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Are The Orlando Magic Turning A Corner In 2015-16?

By Gerald Bourguet

Oct 30, 2015; Orlando, FL, USA; Orlando Magic head coach Scott Skiles talks with guard Victor Oladipo (5) as the game goes onto overtime against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Amway Center. Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Orlando Magic 139-136 in double overtime. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 30, 2015; Orlando, FL, USA; Orlando Magic head coach Scott Skiles talks with guard Victor Oladipo (5) as the game goes onto overtime against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Amway Center. Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Orlando Magic 139-136 in double overtime. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /
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Orlando Magic
Dec 9, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Orlando Magic guard Elfrid Payton (4) and forward Tobias Harris (12) react on the court as Phoenix Suns guard Eric Bledsoe (2) walks by during the second half of the game at Talking Stick Resort Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jennifer Stewart-USA TODAY Sports /

Improvements

That’s not to say everything is clicking for the Magic right now. Despite the team’s impressive defensive turnaround and the way their guards held their own against the backcourt tandem of Bledsoe and Knight, Orlando still lost that aforementioned game in Phoenix.

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The offense is still a major work in progress, ranking 20th in the league (100.2 points per 100 possessions). Their 34.7 three-point percentage is in middle-of-the-pack territory and as we’ve mentioned, the path to the Eastern Conference playoffs is no cake walk this year.

But in addition to the long-term mindset and defensive improvements that he’s brought to Orlando, Scott Skiles is giving his younger players the freedom to learn the game and build their own confidence, especially on offense. That may be part of the reason why it’s been so hard to watch at times.

"“You guys can see, I’m not up micromanaging the game offensively,” he said. “I’m doing that for a couple of reasons: Number one, I want the point guards to learn and think the game on their own. If I want to run something, I’ll run it, and I’ll run it after timeouts and things like that. “And number two, the reality is, if we want to get where we want to get, we’re going to be in an environment where communication is almost impossible because of noise. In a Game 5, a Game 7, something like that in another team’s building, the players on the floor have to take control of the situation and they’re not gonna do it like that, they’re gonna do it because they’ve learned to do it throughout the course of the season.”"

Those hypothetical Game 7s may still be a ways away since it’s entirely possible that for all their internal improvement, the Magic still miss the playoffs in 2016. No clear star player has emerged from this jumble of promising young talent and every team in the playoff picture in the East figures to stay there for the entire season, barring some catastrophic kind of injury.

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But with Skiles at the helm, the Magic have a solid defensive foundation to build upon. Uneven expectations of whether or not Orlando will make the playoffs may not be encouraging to a franchise that was in the NBA Finals as recently as 2010, but in the post-Dwight Howard era, the Magic are finally turning a corner of some sort.

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