This is an important summer for Orlando Magic center Daniel Orton, shown here during the 2010 AirTran Airways Pro Summer League (Gary W. Green, Orlando Sentinel)
This was supposed to be the week Justin Harper and DeAndre Liggins received a crash course in the way things are done in the NBA and by the Orlando Magic. This was supposed to be the week when second-year Magic center Daniel Orton was going to show how much he can help the team in the year ahead.
Not anymore.
The NBA lockout, now in its fifth of many days to come, forced the cancellation of this year’s Orlando pro summer league, which was supposed to start on Monday and run through this Friday.
Eight teams participate in the league, which is hosted and run by the Magic.
Each team plays one game a day for five consecutive days, and the exhibitions and the practices leading up to those exhibitions are critical for everyone involved.
Young players learn their new teams’ systems and their new coaches’ expectations. The coaches recognize their new players’ strengths and weaknesses. For second-round draft picks and undrafted rookies, it’s a chance to show that they deserve a training-camp invitation or an NBA roster spot.
Harper, this year’s 32nd overall pick, and Liggins, the 53rd overall pick, would have benefitted from five games in five days. Instead, they and the Magic had to settle for four consecutive days of workouts last week.
Orton was the 29th overall pick in last year’s draft, but although he played in last year’s summer league, he did not appear in a single Magic preseason or regular-season game in 2010-11. He spent the time strengthening the muscles around his left knee and rehabbing from arthroscopic surgery on that knee in December.
This was going to be a critical summer for him. It was going to be a chance to show the Magic that he can play, perhaps well enough to spell Dwight Howard at times in the season ahead.
Now, however, Magic officials cannot have any contact with Harper, Liggins and Orton or the players’ agents until the labor dispute is resolved. The players also are not permitted to use the team practice facilities.
The good news for Orlando is that Harper played four seasons of college ball at Richmond and Liggins played three seasons at Kentucky. That extra seasoning, and the work ethic they honed in school, should mitigate the damage in the weeks and months ahead.
Still, all three young players would have been better off from a developmental standpoint if no lockout existed.
True, all of the league’s other rookies and second-year players face similar obstacles now.
But don’t be surprised if rookies look more lost and more unpolished when — and if — the 2011-12 season finally rolls around.
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