{"id":414119,"date":"2026-09-29T22:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T22:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/414119\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T22:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T22:12:09","slug":"orlando-magic-camp-first-practice-under-sweeney-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/414119\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic camp: First practice under Sweeney different"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Magic<\/a> hit the court for the first official practice of training camp Tuesday morning, and new Orlando<\/a> coach Sean Sweeney<\/a> was pleased with how his team got underway at the AdventHealth Training Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought the intent was phenomenal,\u201d Sweeney said. \u201cI thought they did a really good job with their effort. (The) defense was ahead of the offense, all the normal stuff with training camp. But for the first day, I loved the way they attacked it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team primarily focused on learning the defensive side of the ball, which is what Sweeney was most known for as a top assistant coach in the league.<\/p>\n

Both Paolo Banchero<\/a> and Franz Wagner<\/a> shared their insight into what a practice run by Sweeney is like for the players.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just very organized,\u201d Wagner said. \u201cEvery drill is scheduled to the second, pretty much. It\u2019s running to the next drill. It\u2019s jogging to the water bottles when you get a little break. So, those little things. It was not too long but very intentional, very intense as we were going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Banchero: \u201cI\u2019ll say loud. Definitely high energy. Just a lot of moving parts, a lot of defense, details. Pretty fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Magic were set to hold a second practice session later in the day, but it was expected to be different than the morning. Instead, the team would focus on the offensive side, and the practice would be non-contact only. Sweeney said the second session would be hard and fast-paced, but much more mental than physical.<\/p>\n

The first-time NBA<\/a> head coach shared what he hopes his team gets out of the weeklong training camp. Orlando plays its first preseason game Oct. 7 at Memphis before opening its regular season Oct. 12 versus the Hawks at Kia Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor camp, in general, we want to do a great job with our teaching,\u201d Sweeney said. \u201cWe want to make sure we are giving these guys things that are actionable in the games. And then as we go, we want to make sure we do a good job with what I would call \u2018immediate coaching.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIf guys need feedback to change something or acknowledgement because they did something right, we want to make sure we\u2019re on that right away,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd then afterwards as a staff, we\u2019ll get through the tape and look at it and figure out what did we do well, what do we need to improve on, what did we miss on, and then, just keep building.\u201d<\/p>\n

New terminology<\/p>\n

Banchero said the hardest thing to learn about Sweeney\u2019s system is the different terminology used by the new coaching staff. That\u2019s to be expected after the firing of Jamahl Mosley<\/a> (now coaching the New Orleans Pelicans) and hiring of Sweeney.<\/p>\n

Most of Orlando\u2019s roster, including Banchero and Wagner, had only played for Mosley throughout their time in the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s some different terminology being used (for) different calls, different coverages, stuff like that,\u201d Banchero said. \u201cThe way we\u2019re doing some things defensively is different than what we\u2019re used to. \u2026 But I think it\u2019s going to definitely turn our defense up with the way they want us to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Wagner, who mentioned the way practice was run reminded him of his time with the German national team: \u201cI think it\u2019s difficult because most of us, we played five years with the same terminology, pretty much. So, it\u2019ll take some time to get rid off that, but they\u2019re doing a good job of holding us accountable. I think we\u2019ll get it pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LeftLeft to right, Magic forwards Paolo Banchero (5) and Franz Wagner (22) pose for photos during the team\u2019s media day at the AdventHealth Training Center on Monday. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda\/ Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

Sweeney didn\u2019t sound worried about it either.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe buy-in has been great,\u201d the Magic coach said. \u201cJust in general, the guys have been really committed to not only their individual execution but team execution. We saw that (Tuesday) in their effort and their intent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing I like about this group \u2013 Kevin Garnett was great with this when I was around him with the Nets \u2013 (is) in between plays and in timeouts, they\u2019re talking to each other,\u201d he added. \u201cSo, they\u2019re trying to coach and teach and learn. The thing that I like is that the language that we\u2019re using as coaches, the players are using as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isaac update<\/p>\n

After Magic forward Jonathan Isaac revealed<\/a> at the team\u2019s media day Monday he\u2019d only be a partial participant to begin camp after ending last season injured because of a left knee sprain, Sweeney shared an update about what he was able to do Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe went through a number of the breakdown drills and I think, just more than anything, (we\u2019re) just trying to be smart,\u201d Sweeney said about Isaac. \u201cWe\u2019re not building for Sept. 30, we\u2019re building for the season. But he did a number of the breakdown drills, and he did live-ish stuff. And he did a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond Isaac and rookie Izaiyah Nelson<\/a>, who\u2019s still recovering from a fracture in his left ankle he suffered at Las Vegas Summer League, the rest of the Magic roster made it through the first practice all right, Sweeney said.<\/p>\n

Prunty connection<\/p>\n

As Sweeney leads an NBA team through training camp for the first time, he\u2019s got a familiar face on staff. That\u2019s Joe Prunty, one of the few coaching staff holdovers from Mosley\u2019s time in Orlando.<\/p>\n

Not only was Prunty with the Magic last season but he also previously worked with Sweeney in Brooklyn (2013-14) and Milwaukee (2014-18). Sweeney described Prunty\u2019s role on the staff as \u201cvery important.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got 30 years of championship NBA coaching experience,\u201d Sweeney said about Prunty. \u201cSo, anytime a guy like that is on your staff, from a competency standpoint, from a trustworthiness standpoint, he\u2019s at the top of the line. And not to mention, he works his butt off, he\u2019s a great dude and very important to what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Magic hit the court for the first official practice of training camp Tuesday morning, and new Orlando…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,2295,139,141,1239,140,109,76046,110],"class_list":["post-414119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-latest-headlines","tag-nba","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-magic","tag-orlando-news","tag-social","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}