Orlando Magic: Appreciating what Wesley Iwundu does

As the Orlando Magic are still trying to reach the playoffs, the consistent play of Wesley Iwundu off the bench cannot be overlooked.

With regular season games beginning to run out, the Orlando Magic find themselves still in striking distance of making the playoffs. If they are to come up short, it will likely be because the resurgent Miami Heat took the eighth and final postseason berth from them.

It is clear why the Magic are on the outside looking in right now, despite how the period directly after the All-Star break brought such hope — they dropped games that were supposed to solidify their playoff position against lottery-bound opponents like the New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers and Memphis Grizzlies.

On the other hand, they picked up wins over the Toronto Raptors and Golden State Warriors, among others. They’re also riding a five-game winning streak at home, their best run in the Amway Center in over five years.

It has been well-documented at this point in the season who the main players are that have kept the Magic competitive, with fans of other teams around the league aware of them on a first-name basis now. Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon and to a lesser extent Jonathan Isaac, have all fueled this fun season.

One guy who is not going to get much of the credit should the Magic rally late and make the playoffs is second-year wing Wesley Iwundu. The reasons for this are obvious. He isn’t particularly flashy type, and he doesn’t even start on a nightly basis. A deeper look, however, reveals more than that.

Iwundu has quickly established himself as the glue guy for the roster, doing whatever is asked of him on a nightly basis. His averages this season of 4.9 points and 2.8 rebounds per game are hardly even worth mentioning. He looks much more assured in his role this year though, and it shows.

As a second round pick, Iwundu had more in common with guys like Devyn Marble during his rookie campaign. He had plenty of heart and a desire to play hard defensively, but not much else. Marble plays in Italy now, and for a while there it looked like Iwundu could go the same way before long.

It wasn’t just that he averaged 16.5 minutes per contest, it was what he did with that time. Mostly, he looked unsure of how he was meant to function on the offensive side of the ball, while trying extremely hard defensively. The unsightly 19.6 percent he shot from deep highlighting a player who wasn’t helping in that regard.

This wasn’t all on Iwundu, however. Then head coach Frank Vogel, at that stage under pressure to show that he was taking the team in the right direction, leaned into more proven guys on the roster. The aforementioned Nikola Vucevic and Aaron Gordon are two prime examples.

The dismissal of Vogel during the offseason signaled the start of Iwundu’s rebirth, and it moved along quickly when it was announced that Steve Clifford would be taking over. Clifford is a coach who has always praised defensive effort, and throughout the year has instilled an approach on that end that has resonated throughout the roster.

The Magic currently rank seventh in defensive rating (107), and over the last 15 games have the best defense in the NBA (101.7). Iwundu wasn’t the only player to benefit from Clifford’s arrival, but his strengths are highlighted like few others on the roster because of the way he wants the Magic to play.

Early in the year Clifford turned to Iwundu a great deal, before he went through a period of looking like he could slip out of the rotation. The beauty of Iwundu is how hard he plays no matter how much playing time he receives.

This year, his minutes haven’t increased all that much (18.2 per game), but what he is doing in that time has. He’s learning to become more efficient with his time on the court. The 80.2 percent he is shooting from the free throw line is among the better averages on this roster.

It is his defensive presence where he continues to make his name, however, and the Magic have a defensive rating of 101.9 when he is on the court. Unsurprisingly, this would lead the league if stretched across the season. Iwundu doesn’t deserve all the credit for this, as he usually plays with backup center Khem Birch, a defensive anchor and cult hero in Orlando.

Iwundu is doing this despite the uncertainty of how and when he will be playing each game. So far this season he has started 12 times (the same number as his rookie campaign), and has seen Jonathon Simmons traded, which in theory created more minutes for him. On a nightly basis though, he sees his role fluctuate wildly.

On March 3, he played 13 minutes in a loss to the Cavaliers. Seven days later, it was 32 minutes in another loss to the Dallas Mavericks. There was an eight-game period throughout November and December where he played five minutes or less four times in an eight-game stretch.

Yet no matter what he has remained relatively consistent in what he does on the court. As the Magic continue to improve and work toward the playoffs, it is unlikely Iwundu will ever see himself become a starter. With Mohamed Bamba and Markelle Fultz back from injury next season, he might even see his minutes dip once more.

It won’t matter though. He is playing for a head coach who understands and uses his skill-set appropriately, and who will always turn to him at some point in a game. For how long might never be clearly defined, but no matter how far the Magic go while Iwundu is a member of the team, his slowly improving play will be a contributing factor — even if the appropriate level of appreciation never follows.