every year is different,” Van Gundy said. “… On paper, I really like what we did (in the off-season) and I think it could help us. But again, until we see it on the floor and until we see how the team comes together and they play the season, you just don’t know. We’ll find out.”
Monday was the coaching staff’s first opportunity to see it all come together during practice. The team played three full quarters of scrimmage time in the morning practice, rotating players to different positions and evaluating how the team looked as a whole. Each player played about 24 minutes of scrimmage time.
One player who rotated between positions was rookie Courtney Lee. Drafted as a shooting guard out of Western Kentucky with the 21st overall selection, Lee has been mentioned as a possible backup at the point guard position for the Magic. Tuesday, he played a full six minutes at the point in practice, as did Hedo Turkoglu. Dwight Howard told the media that Lee was, “all over the court,” and played great defense. Lee made it clear that playing two positions won’t change his intensity or defense.
“I’m comfortable playing the one. It’s just a transition I’ve got to make from mostly being the two…” said Lee. “… Probably the hardest thing to do is just memorize the position and the spots you need to be at in two positions out on the court, but ones you get that down it’s a pretty easy adjustment.”
Two other players who are making adjustments to their game are newly acquired Mickael Pietrus and franchise player Dwight Howard. Pietrus is moving into a new system with the Magic, much different from his days in Golden State. Howard is adjusting his game, attempting to lengthen the range on his jump shot. Under the circumstances, some would expect their adjustments to be visible on the court. Instead, they both turned heads in the morning practice.
Speaking of Pietrus, Van Gundy noted, “He had a couple of good attacks of the basket today. He really attacked the rim today, which he’s certainly capable of doing. He’s very, very athletic. He also rebounded the ball, especially early in the scrimmage.”
Van Gundy and other players also brought up the fact that Pietrus showed his abilities on defense. Those are the type of descriptions you’d often hear of Howard after a practice or game. Today, though, he showed that he has been working on his outside touch.
“He hit a couple of jumpers today, turn around jumpers,” Van Gundy said. “(And) a free throw line jumper off of a pick-and-roll, so he looked good there.”
Howard realizes that is a part of his game that he needs to expand in order to help his team win now and in the future.
“My teammates need me to expand my game and get better for us to win…” he said. “Nobody’s perfect, so that’s the biggest thing that Pat and Stan and all of the coaches have, even my teammates, just saying to me ‘shoot the ball’ … I’ve got to really work on my game, knowing that one day I’m going to be older in age, I won’t be 22 or 23 and able to do some things.”
With Howard, poised to add to his offensive repertoire and lead the league in blocked shots, coupled with Lee, Pietrus, Lewis and Turkoglu, talk around Orlando is centered around competing for a championship. Pietrus, one of the newer members of the team, isn’t shy about making that clear.
“We are very excited because, you know, they had a great run last year and I’m very excited because I think that this team can go to the next level,” he said. “I think that we can win a championship. I don’t want to think about that too much, because we have to take care of business first on the floor, but I think we have a great shot and we just have to stay together.”
Still, you can always go back to Coach and realize where the team is at. It’s day one of preseason, no more, no less.
“The real drilling, refining and getting to the details will come more next week,” Van Gundy said. “This is really to understand how we want to play and try to get our tempo. We’re not focused on who looks good and bad, we’re more focused on the team right now.”
