Magic Report: Knicks teammates reflect on Orlando days.
NEW YORK — Only two players now remain from the first year of the Magic’s post- Dwight Howard rebuild: center Nik Vucevic and power forward Andrew Nicholson.
Two former players from that 2012-13 team — shooting guard Arron Af
flalo and power forwardcenter Kyle O’Quinn — faced the Magic on Friday night wearing the jerseys of the New York Knicks.
“It’s just the nature of how things are going. It lets you know how the NBA is,” O’Quinn said. “I still follow the Magic’s Instagram. All the guys on the Magic ... it’s kind of hard to fully detach myself from those guys. Those are my good friends.”
Harris’ good friend, small forward Maurice
Harkless, was dealt by Orlando this summer to the Portland Trail Blazers. To
bias Harris, acquired during the 2012-13 season from the Milwaukee Bucks, was traded to the Detroit Pistons before the deadline.
O’Quinn, who signed a four-year $16 million contract with the Knicks last summer, is averaging 4.6 points and 3.6 rebounds in 47 games (one start). He averaged 16.2 minutes per game last season with the Magic but only 11.1 minutes with the Knicks.
“It’s a little different, a little different [than Orlando]. Get an opportunity; take advantage of it,” he said. “The only difference is, here, from the start, I was more or less in the plan.”
Free agency allowed the Queens native to come home to play in front of family and friends.
“The practice facility is not connected to the arena, so that’s the biggest difference [compared to Orlando]. We got to drive a nice little distance for the home games. But everything else has been fine,” O’Quinn said. “My mom, she’s never really been an in-the-arena type. Couple of my boys come to the games, though.”
Afflalo enjoyed his time in Orlando but the Magic were rebuilding. They traded Afflalo, 30, back to the Nuggets in 2014. He then played in Portland before signing with the Knicks last summer for two years and $16 million.
He came into Friday night averaging 13.9 points and 3.6 rebounds, starting 51 games.
“I’ve played with ’ Melo [ Carmelo Anthony] before [in Denver]. When
Phil [ Jackson] took over, I thought they were really trying to establish a certain type of culture and a winning attitude and he obviously had a proven history of that. I thought it would be cool to be a part of,” Afflalo said.
Defensive issues
The Magic had a quick turnaround after Thursday’s loss to Golden State in Orlando. Coach Scott
Skiles said the team looked at film from the game — and how Steph
Curry scored 51 points — to emphasize a larger defensive problem.
“There’s a couple different ways we could look at [Thursday night],” Skiles said. “We could look at and not even address it other than, ‘Let’s move on.’ Or actually look at kind of how we lost and how he got 51. So we chose to look at it.
“We looked at a lot of clips this morning. He just got way too many easy baskets. We gave up a high field-goal percentage against Indiana, Philly and now again [Thursday night]. It’s very hard to, say, be a top five defensive-field-goal percentage team. One of things we’re trying to impress upon our guys is it’s hard, but it’s worth it if you’ll commit to it and do it.”