Noah Penda caught Orlando’s instruction clearly: be aggressive and let available shots fly. In the Magic’s Summer League opener against Charlotte on July 9, he attempted 10 three-pointers, made five and scored a team-high 23 points in nearly 30 minutes.

That is why Penda is shooting more threes. The change was encouraged by Orlando’s new coaching staff, not merely produced by one warm shooting performance. The useful thing to watch next is the instant before the attempt: Does he catch ready, recognize the opening and release the ball before that opening disappears?

The decision comes before the percentage

Five makes will grab the eye. Ten attempts tell us more about the experiment.

Penda played 59 games as a rookie before this Summer League, and he had never attempted more than seven threes or made more than three in an NBA game. Against Charlotte, both marks moved at once. The makes supplied the shine, but the volume showed how fully he embraced the instruction.

Picture the choice at the perimeter. The catch arrives. There is room. A hesitant shooter pauses long enough for the possession to change; the opening narrows, and a simple shot becomes another decision. A ready shooter has already done the reading before the ball reaches his hands.

That quicker sequence is the developmental signal Orlando can keep testing. It does not require Penda to make half his threes again. It requires him to keep treating a clean opportunity like an invitation rather than a negotiation.

Watch him after the misses

Summer League can make evaluation noisy because a productive scoring line tempts everyone to grade the outcome instead of the habit. Penda’s next revealing stretch may be the one in which the percentage looks ordinary.

If he misses and then turns down the next available three, the old hesitation has won the possession. If he catches ready and takes it promptly again, the instruction is becoming part of his approach. That distinction matters because shooting development is not just a question of whether the ball goes in. It is also about whether the player can identify the shot early enough to preserve the advantage.

Penda’s opener gave Orlando an encouraging result. The repeatable part lives one beat earlier: the space appears, his feet and eyes are prepared, and the shot leaves before the defense gets another chance. Keep watching that beat. It will say more about his development than chasing another five-make night.