Orlando Magic: Arron Afflalo can be a reliable leader

In a shrewd and sensible summer move, the Orlando Magic brought back a guy who clearly wants to play for the team and can be a key player in Arron Afflalo.

This summer may come to be known as the underrated moment when the Orlando Magic clambered off the canvas and back onto their feet.

It’s been five years of finishing at the bottom of their division, with only one season topping 30 wins in that time and a whole host of young players who came and went.

Each offseason bringing optimism that their luck would change through the draft or free agency, with little more than Aaron Gordon and Elfrid Payton to show for it.

Nikola Vucevic, who came over in the Dwight Howard trade, is still one of this team’s key contributors, averaging a double-double in four of his five seasons with the team to date.

So yes, it’s been pretty grim here for a while. There’s no guarantee that the team’s fortunes are about to turn either, but this summer at least they’ve been active.

No acquisition was particularly splashy, although signing Jonathan Simmons was a fantastic move, especially if you hop online and check out the dismayed reactions of San Antonio Spurs fans.

That’s all well and good, but this team now needs a leader to take them into next season. In outcast Arron Afflalo, back for his second run with the team, have they found that guy?

The reasons to think Afflalo will be nothing more than a role player this time out are extensive.

Firstly, he had always been just that. Up until his first stint in Orlando he had been a quality role player with the Denver Nuggets, averaging 12.4 points during his time there. The two years prior to that, his first two in the league, he appeared in 149 games off the bench for the Detroit Pistons at a time when their conference finals runs were coming to an end.

More from Orlando Magic

• The most exciting NBA team you won’t see on national TV this season
• 5 NBA teams on the rise that will surprise everyone in 2023-24
• Ranking the 10 championship-less NBA teams by closeness to title
• Orlando Magic draft odds: What are the chances of landing the #1 pick?
• Franz Wagner has smashed the sophomore slump for the Orlando Magic

Since leaving the Magic, he’s hardly even been a role player. Without looking, you probably couldn’t name the three teams he’s bounced around to over the last three years. He could never replicate the success he had with the Magic and Nuggets, although there may have been a reason for this.

Of the 157 games he’s played since leaving (with the Portland Trail Blazers, New York Knicks and Sacramento Kings, if you’re still guessing), Afflalo started in 121 of them.

He was a real success as a starter with the Magic, but that was because he was their go-to offensive option out of necessity. With every other team he’s been a part of, that hasn’t been the case (even the Kings), so this may account for his inconsistent play.

In any event, he’s back where he enjoyed the best spell of his career now, and he seems delighted that this is the case. He also has the right mentality about what this team can do too.

But what about the young guys on this team? Surely this should be Payton or Gordon’s team at this point?

There’s no indication that either is ready to step up to that level, with Payton in particular being a divisive figure with fans. It’s hard to know how much longer he has to prove himself here.

That’s the other reason why handing the keys to Afflalo may be a bad idea: He’s 31 years old. What does that say about the immediate future of this team?

On the other hand, however, one look at this roster and it’s clear they’re crying out for a leader of some sort for next season.

Simmons could well be that individual, but as we saw during his time with the Spurs, he does his best work as a motivator and organizer who is not the go-to guy.

Orlando Magic

A season of Afflalo taking the reins would take some of the pressure off of Gordon, Payton and newcomer Jonathan Isaac, and it’s a position he’s thrived in before.

Back in 2013-14, he had a career year, starting all 73 of the games he appeared in for the team. He averaged a career-high 18.2 points per game.

He also averaged career highs in assists (3.4 per game), free throw attempts (4.6 per game) and Player Efficiency Rating (16.0).

To give you an idea of how his productivity has dropped since then, the highest his efficiency rating has been since is 10.9. The league average is 15.

Afflalo did this while sharing ball-handling duties with a young guy called Victor Oladipo, the supposed savior of the franchise.

We’ll never know if Afflalo stunted Oladipo’s growth or saved him from an even quicker fall from grace, but most fans will tell you they were relived to at least have Afflalo every night.

While the Magic lived and died by his decision-making on the court (23.3 percent usage rate that season, also a career high), this time things can be different.

Afflalo can still come in and provide help in the box score immediately. But there’s no way he’s displacing Simmons or Terrence Ross in the starting lineup.

What could happen however, especially with Payton’s future uncertain, is he could play alongside the starting group for select periods of the game — another indicator he could reclaim a lot of control.

Afflalo, Simmons and Ross could even share the court together if the team wanted to get super funky with its lineups, something Frank Vogel should explore more.

After all, in John Hammond they have a general manager who oversaw proceedings when Giannis Antetokounmpo was allowed to run the point.

All of which is to say the the Orlando Magic finally have some options now, and don’t need to rely so heavily on Arron Afflalo.

Yet when they’re in a tight spot on the court, there may not be a better player for this team to turn to. He’s been the team’s best player in those situations over the last five years.

Next: The biggest winners and losers of 2017 NBA free agency

This team still needs a leader, and while the minutes will likely decrease, Afflalo may turn out to be that guy once again.