Magic practice next man up without Victor Oladipo

The Magic are modeling themselves somewhat off the Spurs model.

Rob Hennigan was an intern in San Antonio under Sam Presti. Jacque Vaughn played for and coached with Gregg Popovich. Alex Martins extols the Spurs and uses their method as a model for what the Magic should try to build.

Here is one thing the Spurs do incredibly well: fill in when players get injured. Even the most important ones.

The Magic will be without Victor Oladipo for a month it looks like (according to a report initially from Larry Ridley of WESH and then again from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports). That is a month full of games and opportunities for players to step up and step in.

The good news is Oladipo’s surgery was apparently a success. So that month has started, I guess.

The regular season starts Tuesday and waits for no man. It cares not for who is or is not available. The schedule comes and is unrelenting.

“We’ve just got to pray for him to get better,” Tobias Harris said after Friday’s preseason loss. “When he comes out of surgery, hope for a speedy recovery. He’s going to be fine when he comes back. He has to take his time with this. The only thing we can do right now is pray for him and pray that he has a successful surgery.

“We’ve got to make due with what we have here. Hopefully Channing gets better soon, but we’re going to be in a good position to play our game versus the Pelicans and do what we do best.”

Jacque Vaughn said the preseason gave him little time to experiment. The Magic were down Channing Frye and Victor Oladipo pretty early on. The team had to make do with what they had and find a way to survive without two starters. They have had a whole month to get used to the idea of not playing with these players for a while now.

So, unlike those Spurs dealing with a stray injury or a rest day to a key player, the Magic are not quite going to be able to fit players into the rotation like the Spurs do. Popovich tends to maintain his rotations and insert players deeper from the bench into the starting lineup to replace any players who have to miss time.

It is easier to do that with an established system and a winning tradition. The Magic are not quite there yet. No one is expecting the Magic to have roles so clearly defined after one preseason — without Oladipo and Frye at that.

“I think overall it’s the message we’ve been talking about our guys with since Day One,” Vaughn said. “We’re going to need everyone and that opportunities present themselves throughout the course of the season. We’re built as a team and some of the things we’re doing offensively and defensively won’t be any different with Vic in or out. Hopefully we can get better at those things while he is out.”

Without Victor Oladipo, Jacque Vaughn will have to trust his players to step in and step up. Photo by Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports

This has been the calling card throughout the preseason and training camp leading up to the season. In order for the team to win, the team will have to rely on each other without a trust superstar or consistent (proven) scoring threat. Everyone seems to know this.

That mentality will play into and helps the team push through being without Oladipo for the next month and possibly Frye for some time at the beginning of the season.

A lot of the pressure though may fall on rookie Elfrid Payton.

Payton impressed throughout the preseason and may have played his way into the starting point guard role sooner than everyone thought. The Oladipo injury only opened the door wider for Payton to get his career going.

It is clear from being around Payton that he has a quiet confidence about him. Magic players talked about Payton being “wise beyond his years”. Throughout the preseason, Payton was tested some with pressure defense and even through his mistakes found a way to shine and figure out a defense. The regular season presents a new challenge.

“I’ve just got to step up and speed up the learning curve,” Payton said. “I’ve got to be ready for whatever they ask of me and be ready to do it at a high level.

“Just being as ready as possible at any time and do whatever is asked of me. Whatever coach Vaughn asks of me, just be ready to do it and help the team at a high level. Whether it be defense or making plays on offense.”

That is the mentality the Magic likely want from their rookie and from all the players as they face the beginning of the season without this key player. The team will have to trust the system Vaughn has implemented over the last month and trust each other in a very short a mount of time.

No one is pretending this will be easy. The Magic are not the Spurs. That trust in the system and each other has not been built up over years of Playoff battles and wins. There are going to be growing pains as everyone figures these things out.

Being without Oladipo is going to be tough. But the Magic have no choice but to step up and make the best of the situation together.

“Right now it’s obviously a big loss on both ends of the floor,” Nikola Vucevic said. “He’s a big part of what we do. We’ve got other guys who can step up and fill that hole. It will be a good chance for some of the younger guys to slip in and show what they can do. You can’t really replace a guy like Vic. But we’re going to have to do it together. With him on the floor, we still have to do it together as a team. That’s the way we have to play. It’s a big loss for us, but we can’t do anything about it.”