Players excited as they go through 1st restart workout
Nikola Vucevic took the floor with his Orlando Magic teammates for their first practice in nearly four months, then he took part in his first media session from a hotel ballroom at Walt Disney World.
Welcome to the new NBA.
Regardless of the surroundings, Vucevic said it was “great to be back” as the Magic on Thursday became the first team to practice during the NBA restart at Disney.
“I’m really excited to be back with the guys and on the court,” Vucevic said during a videoconference with reporters.
Judging by the whoops and hollers coming from his teammates in the background, it certainly sounded that way.
Vucevic said players were taking part in some shooting competitions, a common post-practice event for the Magic.
“You can just tell that guys are excited,”
Vucevic said.
Still, that doesn’t mean it was just like old times. The Magic were, after all, practicing in a ballroom. Forward Aaron Gordon said the setting was “strange.”
“It’s a different setting, different circumstances,” he said. “Practice felt fine. It felt a little weird, but I think as we progress it will start to normalize.”
Nonetheless, Magic coach Steve Clifford said he was pleased with how his team looked in its first workout as a group since March.
The Magic, who went through more COVID-19 testing and a second day of quarantine on Wednesday, got up and down the floor but avoided any contact drills or 5-on-5 work. Instead, they focused on other areas during the workout at the Coronado Hotel ballroom.
“I was really happy with the day. The guys had great energy,” Clifford said. “Not only did we have good energy, we didn’t do anything 5-on-5, but we did do a lot of organizational things and it was far, far better than I would hope for.”
While it many ways it felt like the first practice of training camp, one difference was the lack of 5-on-5 work. Players simply
aren’t in the same kind of shape they are coming into preseason.
“But it felt great to be back, having the team together, having that feel of practicing together again was great,” Vucevic said.
While it will be a somewhat slow process to rebuild chemistry, timing and rhythm, Clifford hopes to build off Thursday’s workout as the Magic look to regain the momentum they had built before the season was shut down. Orlando had won three straight and 8 of 12 before play was suspended.
“It’ll take some time to get that level of play back, especially offensively, but we have a smart group and if they work like they did today then I think we can make quick progress,” Clifford said.
Gordon said the biggest challenge will be a mental one. He said waiting for weeks to find out if the season would resume or be canceled was difficult. Once players knew the season was coming back, they were able to begin preparing. Now comes the time to ramp it up even more.
“The shift from whether or not we were even going to finish the season and now here we are,” he said. “So there was kind of a lot of apprehension and there was talk of whether we even going to continue the season. It was kind of like putting your foot on the brake and the gas at the same, so now it’s time to do all gas.”
Clifford also said the Magic roster looks the same as it did when the team entered the bubble on Tuesday, with starting point guard Markelle Fultz and an unnamed player who tested positive for COVID-19 still absent.
Fultz is tending to a personal matter and will join the team as soon as he can, Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman said Tuesday.
The Magic were part of the first wave of teams to arrive at Disney. The second wave came in Wednesday, with the third and final wave rolling in Thursday.
The Magic play the first scrimmage game of the restart when they face the Los Angeles Clippers on July 22.
This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com.