The Orlando Magic are a young up-and-coming team that has a lot of pieces to make up a very good NBA team down the road. One of those pieces is point guard Elfrid Payton who was drafted 10th overall by the Philadelphia 76ers before being acquired by Orlando in a draft day deal. Last season as a rookie Payton was very good and impressed a lot of people but his one flaw that really stands out is his shooting. Payton has reportedly been working on his shooting this offseason and it has reportedly gotten better, according to the Orland Sentinel.
Payton was a bright spot for the Magic a year ago as he played in all 82 games (63 starts) and averaged 8.9 points, 6.5 assists and 1.7 steals per game. Payton was a plus defender and a good distributor a season ago which helped him to be named to the NBA All-Rookie first team. Even with all of those bright spots though Payton has never been a very good shooter and that is something he will need to improve if he wants to become one of the best point guards in the league.
In college Payton made just 27 percent of his threes and in his first year as a pro he made just 26 percent. To go even further than that Payton made less than 40 percent of his field goals from further than three feet away from the basket so not only is he not a good long-range shooter but he's also bad in the mid-range and closer range too. Payton has great size for a point guard (6 foot-4), great quickness and excellent court vision but he can't become a complete player until his jump shot becomes at least respectable. Magic head coach Scott Skiles thinks he's headed in the right direction.
"It's better. He's put a lot of time and he's dedicated himself to it," said Skiles.
Last season Payton made just 42 percent of his field goals but maybe of more concern was his 55 percent free throw clip. Payton has the look of an impact player and he is just 21 years old so if he can turn his shooting from a negative to a positive or maybe even neutral he will be a very dangerous player for other teams to have to handle.
