Orlando Magic: What Do You Want To See From Mario Hezonja?

For the Orlando Magic, they will begin next season as a team looking to move up in the standings. Whether they are actually able to at least compete for a playoff spot or not is still unclear, other teams have made notable moves to ensure that they too have better rosters to compete over the course of the year. While signing Tobias Harris to a new contract was great, many fans are excited to see what rookie Mario Hezonja can bring to the team. But what exactly will that be?

On paper, this is a Magic team that is crying out for somebody to be the go-to offensive player on the team. It was a job last done properly by Arron Afflalo, himself more of a two-way player but somebody who became the primary scorer for this team. Victor Oladipo is somebody who is also more of a two-way player, and while he can score in a variety of ways (although still only a streaky three-point shooter) he appears more comfortable being the second option.

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Point guard Elfrid Payton is clearly better suited to setting all of his teammates up and only shooting himself when he absolutely has to. It’s not that he can’t score, although his jumper was not pretty last year, he’s just a tremendous passer from all areas of the floor. Harris may have designs on carrying more of an offensive load now that he’s been paid, and both he or Nikola Vucevic (last year’s top points scorer on the team with 19.3 per game) could well be that guy.

But what of Hezonja then? He joins this team at a critical junction for the organization, and that effectively will mean he’s given less time to find his feet. In the past, both Oladipo and Payton were allowed to play through their mistakes, as rookies should be allowed to. The team was headed back to the lottery anyway, and the experience for those young guys has proved valuable.

Of course Hezonja too will make plenty of mistakes and that is to be expected. But this team is gearing more towards winning in the near future and not a long time from now, even if that may not necessarily be the best option according to some people. So what does the team do? Does it make sense to start with Hezonja coming off the bench for this team?

I would argue yes for a couple of reasons. Firstly, this team already has Harris, Channing Frye (if playing as a kind of stretch four in some line-ups) and Aaron Gordon as the primary bigs on this team. Gordon had a brilliant little run when the Summer League was in Orlando, although Hezonja too showed a lovely shooting touch in those games.

Gordon looks like he could be about to make a big leap as a player, and you’re not paying Harris to come off the bench, at least not until somebody like Hezonja proves he should be starting every night. A Gordon/Harris tandem with Oladipo and Payton behind them intrigues me a lot, and I’m looking forward to seeing how that comes together. Hezonja is such an exciting prospect. However, it’s going to be hard to see him on the bench from time to time if he does begin life there.

There is another more logical reason to use Hezonja off the bench, however. He looks like he could be a matchup problem for lots of teams in this league with his length and shooting. It’s too early to tell, but defensively he’s like a terrier as well from what we’ve seen so far. Not always successful on that end but relentless and a guy with the right attitude to one day succeed as a top-notch defensive player.

The Magic’s bench chipped in with 26.5 points per game last season, a terribly low, but not altogether unsurprising, amount. That was the second worst in the whole league and was above only the Cleveland Cavaliers, a team with possibly the best starting five in the league when healthy. If you add Hezonja to that bench, it could move up to being closer to the league average.

He’s just one player and he’ll still only be a rookie, but against second units there’s no reason to think he can’t have a lot of joy scoring the basketball consistently on a nightly basis. In terms of arguments for putting him into the starting lineup from opening night, he does bring something that’s been lacking at the Amway Center for years now. That is excitement and entertainment.

Oladipo brings this too with his high flying acrobatics around the basket, Gordon too when he’s fit. But Hezonja looks like he might have that ‘it’ factor, the reason you want to tune in to watch a game. I truly dislike those Kobe Bryant comparisons that floated around the internet at the time of the draft. But what I will say is, like Kobe, you are drawn towards watching him play.

I felt that while streaming the Summer League play, and that was nothing more than an exhibition game featuring mostly young guys on the court. But when Hezonja had the ball, I wanted to see what would happen next. With this team crying out for an entertaining scorer who can ignite the crowd, putting him in from day one makes sense from that perspective.

For me though, if Hezonja can average something like 12-15 points per game while also chipping in with some rebounds, I’ll consider his first season a success. I do believe he should begin life in the NBA off the bench, and I know that may skewer his numbers somewhat as well. He could even morph into a kind of a sixth man, before then jumping into the starting five. It’s exciting times for both player and team however, and I can’t wait to see how the Magic utilize his skill set. We could be looking at a dark horse for rookie of the year here.

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