Roughly halfway through his rookie season, Elfrid Payton's strengths and weaknesses look fairly well defined.
The Orlando Magic must be pretty pleased with what they've gotten out of him, especially considering the risk they seemingly took by trading for him last June.
"He continues to want to get better," head coach Jacque Vaughn told Philip Rossman-Reich of OrlandoMagicDaily.com. "You can call it what you want to. I don’t remember a point guard starting every game of the year playing 40 minutes in my time."
He's ranked No. 1 among rookies in assists and tied for first in steals. Payton has held his own at both ends playing heavy minutes for a young team.
However, unlike in college, when Payton averaged 19.2 points during his final year at Louisiana-Lafayette, not being able to shoot has really limited him as a scorer in the pros. Of the 157 players who play at least 25 minutes a night, 149 of them score more points per game than his 7.8 on 41.6 percent shooting.
Having no jumper in the arsenal has led Payton to fire 74.1 percent of his shot attempts within 10 ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Jonathan Wasserman
Elfrid Payton Remains Full of Mystery and Promise for Orlando Magic
January 27th, 2015 by Jonathan Wasserman Leave a reply »
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