Orlando Magic: The Importance Of Kyle O’Quinn
By Luke Duffy
For the Orlando Magic, this season will be all about seeing how their exciting prospects continue to grow alongside the nice veterans signings the team has made. Names like Victor Oladipo, Channing Frye, Elfrid Payton and even Nikola Vucevic will be mentioned often.
One player who won’t see similar fanfare is Kyle O’Quinn. The center will be starting his third year in the league, which makes him one of the longer-tenured guys on this Magic team. He won’t be a starter either, but this guy could actually have a big role for this team in the limited minutes he will play.
Obviously O’Quinn won’t be starting any games if Nikola Vucevic is healthy, but that in itself is an interesting place to begin. Vucevic has shown that he can’t struggle to last the grind of a full NBA season, in fact he’s never gone a whole 82 games in his three years in the league without missing some time through injury.
So chances are O’Quinn will actually be asked to step up and into the starting lineup for this team. He’s not as good a player as Vucevic, and they are different players. But that difference could be the reason he excels for this team.
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In 17.2 minutes of action last year, O’Quinn averaged 6.2 points in the 69 games he played. Hardly numbers of note, but he’s not expected to help the team much offensively anyway. O’Quinn also started 19 games as a result of a foot injury to Vucevic, so he knows what it takes to step in and have a bigger role within the team. That bit of experience alone is valuable.
Looking at his numbers again though, his rebounding and blocking numbers make for much better reading. He averaged 5.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks a game. This is important for a number of reasons. The biggest being that Vucevic is a double-double machine, a guy who can score well but grab an insane number or rebounds.
If O’Quinn is on the court and can get 5.3 of them in 17.2 minutes of play, you have to believe he’d get some more if he saw more minutes. So with Vucevic either on the bench or the treatment table, the introduction of O’Quinn ensures this team’s rebounding doesn’t drop off too much.
O’Quinn being the different center he is works in other ways as well. Whereas Vucevic has nice hands and can produce a lot of nifty touches in the paint, O’Quinn has a bit more of a rugged style about him. Make no mistake, his basketball IQ allows him to make plays from down in the block as well, it’s just he can also use his physicality to get right into the opposition and bang around.
Standing under 7 feet tall, (O’Quinn is 6’10”) there are certainly taller centers in the NBA he will be matched up against often. But as we’ve seen from his first two years in the league, O’Quinn is not afraid to mix it up in the paint. The same cannot be said of Vucevic, and so again it is something different he brings to this team.
Although being a fraction undersized, O’Quinn also has a great ability to block shots often. Yes his game average was 1.3 last year, but watching him it felt a lot more frequent than that. Nevertheless though, he forces opponents to alter their shot selection when he is around for fear of getting swatted into next week, and that is an important trait to have.
Consider this as well, Vucevic is the same height as O’Quinn and saw much more time on the court last year and averaged less than a block a game (0.8).
O’Quinn’s player efficiency rating was 16.5 for the season as well, with the league average being fifteen. This means he is doing the right things with the time he gets on the court, which is great for this growing Magic team.
It remains to be seen if he was given more minutes would his game continue to grow as it clearly has the potential to do. Or perhaps he is better being used in concentrated bursts off the bench? Some players are better utilized that way, but O’Quinn will surely feel he can contribute more given the extra minutes.
Kyle O’Quinn’s name has hardly been spoke this offseason, and when the regular season begins, he won’t be getting the plaudits if this Magic team gets off to a nice start. Indeed, he appears to be a player who does the dirty work in the background off the bench to keep this team ticking over.
Every team needs these players, and in fact Orlando are lucky to have a player like this on their roster. Expect to see his minutes, numbers and overall production jump up a notch as well when the season begins, as he embraces his role of being one of the elder statesmen of this team.