National Basketball Association

Jeff Turner Q&A: First impressions of Borrego as Magic coach

Published Feb. 16, 2015 11:00 a.m. ET

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FOXSportsFlorida.com checks in with color analyst Jeff Turner to get the latest on the Magic. You can follow Turner on Twitter at @JTurnerMagic.

FOX SPORTS FLORIDA: After seeing them for a few games, what are your impressions of how the Magic have looked with James Borrego as interim coach? Where has he put his stamp on the team?

JEFF TURNER: A couple of things I noticed: The pace has slowed back down a little bit, which is probably not a bad thing. That may not be by design. It could be because they're talking a lot about defense and things like that. But from the defensive end, the things that J.B. talked about in his press conference were protecting the paint and contesting shots at the rim, which kind of go together. And if you look at it, the numbers bear out that he's made an impact, that he's got their attention. Points in the paint (allowed), we're doing much better there. People are not scoring as easily. The shot-blocking is up a little bit -- not a lot; we're last in the league, so there's really nowhere to go but up. But we've seen (Dewayne) Dedmon and (Kyle) O'Quinn coming in together in the second unit. We really hadn't seen that a lot. Their thing is defense. So those are the good things.

Rob (Hennigan, Magic general manager) talked about wanting to see an improvement in competitive spirit, and I think the games have been pretty well-contested. There was one in Washington (a 96-80 loss), I thought that was initially pretty good but we let it get away with a couple of 3-pointers to start the third (quarter). But it wasn't a lack of effort. We just couldn't make any shots. So if you look at the things that they wanted improved, I think we're seeing improvement.

FSF: How do you think Victor Oladipo and Elfrid Payton are going to handle a style of game that, while by no means involves walking the ball up, is not as uptempo as it had been for the previous month or so?

TURNER: Let's be fair. When I say "slowed down," it's the pace of the game. A lot of that could be because we were turning the ball over quite a bit. We were just turning it over way too much -- in the last couple (of games) anyway. I still think they're able to do their thing. They're running on defensive stops. I think we're doing a much better job getting out in passing lanes and things like that.

FSF: We're getting into some unchartered territory here with the lengthy All-Star break. While the Magic certainly weren't as busy as, for example, the Atlanta Hawks over the weekend in New York, how do you see them coming back from going more than week without a game?

TURNER: It will be interesting to see what our young guys do. They can't be in the gym with coaches and things like that. I would think some of them will take a few days off, which is always nice. With the grind of the NBA season, this break gives you a chance to just get away from it for a couple of days. But I would expect that a lot of our young guys are going to still take the opportunity to get into the gym somewhere and maybe work on some part of their game or just try to stay sharp.

FSF: What was the longest All-Star break during your playing days?

TURNER: I went to a lot of the All-Star Games for at least two days, simply because I was the player rep and that's where we have our meetings. Our big meeting is usually during the season during that period of time. So I didn't get a lot of a break, but it seemed like it was just a few days.

FSF: The Magic aren't going to be doing much traveling in the next two weeks except for a game on Feb. 27 at Atlanta. While the home record isn't great (7-18), can this be when they start turning that around?

TURNER: My hope is this: We've got 27 games (including the win last Wednesday night over New York) -- 17 at home, 10 on the road. And in that 17, what our fans and this organization and even the players would like to see is to come out and really be competitive and have a chance to maybe turn that around, go 9-8 or something like that. If I was a player, that would be one of the more disappointing things about this season, that we have not been able to really take care of the home court and give our fans a good show every night.

FSF: When the Magic came from behind to force overtime and eventually defeat the Los Angeles Lakers in Borrego's debut, was that about as loud as you've heard it in the Amway Center all season?

TURNER: I would say as players -- and I'll throw myself into this category -- when things aren't going well, you have to take some ownership of it. And quite frankly, you really need the home-court advantage. You get energy from the crowd. But at the same time, you have to give them something to get excited about. So there's a responsibility on the players' part. I played here, and we had some pretty lean years. We did the same thing. You just have to give them something to cheer about. Sometimes we did, sometimes we didn't. They're coming. They're paying their money. They're supporting you. Give them something to get excited about. Our fans -- as long as we're competitive, win or lose -- if they see a good product and see hope for the future, I think they're going to be into the games.

You can follow Ken Hornack on Twitter @HornackFSFla or email him at khornack32176@gmail.com.