Victor Oladipo is indispensable to the Orlando Magic long term

Victor Oladipo is valuable now, and will be even more so in the future of the Orlando Magic, both on and off the court.

It happens to almost every team.

They get jilted. Left at the altar.

The big guy leaves. The team is left alone, forgotten, unimportant.

Ask Denver. Ask New Orleans. You could have asked Cleveland. And they are just the unfortunate ones.

You can most definitely ask Orlando. They had the NBA’s biggest man for years and years. Climbed the mountain and peaked at glory — before tumbling back down in a Dwightmare everyone wanted to forget.

But the fallout . . . the fallout was even worse.

After years of winning, of being relevant, of having a star to hang their hat on, the Magic were left in a wide desert of mediocrity. No one outside of their own fans cared. The fan base is searching for a star to be the organization’s face.

The red waste of mediocrity is a horrible thing for NBA teams. It is all too easy for teams to lose their way and spend years there. You could have found the Minnesota Timberwolves and Sacramento Kings trotting around listlessly, veterans of the void. Some teams are lucky, and flit in and out, using their star-powered engines to pull them back out.

But Orlando had no engine after Dwight Howard. Yes they had gotten some young talent back, but nothing to make the rest of the world take notice. It was a rough few years, spent toiling in the sand.

After a while, the sand started shining. There was talent here. There was potential. A big man acquired from the original trade. A small forward looking to make a name for himself. But there was one, mined from the 2013 draft, that outshone them all, and put the team back on the stage.

He came, with a shiny smile and a heavenly voice. The Magic appeared to have found their player to push forward and be everything the team was about.

Victor Oladipo had starred at Indiana University for three years, and was well known even then. He was named Sporting News’ Basketball Player Of The Year, the National Co-Defensive Player of the Year and a first team All-American. His vibrant defense and mesmerizing dunks were always going to be noticed, but his game wasn’t shown half as much as it would be in the NBA.

He came in straight away, and won some hearts. The year before, the team had won only 20 games. In Oladipo’s rookie year, they only increased that number by three, but the change was there. This was a young guard who played 80 games, scored the second most points on the team and did it all with style.

He recorded his first career triple-double, a 26/10/10 stormer, in his 17th NBA game. He repeated what he knew from his college career: intense defense producing amazing offense. How often did Oladipo jump a passing lane, steal the ball and thunder down the court for a spectacular dunk that many players three inches taller would struggle with?

There was something there to talk about.

He came second in Rookie of the Year award, but the young man was not satisfied. He increased his scoring by four points per game while lowering turnovers and increasing his shooting percentages across the board. More of the highlights came, and Oladipo was noticed, as were the Magic, around the league.

But he has a worth much deeper than that.

The NBA is a fickle thing. To be noticed and respected, you need two things.

One is winning. The other is personality. There has to be entertainment of some form or another. and young Oladipo excels at this. The dunks and highlights are part of it, but off the court matters too.

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Thunderous Intentions

Any NBATV viewer will have seen the advertisement a hundred times, where Oladipo is dancing next to poor Kelly Olynyk, looking like he is having the time of his life, flashing that wide grin.

Viewers of this year’s dunk contest will have been serenaded by Oladipo, suited and booted, doing his best Frank Sinatra impression. He ripped the suit off like Superman to reveal the Orlando symbol branded on his chest. Representing his city and his team, not to mention the fans.

And then he went out and shocked us all with completely unseen dunks, spreading the message and putting his team on the map.

Oladipo had that magnetic pull to bring fans in and make them care both with his play and his personality.

All that remains even as things have changed for him on the court.

A lot of the talent has risen to the surface in Orlando. There are a lot of young players, all of whom are brimming with potential. Elfrid Payton, Evan Fournier, Tobias Harris and Nikola Vucevic just to name a few, are there making names for themselves.

New coach Scott Skiles made the decision to put Oladipo to the bench in order to inject some energy into his team. The move so far has worked for the team. How long he remains a bench player remains to be seen, its seem clear Skiles has a bit more experimenting to get to yet, but starting or not, Oladipo always has an impact.

The team has had more energy, in no short part due to Oladipo himself, and the Magic have won three straight. Oladipo did not make a fuss whatsoever about the move, he just did what his team needed.

Make no mistake though, the Magic will need Victor Oladipo going forward. On and off the court.

Even in the perfect scenario where all these young players hit their mark and evolve into a premiere team, not only will Oladipo be a major contributor, he will be the spark plug he is now. He will be the dunker that raises people out of their seats, the guy doing something funny on NBATV. The face of the franchise. It is too hard not to be drawn into his personality.

Orlando was known for Dwight Howard for nearly a decade. When he left, it was dire times.

Of course the Magic fan base held true, but nationally there was little notice. Orlando is not a New York or Los Angeles, who can be bad and still front-page news. At the time, they were being overshadowed in their own state by the Big Three.

And Victor Oladipo helped bring them out of that. He is only a third-year player now, yet he has proved himself in the clutch, inspired the team, created highlights and played very fundamental, very good basketball.

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In the years to come for the Orlando Magic, he will become even more important. He will win them games, and win them fans. He will continue to be the organization’s face even if he is coming off the bench for the time being.