ORLANDO, Fla. — If Anthony Black and Jett Howard were nervous entering their first training camp with the Orlando Magic, they didn’t show it on the court.
The two lottery picks impressed as the Magic opened up training camp on Tuesday at the AdventHealth Training Center. They seemed to grasp the concepts and were up to speed with what the coaching staff was asking of them.
“I think they look really good,” Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley said. “Their level of concentration was up. The guys were doing a great job of walking and helping them through. There wasn’t a lot of pause and stoppage for that reason. Our coaches do a great job of explaining things and laying out the game plan before the practice even starts.”
Said Jonathan Isaac: “They played great.”
Black and Howard had a bit of a crash course on various sets and coverages in a minicamp ahead of the NBA Summer League in July. That team used much of the same terminology that is being implemented ahead of the season.
Of course, there will be new things thrown at them but their summer practices have helped the learning curve in the early going when game results will really start to count.
“I think it helped me a lot,” Black said. “We were doing a lot of the same concepts (in summer league), especially defensively. It is now just playing with different dudes, different talents and different things. It helped me out for sure.”
Magic rookies Anthony Black and Jett Howard are grouped up shooting 3s after the first practice of training camp today: pic.twitter.com/08ge4AzskJ
— Cody Taylor (@CodyTaylorNBA) October 3, 2023
The Magic throughout training camp will look to hammer home their principal concepts, such as setting screens, limiting turnovers and crashing the glass. The team will be also looking to see how players can defend, and do so without fouling.
The team returned much of the same roster as last year and is as healthy as it has been in recent memory. The group got through the first practice of training camp without any injuries and will have a full roster as the week progresses.
The veterans have helped players like Black and Howard with the transition to this point of the process, and will continue to guide them as needed this season.
“Every day it is a different dude just telling me about pace, finding my teammates, playing a little bit slower, defensive tips,” Black said. “It is all types of stuff. They’re definitely doing a good job of teaching me and Jett what it is we’re trying to do.”
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