Orlando Magic: D.J. Augustin or Shelvin Mack their future backup PG?

2. Playmaking

The Magic are a below-average team in so many areas, but surprisingly sharing the ball is not one of them. Right now they rank 11th in percentage of their field goals that are assisted per game (58.9 percent), and both Augustin and Mack deserve credit for this.

With the departed Payton also being a major key to them ranking quite highly here, it is up to whichever players becomes the backup to continue distributing the ball well off the bench.

Augustin is averaging 3.8 assists per game for his career to date. Mack has averaged 3.0 per game. Of the three occasions Augustin went to the playoffs, that number fell to 1.6.

For Mack, who somewhat surprisingly has been to the postseason four times already, that number was slightly higher at 2.0 per game.

Once again, it is tough to separate the two, but where it becomes clearer is when you consider Mack assists on 29.4 percent of all Magic baskets when he’s on the court. For Augustin, it is a much less impressive 22.3 percent. That’s well below the 26.6 he has averaged for his career, while Mack’s number is the second-best number he’s ever posted.

Mack also has a usage rate of 15.1 percent when on the court for the Magic this season. For Augustin, it is 18.5 percent.

These numbers paint the picture that we see nightly for this team. Mack is the better distributor and gets his teammates going more fluidly. Augustin, meanwhile, is more of a shoot-first kind of guard who gets his own through a series of jerk moves and tricking his opponents off their feet.

Mack takes this one in what is the largest margin of victory in a category so far, which says a lot about where we’re at here.

Verdict: Mack