ORLANDO, Fla. _ With their first practice in the books, the Orlando Magic officially stepped into the 2019-20 NBA season.
It left second-year coach Steve Clifford feeling "disappointed."
"We have to do better than we did today. That's what I would say," Clifford said. "There's 30 teams practicing today, I'd say most of them did better than we did. That's what I would say."
The Magic scrimmaged for much of the workout, and Clifford specifically said his team turned the ball over too much. He plans to watch the film and make further evaluations.
Clifford said the practice wasn't all bad.
"Fair, at best," he said. "It was an OK practice. You can't manufacture stuff. It was OK. We turned the ball over a lot. It was OK."
Still, Monday's morning session serves as the jumping off point for the season and plenty of time remains for the Magic to get on track.
Clifford did like what he saw from point guard Markelle Fultz, who participated in his first official Magic practice. Clifford was especially impressed with Fultz's ballhandling skills.
"He's hard to keep out of the paint," Clifford said. "He's so good with the ball. He doesn't need a lot of room and he's very, very clever."
Fultz said he was more than ready to get back out on the floor and get back to having fun playing basketball.
"It wasn't any nerves. Just a lot of excitement," he said.
