Victor Oladipo at his best is a true No. 1 option
There will be these nights where Oladipo, Payton or even Vucevic has an absolutely dominant game but the team still loses.
The rose-colored glasses approach is that we take these performances as snap shots, and in our minds compile what this team can be if the pieces al click in unison.
It is not hard.
Imagine Payton dishing the rock through traffic. Imagine Vucevic’s jumper making the net dance. Imagine Oladipo picking apart defenses for everything from dunks to triples. Imagine Tobias Harris hitting triples on the wing and Channing Frye teeing up net pretzels.
It all seems like it could work so artfully, even down to Dewayne Dedmon making gritty maneuvers on the offensive glass.
But instead we are watching the Magic drop their fourth straight games, despite all of those things happening smattered throughout the ‘Ls.’
It is hard to continually draw encouragement on microcosmic observations, but Oladipo is now on the level of talent offensively that the Magic can definitively say there will be a 20-plus point per game scorer on the roster.
Vucevic is already almost there, too, at 19.8 — but having two guys who can be isolated late in games, or even used together in pick and rolls, will give the Magic the kind of closing pressure that teams don’t really want to see. Oladipo hits 81 percent from the line and Vucevic is a more than competent 77 percent in his own right.
All the pieces are coming together for the Magic to be good, but it is like a jigsaw puzzle that is partially assembled because there are pieces needed that will have to be added via the draft or free agency.
At this point, it may be that the most crucial piece is one we cannot anticipate. It seems whatever it is, it will be a piece complementary to what is already here, because Oladipo and Vucevic are both franchise talents.
Oladipo set the tone early in the game Wednesday when the Magic leaped out to a lead, and the game kind of has to be viewed as a snapshot: at that point, the Magic were playing like the kind of ball club the team is capable of being.
Oladipo was attacking and effort was covering the mistakes by forcing Phoenix into hurried and sloppy basketball. The Magic can build an identity off creating offense through defense, and tonight was the first example of that against the Suns.
The seven turnovers in the first quarter led to the Magic getting easy looks, and this is really what Rob Hennigan had in mind when he started drafting guys like Payton, Oladipo and even Aaron Gordon. Dewayne Dedmon is the free agent acquisition version thereof.
This team will carve its identity though effort and defense, while Oladipo’s diverse arsenal of offensive talents drives an improvement in scoring. Putting up 100 points is not bad, even if it comes in a loss. Getting 38 from Oladipo on a focused 25 shot night exemplifies the young talent’s drive to be the primary option for the Magic’s offense.
Victor hit three three-point field goals in the fourth quarter while also scoring three times at the rim. The Suns could do nothing as Victor basically made the perimeter players choose between letting him tee up a three or spend the possession back pedaling as he charged at the basket.
It is clear to see Oladipo has a very James Harden-like future at making teams pick their poison, and that kind of offensive acumen has to excite Magic fans.
There has not been a guard this explosive and powerful since Steve Francis, and Oladipo is showing he is going to be a force in this league every bit as formidable as “Franchise” was during his time in pinstripes.
Oladipo’s exciting play is now punctuated with a new found aggressiveness that could render him one of the best two-way guards in the Association.