Hoping to see a playoff payoff
Regaining earlier momentum main goal at restart
When the NBA season was suspended March 11 amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Orlando Magic were beginning to hit their stride. Owners of a three-game winning streak and an 8-4 mark over the previous 12 games, the Magic were picking up momentum at the most opportune time — with a second straight playoff berth on the horizon.
Then the pandemic put the season on hold and the Magic’s path changed.
“I will say that when play stopped, we were playing some of our best ball of the season,” Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman said Thursday in a telephone interview with the Orlando Sentinel.
Now the NBA is set to resume its regular season and those 17 games will be reduced to eight.
The league’s reopening plan calls for a 22-team format that will include the 16 that were in a playoff position
“When play stopped, we were playing some of our best ball of the season.” — Jeff Weltman, Magic president of basketball operations
when the season was suspended as well as the teams within six games of the postseason cutline.
Weltman said the Magic were less concerned about the format because they felt good about their position as a team currently inside the playoff cutline.
“Beyond that, you can kind of nitpick it and looks at pros and cons, but I think that once the format comes out, we’re past the point of discussing it and now we’ve got to execute it,” he said. “It’s just about competing and playing well and trying to be as successful as we can be.”
The Magic will restart eighth in the Eastern Conference, holding a 5 1⁄2-game lead over the Washington Wizards and trailing the Brooklyn Nets by a half-game. Under the new format, the Wizards only need to be within four games of the eighth-place team by the end of the season to force a play-in round.
Weltman said the team won’t dwell on the past. Instead, Orlando’s task will be to find its pre-shutdown form as quickly as possible. Weltman said that will start with building on the work players and staff have put in during the hiatus. Players began voluntary individual workouts May 14.
“We were coming [on strong], but now all that is out the window,” Weltman said. “Now it’s the job of every team to try to put back together whatever momentum you had rolling at the time, and that’s what we’re focused on.”
When training camps resume later this month, Magic coach Steve Clifford said he and his staff will treat the season as if it’s just beginning.
Clifford said the biggest challenges will be physical ones as players try to round back into shape and return to their high skill level. He said players need to be engaged in as much five-on-five work as possible to replicate game situations. To do that, players need to be at a certain level of physical conditioning.
“Obviously, to play well you’ve got to be in really good physical shape, and at the same time basketball is a game of skill,” Clifford said Tuesday during a telephone interview with Sentinel. “You can be in great shape, but if you don’t make any shots or you can’t dribble or pass, it doesn’t matter.”
Injured forwards Jonathan Isaac (knee) and Al-Farouq Aminu (knee) most likely will not be healthy enough to return.
Isaac has been out since injuring his right knee Jan. 1 in Washington, and Aminu hasn’t played since Nov. 29. Aminu, who’s in his first season with the Magic, underwent arthroscopic surgery in January to repair a torn meniscus.
“Not a whole lot of news there,” Weltman said when asked about the possibility of Isaac or Aminu returning. “As always, we’re going to wait and see how they respond to rehab. They’re both working very hard.
“There’s a difference of being healthy and then being safely healthy. It will have been a long, long time since those guys played and you know organizationally that we’re never going to put our guys in a position where they’re exposed to any sort of risk of injury. So that being said, we’ll just continue to see how they progress.”
The league’s plan to resume the season was approved Thursday by the Board of Governors, and the National Basketball Players Association voted in favor of the plan Friday. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the NBA and NBPA plan to work through more details, but both sides expect the July 31 restart to happen at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Disney World.
Shams Charania of Stadium and The Athletic reported that NBPA leaders stressed during Friday’s call with its board and player representatives that remaining on the Disney property is mandatory in order to maintain a safe environment.
Other reported details from Friday’s call, according to Charania, include a two- to three-exhibition game schedule before the regular season resumes; a maximum of 1,600 people at the venue; a three-hour practice window for teams; and daily coronavirus testing.
In addition, Charania reports NBA 2K video games could provide crowd noise during games.