Victor Oladipo is demonstrating in short time that he may become one of the Orlando Magic’s best sixth men in team history.
It is still (very) early into Victor Oladipo’s move to the bench and it certainly may not be something permanent for the third-year guard. But he has shined brilliantly since Scott Skiles made the decision to make him the Orlando Magic’s sixth man.
While ranking him high in all-time rankings seems a bit premature given he has served this role for just seven games, there is the thought of projecting his play over the course of a full season.
And that is what we have done here, imagined where Oladipo might end up if he keeps up his high level of play in his current role.
The Magic led the Los Angeles Clippers on the strength of Oladipo’s play, and it was evident when he banged knees with Jamal Crawford that Orlando was in deep trouble.
Moreover, there is a dictum that it is “not who starts games but who finishes them.”
These sixth men often did play the crunch-time minutes, and that is not unusual. Many feel moving to the bench is a demotion of sorts, but that is pretty far from the truth.
The Sixth Man award is not about picking the best bench player in the league, really, it is more about picking a game changer whose team found it best to bring a change-of-pace talent in off the bench.
Be it a 3-point gunner or a pure energy player, the Magic have consistently found good sixth men, and the best coaches know the value of having a major talent in the second unit. It is a luxury not all teams are afforded, but the best teams typically have a guy who can come in and do major damage.
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5- Pat Garrity
Pat Garrity is a talent many Magic fans have a soft spot for still. He was an “All-American-good-guy type,” but his play on the court was hardly something to dismiss.
Garrity was a stretch-4 before the role became as popular as it now is. He came to Orlando as part of the Anfernee Hardaway trade, and while Orlando was pretty fleeced in that trade, Garrity did become a valuable bench contributor in the “Heart and Hustle” era of Magic basketball.
Garrity did in fact start 96 games for Orlando, roughly half of the games he appeared in between 2001-03. But Garrity still played a full season in 2001 in which he started just one game of 76 appearances while still playing 20 minutes per night.
Garrity shot better than 40 percent from 3-point range three seasons straight, and his sweet shooting stroke is what allowed Orlando to create court spacing.
Truthfully, he would be a welcome talent in Orlando’s current schematics and team right now.
Garrity came maybe a decade before today’s era which would have better highlighted his talents.
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4- Dennis Scott
Dennis Scott started most of his time in Orlando, but during Orlando’s 1995 NBA Finals run, he came off the bench behind defensive standout Donald Royal. The move made sense for a number of reasons, one of which was that Orlando had sufficient court spacing and plenty of gunners already on the floor.
But Scott was the best shooter of them all.
He started just 10 of 62 games in 1995 and averaged 12.9 points per game while hitting 42 percent from 3-point range. Scott had a brilliant year during the 1996 season when he averaged 17.5 points per game while appearing in all 82 contests. He was no longer serving the sixth man role that season, but while the Magic were at their best, Scott was a sixth man.
In his career, he started roughly half the games he appeared in, though his last three seasons in the NBA were by and large unproductive ones.
That is not what Magic fans remember, but rather “Threeeeee-D!”
Scott was a likable guy, and he has now continued his career as a TV analyst. He started the notion of pulling up for threes in fast break and transition, something that has become pretty common place now.
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3 – Victor Oladipo
Yes, yes, it is very young into the Victor Oladipo sixth man experiment, but it has worked very well thus far with the Magic going 6-2 since Scott Skiles moved Oladipo to the Sixth Man role.
Orlando needed this. The bench had increased its production since last season, but having a major talent coming in the second unit is a boon the Magic can and will benefit from.
Oladipo has been far better about gauging games and reacting to give Orlando what it is lacking when he checks in. Oladipo is finding he can contribute by bringing the missing element to a game, be it pure hustle, board work or playmaking.
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Oladipo was even nominated for NBA player of the week in his two weeks serving this role, a good indication Skiles has made the right choice.
There are those decrying that a No. 2 overall pick should not be a reserve, but that is ignoring the dramatic effect a great sixth can have on a game.
We do not know how permanent this move is, but the Magic are taking care of business (on the road no less) and Oladipo thriving in his new role.
It is somewhat strange to rank him here at No. 3 after just a handful of games coming off the bench, but it is a projection-based thing. If Oladipo keeps up his play in this role, he will have a chance to be Orlando’s first sixth man of the year in 16 seasons.
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2- Ryan Anderson
Ryan Anderson found himself in a unique position as a Magic player. He was good enough to start, playing on that level, but found himself playing behind a declining Rashard Lewis.
Eventually, Anderson would claim the starting role, but before doing so he functioned brilliantly as a court-stretching 4-man. And Lewis even once told Stan Van Gundy not to re-insert him into the game while Anderson was performing better than Lewis thought he could. It was a unique act of defiance, given Lewis was primarily keeping the team in mind in telling Van Gundy not to put him in.
Anderson started just 20 of 127 games in his first two seasons in Orlando, while averaging 10.6 points and shooting nearly 40 percent from three in the 2011 season.
Anderson has gone on to become a valuable sub for the New Orleans Pelicans, and his court stretching is a welcome find with the Pelicans relying so heavily on Anthony Davis drawing double teams.
Many Magic fans were bitter the Magic passed on spending on Anderson just to throw money at an inferior talent a season later — that would be Channing Frye, of course.
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1- Darrell Armstrong
Darrell Armstrong is the only Orlando Magic player to have won the Sixth Man of the Year award. He also won the NBA’s Most Improved award in the same season, 1999. He would go on to become Orlando’s starting point guard, but he may have shined brightest as a sixth man.
Armstrong put up bigger numbers in the two seasons following 1999, having a rare breakthrough at age 31 and keeping the high level of play up until he was 33. Armstrong’s win shares put him in with some good comparable players such as Michael Adams, Kenny Smith, Alvin Robertson, Sleepy Floyd and Doug Christie.
He may not be an all-time great or a Hall of Fame candidate, but he was uniquely gifted and played far beyond the measure of what most call “100-percent effort.” Armstrong became a fan favorite during an era that the Magic were just fighting to remain competitive.
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Armstrong and power forward Bo Outlaw gave the Magic a chance every night, because that tandem rarely came out flat. Energy can win games.
And that is one of the biggest things a team needs from a sixth man.