As the Orlando Magic build towards contention, the roles of its featured players can often change drastically as we once saw with a young Nick Anderson.
The Orlando Magic have twice built contending teams in franchise history, and there are lessons to be learned from the process of building from the ground to contention. One of the most prevalent of these lessons is that star players early in a building or “rebuilding” effort can become role players once the team is contending and has added the necessary star punch.
Orlando’s first lottery pick Nick Anderson embodies this concept well.
When Anderson was taken No. 11 out of Illinois he was groomed to become the featured guard on a veteran-laden roster which would begin to turnover quickly as the Magic added talent in the upcoming seasons. “Bandaid stars” such as Reggie Theus and Terry Catledge would gradually give way to Anderson as he became a scorer capable of having huge nights.
By his third season in the NBA, Anderson was playing nearly 37 minutes a night and averaging 19.9 points per game, while also grabbing 6.4 rebounds as a 2-guard. He had developed into the star of a franchise which was building steam, having leaped from 18 wins in 1990 to 32 in the 1991 season.
Anderson was still the second leading scorer on the team during Shaquille O’Neal’s rookie season, and he easily could have remained the No. 2 option offensively.
But he did not.
The Magic would go on to add Anfernee Hardaway and Horace Grant, relegating Anderson to the role of No. 3 or No. 4 option within the offense. Dennis Scott also called for his fair share of looks.
The team had become more talented and there were far more mouths to feed.
The once-leading scorer for the Magic would see his scoring average dip to about 15 points per game in the next six seasons. He still had the ability to put up big numbers, but Anderson deferred the offense mostly to the Magic’s young tandem of Penny and Shaq.
Anderson was a very productive guard during one of the toughest eras in history in backcourt talent, but we really do not know what his career would have looked like had the Magic not added Hardaway and been catapulted to contention.
Anderson could have carved a great career as a No. 2 option, and the Magic would still have been competitive without that stroke of fortune that saw the Magic get the No. 1 pick in the 1993 draft (which resulted in drafting Chris Webber before trading him to the Warriors for Hardaway’s draft rights and four future first rounders).
In other words, Anderson could have had multiple seasons of scoring more than 20 points per game. But that was not how the tea leaves read when the Magic started landing piece after piece en route to true contention. Anderson’s versatility helped him adjust as his role changed. He still retained his value.
The lesson here is that this same fate could befall Victor Oladipo.
Oladipo is at this point the No. 1 or No. 2 option on the team, and his usage rate was the highest last year. He saw 35 minutes a game and averaged 17.9 points per game.
Much like Anderson, Oladipo has increased his scoring and work load each NBA season, and he could approach or pass Anderson’s numbers this season. By all accounts, he could become one of the best two-way guards in the Eastern Conference.
Oladipo is a defensive pest and some argue he is the best of his 2013 draft class. There is certainly a strong argument to be made for it, and Victor really has not even gone into “killer mode” yet.
He said he is working on those mental aspects of basketball this summer, and that bodes well because the tools and skill set for dominance are already present.
He could be the type to score 50 points in an NBA game like Anderson did (off the bench no less, against New Jersey).
And yet, for as good as Oladipo is — like Anderson — he could end up being a role player when the Magic are a contending team.
Why?
Because the team will at some point seek to add a legitimate franchise talent, and it might not be that Oladipo develops into one in his own right.
If the Magic were to nab a major free agent in 2016 or 2017 and Tobias Harris continued to grow into a dominant multifaceted forward, Oladipo could be pushed back to the role of No. 3 or No. 4 option — much like Anderson was.
Thunderous Intentions
At this point, either Harris or Oladipo could easily find themselves a sixth man after having been a top option at this early juncture in the rebuild.
The fact that both look like cornerstones right now is deceiving, because this is still early in the Magic’s rebuild.
The Magic are in Year Four of the rebuild officially, and it may be another three seasons before the team is anything the top clubs in the East fear. There is really no way to ascertain which talent the Magic will pursue and land in upcoming free agency seasons.
Half the teams in the league are likely to pursue Kevin Durant — but Orlando has been fortunate with free agents in the past and will certainly throw its lot in on Durant or any other major name on the market if they are interested.
Should Orlando land a true premier name and become a legitimate contender, it would mean its current star player would become a part of the supporting cast. No current player on Orlando’s roster has secured the role of “franchise talent,” and NBA championships are (almost always) won on the shoulders of its defining talents.
Sometimes those players are obtained via the draft — as with Shaquille, Penny and Dwight Howard. Other times, it was through inking them — Horace Grant, Rashard Lewis, Tracy McGrady and Grant Hill.
But the Magic will look to add a premier player in the upcoming summers, and if it happens Oladipo, Harris and Vucevic will all be accepting less prominent roles at that point.
The point of Anderson’s history lesson is, while trying to determine which current player may be the franchise talent, a perfectly acceptable answer is “none of them.” A player can be a star just to morph into a very talented role player. Anderson had shown all the signs of becoming a star in the NBA, but ultimately he spent the bulk of his career as a supporting talent.