Orlando Magic: Finding space for Al-Farouq Aminu

The Orlando Magic need to find more ways to fit Al-Farouq Aminu into their long-term plan if they are to be successful this season.

For all of the doom and gloom that surrounded the Orlando Magic as recently as a week ago, back-to-back wins over the Philadelphia 76ers and San Antonio Spurs have restored some of the belief that fans had for the organization before the season began.

Now at 5-7 on the young season, they sit in the eighth spot and are looking up at those ahead of them as opposed to falling deeper into the basement. What made the win over the Spurs more impressive was that the Magic did so without rising star Jonathan Isaac, who rolled his ankle at a media event to unveil the new city edition jerseys.

In his absence, Al-Farouq Aminu stepped in, and it was fair to have reservations about what that would mean for the Magic in this game.

Signed this summer to a three year, $29 million contract, Aminu was supposed to be the additional defensive stopper off the bench for the Magic, although his offensive deficiencies were highlighted in the playoffs last season with the Portland Trail Blazers. Right now the Magic’s offense is not in a good place, and as expected Aminu was not helping.

It is still early, but before the win over the Spurs, you wouldn’t have been thinking too radically to broach the subject that perhaps Aminu was the first real misstep of the front office’s time in charge so far. The contract he received is team-friendly, and he will be somebody a playoff team looks at ahead of the trade deadline.

His fit on the second unit was not only throwing himself out of sync but hurting that of guys like Terrence Ross too. The second unit last season had a very clear purpose, to set up shop in the same manner as the starters, with Ross acting as the release valve offensively, putting up bunches of points in a hurry.

So far this year though, the bench has looked less cohesive, and while this was not all Aminu’s fault (D.J. Augustin has also found himself there, trading places with Markelle Fultz), his fit had looked dubious early in the campaign. His basic numbers reflected this. The 20.6 minutes per game he is averaging the third-lowest mark of his career.

The 4.8 points (career-low) and 0.9 assists (third lowest) per game weren’t helping either, and even his 5.3 rebounds per game are below his career average (6.1). So jumping into the starting lineup in place of Isaac didn’t inspire a lot of confidence, but Aminu silenced all doubters with the kind of assured veteran display he was signed for.

In 31 minutes, Aminu had 13 points and 13 boards, finishing with a plus-eight rating for the game. He didn’t take over and close out the Spurs, that honor went to the always divisive Evan Fournier, but he played exactly how he was supposed to: A leader defensively while going with the flow on the other end of the court and generally doing the little things to will his team to victory.

This presents a problem, however, because Aminu was equally as important to the Trail Blazers last season in a bigger role. He missed only one regular-season game and started every contest for an organization that made it to the Western Conference Finals. He needs more run, but it is hard to know how the Magic make that happen.

Taking minutes away from Isaac once he returns would be foolish. He is the budding face of the franchise. Aaron Gordon, although subdued so far this season, is still only 24, and to take minutes from him would be shortsighted. Gordon is a part of their future, for now anyway, while Aminu is a veteran who is here to help now.

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It is tough to squeeze him in, especially as he offers very little offensively. The Magic currently rank 29th in offensive rating (101.9), but that drops to a horrendous 93.4 when Aminu is on the court. The nature of that number may be somewhat misleading, as Aminu plays primarily with the second unit, who themselves have not been good offensively.

But there is a reason his minutes shrank from 28.3 in the regular season for the Trail Blazers last season, to 24.9 once the playoffs began. The Magic need more scoring, even among their starters, and playing Aminu more is simply not the answer to achieving that. Defensive, however, he is making more of a difference as you might expect.

The Magic continue to rise in this area and currently rank fourth (101.7). With Aminu on the court, that number shrinks to what would be a league-leading 93.5. Therein lies the perhaps the largest problem of all though, and that is the team is doing just fine without his defensive input, which begs the question: Why was he signed in the first place?

Isaac may miss the next couple of games, giving us more of an opportunity to see how Aminu reacts to starter’s minutes. History tells us that he will likely perform well, closer to the kind of play that made the Magic sign him during the offseason in the first place. When the Magic are back to full strength however, it will be hard to accommodate him.

Even guys like Kem Birch and Wesley Iwundu are getting next to no game time, and it would be nice to see them get some more minutes as well. Birch, in particular, was excellent last season once Mohamed Bamba went down with an injury, while Iwundu was developing the kind of 3-and-D game that the Magic are crying out for right now.

Isaac and Gordon’s minutes should be untouchable right now, and in the case of Isaac, they may only continue to go north. Fultz and center Nikola Vucevic are different players to Aminu obviously, and to take minutes from them to give to him would not be smart either. Ditto for Fournier and Ross, their best offensive creators.

It leaves Aminu in a tough spot. There to step in if injury strikes, he’s a luxury given the lack of depth other teams have at the forward position. Extra time on the court does not look like it is coming, though, no matter how well Aminu plays in the coming weeks. This was not a bad front office move, but it remains to be seen exactly where Aminu fits and what his best and most comfortable role with the Orlando Magic is.