Orlando Magic: D.J. Augustin has proved us all wrong

Point guard D.J. Augustin was thought of as an ideal backup for the Orlando Magic this season. But he has proved everybody wrong as their starting guard.

While the Orlando Magic have been one of the surprise packages of this NBA season, they continue to shoot themselves in the foot by dropping winnable games. This has made their goal of reaching the playoffs for the first time in six seasons harder than it should be.

Despite this, a favorable schedule down the stretch and some morale-boosting wins over contending teams has them in contention for the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference.

When we think of the reason that the Magic are still fighting for a postseason berth, the name Nikola Vucevic immediately springs to mind. A first time All-Star this season, he has had a career year in what is a contract season for him.

Terrence Ross is the other obvious candidate here. He too is having the finest season of his career, coming off the bench as an offensive spark plug for the organization on a near nightly basis. It is not a stretch to call him a top-five candidate for Sixth Man of the Year.

Point guard D.J. Augustin isn’t getting nearly as many plaudits for how he has played this season. In some ways though, his personal progression in Orlando has made him equally as important to their playoff hopes.

Augustin has been thought of as a capable backup for much of his career. A former lottery pick of the Charlotte Hornets (then Bobcats), Augustin spent four seasons there, only becoming a consistent starter in the final two years.

From then on he has mostly been a backup. In the four seasons that he bounced around the league after leaving Charlotte before landing in Orlando, Augustin started only 28 games across six organizations (Indiana Pacers, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons, Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets).

This trend continued for the Magic. In his first season, he started 20 of the 78 games he played, mostly backing up Elfrid Payton. When Payton was traded to the Phoenix Suns, however, Augustin began to seize his chance.

Fast forward to this season, and he is putting up numbers we haven’t seen from him in a some time. Purely from an optics point of view as well, everybody seems much calmer when he is running the offense on the court.

He plays with a controller poise, which has put younger players such as Jonathan Isaac and Wesley Iwundu at ease, and he’s comfortable teeing them up to get them going early in the game. When he needs to get his own though, he crafty footwork around the rim more than make up for the height he gives up.

But how are the numbers reflecting this play? Augustin’s 4.9 assists per game are the second-highest mark of his career, topped only by his final season in Charlotte, when he started 46 of the 48 games he appeared in and averaged 6.4 assists a night.

This number may seem low, and more comparable to the Magic’s laughable assists leader from last season, but it still leads the team. Playing with an underrated passing big man like Vucevic (3.9 assists per game), takes some of these potential assists away from Augustin too.

Augustin is also putting up 11.5 points per contest too, numbers again not seen since his stint in Charlotte. He did average 14.9 points a night in 61 games for the Bulls, of which he started nine times, but this can be explained by Derrick Rose‘s injury woes at the time.

It is how he is scoring these points that is even more impressive, however. Augustin is shooting a sizzling 43.4 percent from deep on 3.7 attempts per game. Ross might get the credit for being a deadeye shooter from deep, and even Evan Fournier gets some love for his long range efforts, but it is Augustin who leads the team in 3-point efficiency.

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Given that 3-point shooting is an area where the Magic have routinely finished in the bottom seven or eight teams over their rebuilding phase, this is a welcome sight. On the season so far, they rank just above league-average (14th, 35.3 percent), and Augustin is a big reason for this.

The Magic still rank poorly in offensive rating (24th, 106.7), but when Augustin is on the court that number jumps up to 109.6. Even better, that is a career high for him personally. Defensively there is no slip-up either, despite the aforementioned height that Augustin regularly gives up to opponents.

Since the All-Star break, the Magic have had the second-best defensive rating in the league (104.3). For the season as a whole, they are up to ninth in this category (107.8). Yet when Augustin is out there, that number shrinks to an even better 106.6. He is not getting the credit he deserves for his two-way play, or at least, his ability not to be a negative defensively for the team.

So while Augustin has done a great job as a starter on a playoff chasing team, he’s the perfect fit going forward too. The Magic traded for Markelle Fultz at the deadline, and though he may not even suit up this season, he is coming.

But who better than Augustin to not only show him the ropes as the consummate professional he appears to be, but also return to his backup role and do so without causing any friction in the locker room?

If Fultz is a success, then Augustin would be ideal running the second unit, giving concentrated bursts of what we’ve seen from him over the last 18 months or so. Should Fultz bomb and be shipped out quickly, Augustin will be ready to return as a fill-in starter and contribute the way he has this season.

At 31 years old, he still has a couple of seasons of decent basketball left in his legs. His grit and determination to help the franchise back to the playoffs has endeared him to fans.

Augustin sprained his ankle in an away win over the Pacers, forcing him to leave the game. He did return, but only played 17 minutes. He looked certain to miss the following road game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, but he played 29 minutes and added 19 points. That game ended in a disappointing loss, but Augustin’s commitment was never in question.

So while others are going to get the credit if the Magic make the playoffs (we didn’t even touch on Fournier or Aaron Gordon), it is safe to say that D.J. Augustin has proven everybody wrong with his play. He has proven himself to not only be worth of a starting spot in the NBA today, but he is also the right choice to steer the ship for the Orlando Magic as they navigate waters they haven’t traversed in years.