Serge Ibaka needs to become Orlando Magic’s leader

The Orlando Magic reformed their lineup, adding a player with plenty of experience to share and room to grow. Serge Ibaka must develop into a leader now.

Serge Ibaka told the story about his drive in his first-person account of his journey on The Players’ Tribune.

He wanted to get his work in before practice at 10 a.m. and decided to arrive at 9:30 a.m., thinking he would be the first person there. Kevin Durant was already working. He came the next day at 9 a.m., thinking he would be the first man in the gym. Durant was there again.

This is the kind of environment Ibaka grew up in as a NBA pro. The Oklahoma City Thunder have a culture the Orlando Magic have tried to build for several years but never could establish. Ibaka hopes to bring that experience to Orlando.

Undoubtedly that kind of veteran presence has been missing off the Orlando Magic roster. The average age of last year’s team at the end of the season was 25.1 years old. The roster entering training camp this year will have an average age of 25.2 years old, but the starting lineup is a little more weathered now.

Gone are the days of rosters with starters all on their rookie contracts without playoff experience. Gone are veterans who are more role players than heavy contributors. The Magic injected the team with some veteran experience, hoping that would help expedite the growth and bring the team to the Playoffs.

The Magic have had veterans before. Arron Afflalo and Jameer Nelson helped steady the ship when the team was tanking in those early days. As the team tried to win, Channing Frye was the old head on the team — he was a team captain last year. But he was not a fiery guy able to get the team back on track. And he certainly did not produce consistently.

Orlando wanted veterans on the roster. The team has always wanted that. The Magic have talked for a long time about having a balance between younger and older players. Now it feels like the Magic may finally have that.

And Ibaka is a central piece to that.

Most of the players in the Orlando Magic’s lineup are still very young. Many were drafted by the Magic — Aaron Gordon and Elfrid Payton — or were acquired by the Magic very early in their careers — Nikola Vucevic and Evan Fournier. Vucevic and Fournier have Playoff experience from the end of the bench.

Ibaka is the only one who has played a critical role for a team in the Playoffs. He was not a high-usage scorer, but the Thunder were made better in the Western Conference Playoffs last year because of Ibaka’s defense.

The Magic have missed that on their teams as they built up and then tried to turn the corner.

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Ibaka will have to reverse all the downward trends statistically — particularly on defense for the Magic. But he will have to do much more than that to have a successful season for himself and for the Magic.

He will have to become the team’s leader.

This was an issue Kenny Wilder brought up for Orlando Pinstriped Post. Who will become the Magic’s leader?

The leader can often get confused with the best player at times. This is not about who is the best player on the team or about who is used in the marketing materials. This is about who pushes the team forward and serves as the sounding board in difficult times through a season and in the game. He galvanizes the team.

It is something that is hard to quantify. These are the intangibles no one can quite get a handle on. Leadership reveals itself.

Last year, the team’s captains were Victor Oladipo, Tobias Harris and Channing Frye. Harris certainly had the maturity. Oladipo had the skill as one of the top players on the team. Frye had the veteran experience. All three are gone, and the team struggled anyway even though it got to 35 wins.

Leadership always reveals itself and it does not necessarily need a label.

Ibaka though is the one player who has the chance to impact the game on the court with his play and off the court with his experience. He is the one player who can tell Elfrid Payton, Nikola Vucevic and Evan Fournier what it is like to get deep in the Playoffs. He can tell them how much commitment even a star-studded team like the Oklahoma City Thunder needed to get to the precipice of a title.

That experience is very valuable. Especially for a Magic team that has not experience much success the last four years and feels the pressure to do so this year.

The Magic will clearly need Ibaka in many ways.

His defensive impact should be apparent very clearly. What will be interesting to watch develop is whether Ibaka truly takes the step forward as a player in all aspects.