Orlando Magic: Should We Worry About Victor Oladipo?

Victor Oladip’s move to the Orlando Magic’s bench has worked well so far, but what does it say about his future with this team?

Already we’re into December and the Orlando Magic still boast a winning record (14-11) and a spot in the Eastern Conference playoff picture. For many fans, after years of being unable to win more than 30 games a season, this is enough. The team appears to have turned a corner, and while the Magic may ultimately slip out of the playoffs this season, there’s no doubt they’re a young team on the rise.

There have been so many positives to this season, including the rise of Evan Fournier, the rebirth of Channing Frye and the continued improvement of Tobias Harris, that picking out negative aspects of this roster may seem unfair. In some ways this isn’t even a negative, but it is worth looking at. Is Victor Oladipo‘s trajectory with this team going in the right direction?

Oladipo was moved to the bench earlier in the season (he’s started 12 of 23 games so far for the team) and perhaps not coincidentally, the Magic then went on their longest winning streak of the season to date (five wins, at the time second highest in the league behind the Golden State Warriors). During that period, Oladipo led the team is scoring twice.

This is all positive stuff. Even better, Oladipo embraced his role coming off the bench, although the fact he’s still playing just shy of 30 minutes a night helps ease the transition. For a former second pick in his third season who was supposed to be the face of the franchise (and in many ways still is) to take on that role, it speaks volumes of not only Oladipo but the culture the Magic are creating.

To be clear, I love Oladipo’s attitude towards this whole situation, and his play has remained consistent throughout the change. Making personal sacrifices so the team can benefit are what makes good teams great ones. However, I can’t help feeling that this change may be a permanent one, and if so, what would that mean for this team going forward?

Surely this wasn’t what the Magic had in mind when they drafted the player in 2013. As we’ve seen with Tobias Harris though, maybe being used less offensively would lead to Oladipo being more efficient when the ball was in his hands? After all, this was the guy who, as a starter, had stat lines like 8-for-27 from the field against the Oklahoma City Thunder and 6-for-18 against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Those are not pretty shooting numbers, but with Oladipo supposedly the focal point for this team, he was going to have the ball in his hands a lot. This would lead to nights where he might score 20-25 points, but he’d do so by taking close to 20 shots. Perhaps then a move to the bench would have made him more effective when he does get the ball?

That hasn’t been the case though, and that’s where the worry creeps in. Last season Oladipo shot 33 percent from three-point range — a poor mark, but actually one percent better than his rookie year. This season that number has plummeted down to the murky depths of 27 percent. To date, he’s made 24 of the 89 three-pointers he’s taken. Why that number is especially worrying is because Oladipo doesn’t have to try and do it all on his own anymore.

His first two years with the Magic you could argue the team was destined for the lottery again and had a lack of talent, so it was all right for Oladipo to keep hoisting those shots up. Now though, with the likes of Channing Frye, Evan Fournier and even Mario Hezonja, it’s would be better to see Oladipo seek these guys out and only take high quality shots from beyond the arc.

Yet he’s taking 3.9 three pointers a game, up from the 3.4 of last year. Worse still, his effective field goal percentage of 44 percent is also a career low. So while playing less minutes and seeing less of the ball (a career low usage rate of 24 percent when on the court) would ideally lead to a more concentrated and productive Oladipo, that’s not completely the case. That is a worry.

Of course it’s not all bad, and the elements of his game that can’t be quantified are still present and positive. Many fans only look at the numbers and nothing else, but as somebody who liked soccer for a good decade before turning to basketball, there’s more to playing a game than the box score. Oladipo has always brought energy, enthusiasm and a high work rate with and without the ball in his hands.

That hasn’t changed now that he’s coming off the bench, and again that speaks of his excellent character. If you want to look at numbers that back this claim up however, you can point to the fact he’s averaging a career high 5.5 rebounds per game and his defensive plus/minus of +1.9 is easily a career high. We’ve always known Oladipo had the potential to be a high level defensive player, and under Scott Skiles he’s really showing it.

So while offensively he continues to struggle, defensively he’s better than ever, despite coming off the bench. Working that hard on the defensive end while not having the luxury of having the offense run through him anymore once again shows how Oladipo has embraced this role in a way not many people would.

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Yet I still have my concerns. If Oladipo is truly happy with this turn of events, what does that say about the second overall pick? Not rocking the boat by moaning to the media is great to see, but I would hope that behind the scenes at least he’s asked what it will take to reinstate him to the starting line-up. Being asked to do less but still not being particularly effective is another issue as well.

Seeing his assist numbers dip to a career low 3.7 per game is also not ideal, nor is his Player Efficiency Rating of 15.8 (fourth highest mark on this roster). Maybe I’m being overly critical here, but is it wrong to want not necessarily more from the guy, but more efficiency on the court?

In the Magic’s most recent win against the Charlotte Hornets, Oladipo was 5-for-9 for 11 points in 25 minutes. Not massive numbers, but certainly more efficient.

Maybe that’s the real issue here: that despite appearing to fit seamlessly into his new role, it’s taken Oladipo a little longer to learn when to pick his spots in his more limited time on the court.

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Making way for Channing Frye in the starting lineup has been beneficial for the team though, the results speak for themselves (they’ve won eight of 11 games since his move to the bench). It’s still not what we would have wanted for Victor Oladipo though.