Orlando Magic: 2018-19 player grade for D.J. Augustin

Highlights

There’s only one place to start, and it is with the most famous Orlando Magic shot in over seven years. That buzzer beater against the Toronto Raptors will live long in the memory and ensures his place in Orlando basketball folklore. D.J. Augustin was good all game, and he made the Raptors pay for giving him the space to get the shot off.

During the regular season, he hit plenty of shots from deep, so the fact that he was left as open as he was seemed surprising. There’s no highlight that can top that, so instead we must look to Augustin’s season as a whole to find more of them.

This was the year, and most likely the last year at that, where Augustin got to have a starter’s role and show the league that they were wrong to dismiss him as nothing more than a competent backup. Every night he brought it and it was clear as the season progressed that he really cared about getting this organization back to where it can be, starting with making the playoffs.

Augustin won’t be around by the time this roster has reached its full potential, so to be an important piece on a plus-.500 team was great for him personally. It adds to the resume he has built as a journeyman in the league.

The Magic, despite being such a young franchise, have a great tradition of lovable point guards who fans enjoy cheering for. Among the most beloved is Jameer Nelson. Augustin is no Nelson and you would be afraid to put the two in the same sentence for fear of creating a comparison that isn’t there.

But there is no question that Augustin’s 2018-19 season was the most complete since Nelson was on the team, and fans backed him as an almost “Nelson-lite” character on this team.

Given where Augustin has come from, bouncing around the league for years, to have found a home and a fanbase in Orlando, which did not always look possible, is not only his highlight of the season but among the biggest highlights of his career.