Orlando Magic: Should Wesley Iwundu be getting more minutes?
By Luke Duffy
The Orlando Magic need to start figuring out which guys can help them beyond this season. With that in mind, should Wesley Iwundu be getting more minutes?
Right now for the Orlando Magic, it’s all about evaluating the players they have on their team for next season, while also keeping their eyes open for any potential trades.
With the team destined for a high lottery pick anyway, winning no longer really matters (although it was fun to watch them beat the Los Angeles Lakers so convincingly the other night).
There are some young players on this roster that management still likely isn’t convinced can be a part of this team for the long-term.
Rookie Wesley Iwundu is one such player. Although he’s spent some time in the G League already this year, he seems to have more time in the rotation with the injuries the team has had.
But is there a case to be made that Iwundu should be receiving more minutes going forward? Will he develop at a rate that suits this team as they hope to get back to the playoffs next season?
Somewhat surprisingly, Iwundu has played 32 times for the Magic this season, and he’s even started three games too.
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When he’s on the court, he brings plenty of intangibles in the form of playing hard on both ends, tracking back defensively and putting himself in positions to be able to shoot the ball.
Does this mean anything though? Are there any numbers that can show us Iwundu is helping in a notable way anywhere on the floor?
As of now, not really, but there are a couple of signs that he may continue to grow into the player the team wants and needs him to be in future.
What that would be is a 3-and-D wing, which most playoff teams have on their rosters these days. The Magic do not have somebody like this, and it is where Iwundu will hopefully fit in.
His defensive rating this season so far of 105.9 is not good, it is a good deal below the average of 102. But given how Iwundu doesn’t get a lot of help (the Magic rank 27th in defensive rating at 108.8), it is possible that number would be higher if he played on a better team.
Exceptional transition defense from Iwundu there. Boston had a 3-on-1, Iwundu guessed right and C’s came away with nothing.
— Orlando Pinstriped Post (@OPPMagicBlog) January 21, 2018
The 3-point aspect of his game, however, has been poor. Iwundu is shooting 25 percent from deep this season.
Yet a look at how many shots he has taken from beyond the arc yields some positivity. Despite playing in the games that he has, Iwundu has only attempted 20 shots from 3-point range all year.
With guys like Evan Fournier and Aaron Gordon chucking the ball after hot starts from deep themselves, this may explain why Iwundu hasn’t done so as much. If anything, giving him more minutes and touches of the ball would allow him to shoot from deep more, taking his 3-and-D training to the next level.
Iwundu is averaging 13.5 minutes per game, but when you watch the team play it doesn’t quite feel as much. That is more than the recently impressive Khem Birch (8.8 minutes per game) and also veteran Marreese Speights (13.1 per game), who comes on to put up points in a hurry.
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The next player ahead of Iwundu in the rotation would seem to be Shelvin Mack (16.9), a player fans were happy the team signed in the summer but has not done much.
So from the player’s perspective at least, there is reason to be optimistic. Iwundu is in the rotation, and could even see his minutes increase over the coming games.
Where those numbers may be misleading, however, is how garbage time playing may be padding them out more than we think.
In Magic wins this season, Iwundu only averages 8.9 minutes per contest. When they lose? That figure shoots up to 15 minutes.
That being said, he averaged 15.2 minutes per game in January and logged 21 in the win over the Lakers, so perhaps he’s turned a corner here and gained head coach Frank Vogel’s trust.
Again, it makes sense for the team to give this guy run and see what he’s got, but he is not without his weaknesses as well. It would be harsh to call Iwundu the Andre Roberson of the Magic (or not, the Oklahoma City Thunder went from first to 30th in defensive rating when he went down injured).
But offensively he isn’t giving the team a lot, and there is every chance he never develops into the two-way player they would love him to be. While the Magic have shot up to 20th in the league in offensive rating (104.4) off back-to-back strong games from deep against the Houston Rockets and Lakers, Iwundu has not contributed.
His offensive rating of 100.6 closer to a player like Bismack Biyombo (98), who can only play three feet from the basket, than other offensively challenged players on this team. That’s worrisome.
Other players on this team who don’t have a consistent jumper or pose a threat from deep like Elfrid Payton (105.9) and Jonathon Simmons (103.1) are still doing much better in this category.
This is a shame, because there is a lot to like about Wes Iwundu’s game and how he can help this team in the future.
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There are going to be lot of losses in the future, so it makes sense to give this guy more minutes. The Orlando Magic just need to be wary that it may not bring them the growth from the player that they are looking for, if the numbers he’s posting now are anything to go by.