Orlando Magic: 5 key players that got away
By Luke Duffy
3. Kyle O’Quinn/Dewayne Dedmon
In three years with the Magic, Kyle O’Quinn didn’t do a whole lot. He was a serviceable backup to Nikola Vucevic, and that was about it. In the three years that have followed with the New York Knicks, however, O’Quinn has emerged as a stabilizing force on a team that has been anything but.
While Joakim Noah makes silly money to mostly not play, O’Quinn has appeared in 40 games already this season, anchoring their second unit. The 6.9 points and 6.0 rebounds per game he is averaging also represent career highs. So too does his offensive rating of 106.3 and PIE of 14.3.
His Player Efficiency Rating (PER, league average 15) of 20.1 is only slightly behind the 20.5 of last season.
O’Quinn will always be a no-nonsense presence around the rim, but the extra offensive punch he is building wasn’t predicted by many.
Dewayne Dedmon, another former center, gets a mention here too, and the reason is as clear as it is depressing.
Although Dedmon has had a quiet career to date, he is actually averaging a hugely impressive 10.8 points per game for the Atlanta Hawks this season. He was a revelation for them early on, and is making just over $6 million both this year and the next.
O’Quinn signed a four-year, $16 million deal with the Knicks back in 2015 — another contract of excellent value.
Why this is important is because both players are arguably as good as Bismack Biyombo in most areas (barring rim protection, but Dedmon can come close), at a fraction of the price. Biyombo is the Magic’s joint-highest earner this season at $17 million, and given his limited skill-set, he is taking up cap space more than anything else at this point.
Neither O’Quinn nor Dedmon is terribly missed, yet if the organization could re-do any roster move of the last six seasons, keeping one of them and avoiding Biyombo is likely to be it.