Orlando Magic: Should Mario Hezonja Head To The D-League?

Despite seeing their season slip away from them, the Orlando Magic continue to leave Mario Hezonja stranded on the bench.

Mario Hezonja is not having a good season for the Orlando Magic.

In his second year with the team, he has only appeared in 34 games so far, failing to start a single one of them. This despite the team losing players like Jodie Meeks and D.J. Augustin to injury over the last number of games.

He played only 14 minutes in the recent loss to the Chicago Bulls, despite the Magic only having 10 players available for the game.

On top of that, his minutes per game have taken a huge hit as well. As a rookie, he averaged 17.9 minutes per game. This season? That has tumbled to 9.5. The intrigue factor seems to have vanished surrounding him too.

That “Super Mario” who was supposed to make the league sit up and take notice in his first year? There’s been none of that this season.

That’s not to say he’s a bad player however, and he’s still only 21 years old. But could it be time then for a spell in the NBA D-League, to help get his mojo back? It may sound like a death sentence, but in actual fact it could wind up saving his career, and here’s how.

If you look at Hezonja’s play for the majority of this season, he is a guy who appears low on confidence. Where the vicious cycle of his situation comes into play though, is with the fact that he tries to do too much in the limited minutes he’s given.

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Whether it’s taking ill-advised shots or forcing a play with his passing, that fluidity and confidence that we saw flashes of in his rookie season has vanished. It’s not surprising, and his 3.4 points and 0.5 assists per game accurately reflect this.

It gets worse, as his offensive game, the reason he was highly touted, is negatively impacting the team. In year one, his offensive plus-minus was -1.9 — not good, but when you’re a rookie coming over from a foreign country, but not surprising either.

This season it has fallen to a hideous -6.1, and the fact he’s snatching at his limited minutes figures to be a large reason for this.

Even his three point shooting, a respectable 35 percent last year, has dropped to 30 percent this time out. His effective field goal percentage has shrunk from 51 percent to 41 percent, another regression for Hezonja in an area he should be growing in.

Where the real worry should come however, is how the Magic view him. Certainly it seems head coach Frank Vogel doesn’t have much trust in him right now. It’s almost ironic that former head coach Scott Skiles, who is known for placing restrictions on rookies, gave him more of a run than he’s seeing now.

But the Magic are 18-28, and look pretty much out of the playoff race at this point.

It’s not even that they’re a terrible team; they look better some nights than they have in years. But they dug their grave too deep, and too early in the regular season to climb out of it.

So with another trip to the lottery looking likely, and a need to grow internally to get back to the postseason, as Elfrid Payton is currently doing, why isn’t Hezonja playing more?

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Certainly Vogel’s job looks safe, for now, so experimenting with funky lineups and different combinations could pay off next season.

That could start with using Hezonja more, as well as playing Bismack Biyombo with different groups.

These are just two examples, yet still Hezonja withers away on the bench. In that loss to the Bulls, he played only one minute more than Damjan Rudez.

He also scored fewer points (three to the eight of Rudez), with Rudez hitting a pair of three-point efforts. Hezonja could only manage one.

So why not take a trip to the D-League then? Why not show that you are willing to go down a rung of the basketball ladder to fight for your position on this team?

I can’t speak for Vogel, but it would be hard not to like the mentality of doing something like this. It would also do his confidence the world of good playing starter’s minutes.

This would be as a part of the Magic’s affiliate team, the Erie Bayhawks. In doing this, Hezonja could also help get rid of some of the stigma attached to playing in the D-League.

After all, over 40 percent of NBA players drafted since 2005 have spent time there, and in recent years steps have been taken to turn it into a more professional organization.

Regardless of the big picture for the D-League however, there is growing evidence to suggest Mario Hezonja should spend some time there.

Even with the Orlando Magic’s season looking essentially done, and with injuries piling up, he’s still not getting much of a look in. His trade value, not that the team wants to move him, has likely never been lower either. This makes moving him a bad option too.

It’s frustrating because the Magic could do with an exciting young player to pair with Elfrid Payton and Aaron Gordon.

Next: 2016-17 NBA Power Rankings: Week 14

Many of us thought Hezonja could be that guy. He still can be, but he needs to get away from this team and out of his current funk to achieve it.