Experts do not show Dewayne Dedmon much love, but he is actually a key factor in whether or not the Orlando Magic will be successful this season.
Size, agility and supreme effort. These things are all attributes that will lead to a long and successful career in the NBA.
Orlando Magic reserve center Dewayne Dedmon possesses and displays these attributes on a consistent basis, yet ESPN ranked Dedmon 371 out of 400 NBA players. Not only is Dedmon a bottom-tier NBA player in this estimation, he is a key to determining the level of Orlando’s success in the upcoming 2016 season.
No, Dewayne Dedmon likely will not start this year with Nikola Vucevic ahead of him. But this does not mean Dedmon cannot play a key role for this team.
Dedmon is the only Magic big man with the prototypical NBA center skill set in today’s NBA. Dedmon is a good rebounder, is a good team defender and is a player who does not command the ball on offense.
Start with Dedmon’s impressive rebounding ability.
Last year Dedmon averaged 12.6 rebounds per 36 minutes, that mark would have put Dedmon fourth in rebounds per game in the NBA last season. For context’s sake, only eight guys finished higher than Dedmon in rebounds per 36 minutes who played more than 800 minutes last season.
Dedmon finished in the top 15 in the NBA for total rebound percentage, which marks the estimated percentage of rebounds grabbed by a player while on the floor.
An even more impressive stat is Dedmon’s offensive rebounding percentage. Dedmon finished fourth in the NBA for qualified players in offensive rebounding percentage.
Now why is this rebounding particularly important to the Magic? In all likelihood, Dedmon is going to be the center for the second unit next to either Jason Smith, Channing Frye or Andrew Nicholson. All three of these players are below-average rebounders. With Dedmon in the game next to them, he helps cover up their weakness on the glass.
Statistically speaking, Dedmon stands out for his efforts on the glass, but the eye test may even do Dedmon more justice.
When you watch Dedmon, the aspect that makes him such a great rebounder is not the fact he is seven feet, is a freak athlete and has a 7-foot-4 wingspan, it is the effort Dedmon gives while on the floor. Dedmon is always running at 120 miles per hour while on the floor, and, while that leads to some mistakes because he plays out of control, his effort definitely brings a net positive.
The old cliché when it comes to rebounding is it is an effort stat. It is true, but when you combine effort with being seven-feet tall and having supreme athleticism, an elite rebounder is the outcome.
Soaring Down South
The next thing that makes Dedmon so valuable to the Magic is his team defense.
Once again, thanks to a combination of athleticism, size and effort, Dedmon is one of the NBA’s most underrated rim protectors.
Using the NBA’s advanced tracking stats, of players who averaged more than 10 minutes per game and defended at least three shots at the rim per game, Dedmon ranks seventh, holding opponents to 43.7 percent shooting at the rim.
This puts Dedmon behind only elite rim protectors such as Serge Ibaka and Roy Hibbert, but ahead of guys like Defensive Player of the Year Deandre Jordan and former Magic man Dwight Howard. In addition, Dedmon rejects 2.1 shots per game per 36 minutes which rates him in the top 20 in the NBA.
Being an elite rim protector, Dedmon obviously brings value to the Magic on the defensive end. But the impact is even bigger than expected thanks to the difficulties of the rest of Orlando’s big men at protecting the rim.
Orlando’s starting center Nikola Vucevic ranked one of the worst big men in the NBA at protecting the rim with a 53.7 percent mark at the rim, while Channing Frye finished not much better at 51.9 percent allowed at the rim. Orlando newcomer Jason Smith finished a little better by only allowing 49.7 percnet shooting at the rim. (Andrew Nicholson did not qualify with his attempts per game at the rim, but he did finish at 46.4%).
The rim protection numbers for Dedmon are also decidedly elite and also a significant upgrade to his teammates, but that is not the only value Dedmon brings on the defensive end.
Dedmon’s athleticism allows him some versatility on defense. Dedmon at times last year single-handedly blew up opposing teams pick and roll attempts. Dedmon’s lateral agility allows him to recover when beaten and also switch onto smaller players (even point guards).
Obviously, with those rim protection numbers the team would rather have Dedmon patrolling the paint as opposed to finding the other team’s stretch-4, but it is something he is capable of.
This defensive prowess is critical to Orlando’s success this year.
Orlando under the guidance of Scott Skiles wants to be a defensive team, and Dedmon very well may be Orlando’s best defensive player.
If you see guys like Russell Westbrook, John Wall and so on and so forth tearing apart Orlando’s interior defense, Skiles will not hesitate to either pull Nikola Vucevic in favor of Dedmon or move Vucevic over to the four and have Dedmon patrol the paint for the Magic.
Dedmon’s elite defense on the interior is something only he can bring to the Magic roster as currently constructed.
His level of defensive intensity is bountiful. Hopefully it can be infectious and inspire his Magic teammates to bring their defensive intensity to another level.
Dewayne Dedmon is certainly not a player worthy of the label of 371st best NBA player. With his skill set, which is unique to the current Magic roster, Dewayne Dedmon is one of the major keys to Orlando’s success on the defensive end this year.