2015-16 Victor Oladipo Statistical Projections

Passing

Victor Oladipo is one of the best passing playmakers at the 2-spot in the NBA, ranking No. 7 in assists per game among shooting guards with at least 4.1 assists per game.

Oladipo averaged 2.9 turnovers per contest, and his assist to turnover ratio is 1.41, which is merely a passable mark given how often Oladipo had the ball in his hands. He will cut down on a lot of his turnovers just due to the added stability the team will have with one fully competent coach all season.

The confusion the Magic manifested offensively led to a lot of the miscues, and he still cut down his turnovers from his rookie year when he averaged 3.7 turnovers per game.

Much as was said about Elfrid Payton, part of Oladipo’s improvement in assist numbers will come from the improvement of teammates. Oladipo created well for Vucevic especially, who shot 54.4 percent off Oladipo’s passes. The tandem’s pick and roll became the go-to play for the Magic down the stretch, because it featured two of the best three offensive talents on the team.

Tobias Harris remains an isolation specialist, while the role of secondary playmaker (behind Payton) in the offense will continue to be Oladipo. He averaged 1.7 assists per game to Vucevic and the only other Magic player with more than one is Harris at 1.1 per game.

Oladipo’s assist number are heavily reliant on Vucevic, in other words, but if the Magic are a more organized team it will feature their pick and roll more heavily still.

Scott Skiles in the past has been a coach to run pick and roll sets heavily, and he is going to have a nice luxury in the tandem of Oladipo and Vooch. Optimistically we can see Oladipo’s assist figures rising to close to five per game this season, even if Elfrid Payton accumulates the majority of them as the lead guard.

Next: Overall analysis