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Frank Vogel Has Trust and Belief in Team's Young Core

ORLANDO – The 2016-17 season was a long, torturous one for many of the players on the Orlando Magic because of the team’s extensive struggles and their unmet expectations of reaching the playoffs.

Elfrid Payton, who played the best basketball of his professional career over the final two months of the season, wasn’t one of those players happy that the difficult season was complete. In fact, Payton quietly has his fingers crossed that the Magic squad that finished this season on something of an uptick will still be intact come next season.

``Honestly, I think we’re a lot closer than it seems, especially now that we’ve got the offense going and we were putting up points,’’ Payton said.