Desmond Bane’s first trip back to Memphis as a member of the Magic is finally here.
When Orlando opens preseason Wednesday night at FedExForum, it will mark Bane’s first game in the city since the trade brought him to the Magic more than a year ago. He spent the first five seasons of his NBA career with the Grizzlies, but last season never gave him a chance to return because Orlando and Memphis met twice overseas in Europe.
Now, even if it’s only preseason, Bane is eager for the homecoming.
“It’s going to be fun to get back,” Bane said inside the AdventHealth Training Center. “It’ll be my first time back since the trade.
I’m excited to see some familiar faces and play in the old hometown arena. I’m definitely looking forward to it.”
For the Magic, the game is more than a reunion. Orlando has framed its four preseason games as an extension of training camp, a chance to keep absorbing new coach Sean Sweeney’s offensive and defensive systems while finally testing them against another team.
That’s the next step Sweeney has been waiting for.
“The guys are ready to play against someone else,” Sweeney said. “They’ve done a really good job with what we’ve asked them to do so far. You can tell that they’re ready to go.”
Franz Wagner echoed that message, stressing that the preseason should function as a working session as much as a game.
“We should use it as an extension of practice and working on our stuff, seeing how we match up with some of the other teams. But I think first and foremost, it’s important to get better as a team.”
One of the biggest areas Orlando wants to sharpen is half-court offense. Last season, the Magic made their living by getting stops, running the floor and scoring before defenses could get set. Once the game slowed down, things too often bogged down.
Wagner said the group is still getting comfortable with Sweeney’s terminology in those half-court sets and trying to make sure everyone is on the same page when those possessions arrive.
“I think that’ll be good to see that in a game situation where you don’t have an endless amount of time to set it up,” Wagner said. “It’ll be good to see and will help us get better to figure out some of those processes before the play starts.”
How much the starters play Wednesday remains unclear, but Sweeney said the team will keep an eye on minutes as needed. Over the course of the four preseason games, he said Orlando will manage workloads carefully so players build up the right way.
“The guys are ready to play against someone else,” Sweeney said. “They’ve done a really good job with what we’ve asked them to do so far. You can tell that they’re ready to go.”
There are still a few health situations to monitor. Rookie second-round pick Izaiyah Nelson is continuing to recover from a fracture in his left ankle suffered at Las Vegas Summer League.
Anthony Black, dealing with an ankle issue, and Noah Penda, who has a hamstring injury, have been ramping up in practice over the past couple of days after missing time last week. Both said this week that they feel better.
Jalen Suggs is also feeling good, though still a little bit under the weather. He was able to get on the court Tuesday and run around in practice.
One veteran who will not travel is Jonathan Isaac, who is unavailable for personal reasons, the Orlando Sentinel was told. He was not seen during the media-viewing portion of practice Monday or Tuesday.
However the rotation looks in Memphis, the message for Orlando’s first preseason game is straightforward: learn, clean things up, and keep building.
“We want to learn about ourselves as much as anything,” Sweeney said. “It would be great to execute at the ultimately high level that we want and do everything perfectly, but in reality, we’re going to make some mistakes.
“So, it’s a good opportunity to see what we did well, see what we needed to do better, and learn from it.”
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