Orlando Magic make a change, replacing Victor Oladipo with Channing Frye

The Orlando Magic will move Victor Oladipo off the bench and start Channing Frye. A difficult decision for a team searching for some consistency.

The Orlando Magic will make a change to their starting lineup Wednesday, sending Victor Oladipo to the bench to start Channing Frye.

It was not a decision that came easy to Scott Skiles or the Magic franchise. But with the way the Magic have played and started games recently, it was clear some kind of change has to be made.

Skiles reiterated before Wednesday’s game, the move is not punitive. It is more about finding a better balance between the starters and the reserves, something that has been lacking.

“We’re trying to get to a point where — one night the starters play well and the bench isn’t so good and the next night the bench is really good and the starters aren’t — to just try and get some consistency,” Skiles said. “This is one thing we were looking at doing. We hope it works and we hope it works for Victor and for the team.”

Skiles said the coaching staff considered many different potential lineup changes and came to this conclusion as the correct one.

Skiles said he spoke with Oladipo explaining the rationale for his decision. Skiles said he was disappointed in the change in role, but that he he would not “respect him as a competitor” if he were not disappointed.

To Oladipo’s credit, he said he was going to embrace the change.

“I’m going to embrace it. Whatever it takes to win is what I’m going to do.” –Victor Oladipo

“You just can’t let it do that [affect your confidence],” Oladipo said. “I think the biggest thing for anybody who would be put in a situation like this is don’t listen to what everyone else is saying.  Everybody doesn’t know what is going on. Everyone thinks they know, but they have no idea. Do whatever it takes to help your team. I’m going to embrace it. Whatever it takes to win is what I’m going to do.”

There appears to be some benefit to making this move.

The Magic’s usual starting lineup of Elfrid Payton, Victor Oladipo, Evan Fournier, Tobias Harris and Nikola Vucevic has posted an offensive rating of 94.7 and a defensive rating of 111.2 (a net rating of -16.5 points per 100 possessions) in 111 minutes together (by far the most on the team). Those numbers vary only slightly in the first and third quarters, when they are theoretically going up against the other team’s starting lineup.

But if the team takes Oladipo out and replaces him with Channing Frye, the team’s offensive and defensive numbers change dramatically. The lineup of Payton, Fournier, Harris, Frye and Vucevic posts an offensive rating of 117.2 and a defensive rating of 90.3 (a net rating of 26.8 points per 100 possessions) in 33 minutes together. All 33 of those minutes with this unit came with Oladipo out of the lineup due to the concussion he suffered two weeks ago.

Of all the lineups the Magic have used for any significant period of time this season, the lineup the Magic are starting Wednesday and for the foreseeable future is the most effective one.

“I think it’s just the way it works, I can see what coach is doing,” Frye said. “I still feel like, for me personally, Vic is a starter in this league and he is doing an awesome thing for the team. Hopefully it works out for him and the rest of us and we start getting wins. We’ll see how it goes and see how it works out.”

Live Feed

Thunderous Intentions

The lineup change theoretically could give the Magic that balance Skiles is looking for.

Adding a shooter to the lineup would help spread the floor better for attacking players like Elfrid Payton, Tobias Harris and Evan Fournier. Things could get too congested with Oladipo in the lineup considering he is shooting a very poor 26.4 percent from beyond the arc.

The way Oladipo has played has been changed somewhat too.

Oladipo has taken 26.1 percent of his shots in catch-and-shoot situations, making 23.3 percent (with a 33.3 percent effective field goal percentage). Last year, only 17.7 percent of his shots were catch-and-shoot and he made 31.8 percent (46.4 percent effective field goal percentage).

Further, it appears he is getting to the basket less too. According to NBA.com, 43.6 percent of his shots from within 10 feet after taking 51.5 percent last season.

This year, Oladipo is averaging 4.5 drives per game and shooting 29.4 percent on those drives for 2.2 points per game on drives. Last year, Oladipo averaged 9.2 drives per game and shot 41.8 percent on those drives for 5.9 points per game.

Skiles said part of his thought process was to get Oladipo back to playing with the ball in his hands at the top of the key, driving to the basket as he had the last fe wyears.

There certainly seems to be something to putting Oladipo in a lineup where he can play like he did the last few years. And the only way to do that, it would seem, is to bring him off the bench.

“I’m just going to do what I got to do. Play my game and help the team try to win the game,” Oladipo said. “I’m just going to come in and give us energy, just going to come in and lead them, come in and get us going and get us on the right track.”

There will be some concerns for sure. The lineup the Magic will start has had limited time together. A lot of it came against two specific opponents too — one in a blowout and one in a shaky loss to Washington.

And it has its limitations. The Vucevic-Frye pairing struggled mightily last year with a 110.5 defensive rating. The duo posted the worst net rating of any two players that played more than 500 minutes together last season. Although the two have played significantly better together this year in an admittedly small sample size.

It is not an easy situation for the Magic.

“It’s a very difficult decision to make because we’re preaching defense and we want to be known as a defensive team — Victor has been our best defensive player, I have said that many times — but, oh by the way, you are coming off the bench,” Skiles said. “That is something I have struggled with for the last 72 hours to make that decision. I wanted to change something and I went through a whole list of options. I also felt like Victor would handle it well and that goes into it as well. You want someone to handle it professionally, because it sucks.”

For now, Skiles is going with this lineup to see if it can work and if it can get him the consistency he and his team need.