2018-19 Orlando Magic Player Evaluations: Troy Caupain

The Orlando Magic rewarded Troy Caupain with a two-way contract but never gave him the chance to prove himself in the NBA. So the question still lingers.

The Orlando Magic’s first year having a G-League team in their back yard was an experiment for them. They shuttled players back and forth from the main roster to the G-League team fairly frequently. Wesley Iwundu and Khem Birch especially spent significant time with the Lakeland Magic.

At a certain point, it was clear they had outgrown Lakeland and they needed a shot at the NBA. Not to mention the Magic needed them.

Last year, Lakeland’s team seemed to change significantly three times as those players shuttled back and forth with the roster. Injuries and other G-League call ups changed the roster and Lakeland kept shifting and adjusting.

Troy Caupain was one of the constants for that Lakeland team that made the playoffs that year. He was the one pacing the team through all the ups and downs at point guard. He had his own development to go through, but he was the one constant.

Troy Caupain earned a shot at the Magic just from his consistency. A two-way contract was deserved and earned in every way.

The Magic have done a good job using the G-League as a means to develop players on their roster. But it is hard to say they have figured out how to use the two-way players they have signed.

Last year, neither of their two-way players made much of an impact with the team waiving Adreian Payne after allegations from his college days emerged and Jamel Artis did not contribute much throughout the season. The Orlando Magic opted to sign the other star from the Lakeland Magic in Rodney Purvis toward the end of the season.

Caupain got his chance this year as a two-way contract player. They added both him and one of the G-League’s best players in Amile Jefferson. But neither got any significant playing time in the NBA. A lot of that had to do simply with the Magic’s injury luck. The team could not make room for anyone in the rotation.

With few avenues to get to the NBA available, the question for Caupain then became did he get himself closer to the league? And that might be a fair question.

His NBA stats are inconsequential — he scored 10 total points in 16 minutes across four games, adding four assists and making four of his eight shots. Those all came in garbage time minutes so it is again hard to judge him.

In the G-League for Lakeland, he again turned in a strong season.

Caupain averaged 16.4 points per game, 5.4 assists and 5.8 rebounds per game. He shot 47.9 percent from the floor and 38.6 percent from beyond the arc. The Lakeland Magic finished with the second-best record in the Eastern Conference and won a playoff game before falling to the Long Island Nets on a buzzer-beater in overtime.

Caupain had a lot to do with forcing overtime and keeping the season alive, scoring 20 points in the game.

The big things Caupain needed to work on to get his NBA chance was to improve his point guard skills and his shooting specifically. Caupain is a bit undersized for the league and his shot was a big part of why he got overlooked after a solid career with the Cincinnati Bearcats in college. He was a bit of a volume shooter there out of necessity.

Caupain ended up having a very similar season to last year with Lakeland. His assists and scoring were all about the same. But Caupain was a much more efficient shooter this year.

He shot 34.7 percent from three last year and improved to 38.6 percent on the same 4.7 attempts per game this year. That is a positive sign. His assists still hovered around five dropping from 5.8 per game to 5.4 per game.

It is hard to say Caupain had a poor season. He did a lot of the things that got him his two-way contract and turned Lakeland into one of the best teams in the league. He certainly got better and will earn another look in the NBA.

But it is also somewhat an indictment that late in the season with the Magic needing a point guard to fill out the roster, they opted to sign Michael Carter-Williams on a 10-day contract rather than stick with Troy Caupain. They did not even give Caupain a chance to see if he could man the position.

Perhaps that decision was partly because the team was in the midst of a playoff race and did not want to turn to someone completely unproven. But it is not like Michael Carter-Williams had torn up the NBA recently. The Magic certainly could not expect Carter-Williams to make the impact he made.

Orlando ultimately made the right decision. The results bear that out with Carter-Williams.

But that left Caupain by the wayside. With that decision in the back of their mind, it is hard to imagine the Magic will stick with Caupain much longer.

With the ability to turn to Caupain and give him a real chance at real minutes, the Magic did not give it to him. It is tough to stick with a team for much longer with few NBA prospects available.

Caupain has done more than enough to earn a NBA chance somewhere. He is certainly among the best two-way players available on the market and will get a look once again. Knowing how much Caupain has impressed the Magic’s brass in the last two years, he will certainly work to impress others.

It is hard to evaluate Caupain this season. He was solid once again in the G-League as an important cog of Lakeland’s successful playoff run. There is no arguing with those results. He was the point guard of one of the hottest and best teams in the league the entire season.

If not for the single elimination format, who knows what would have happened with Lakeland and Long Island. A series there would have been fun.

But Orlando already knew Caupain could produce in Lakeland. The organization already knew he could play well at that level. The Magic signed him to a two-way contract as a reward and as a tryout to get some NBA experience.

The opportunity to play Caupain in the NBA never really materialized. When one did after the injury to Isaiah Briscoe, the Magic opted to go in a different direction.

It worked for the team, but it raises fair questions about Caupain and whether he could truly handle that role for the Magic. Maybe he was not what the team felt it needed — especially concerning pace and defense.

Caupain at least proved his season last year was no fluke. He was capable of matching last year’s statistics and production. Not to mention the winning at Lakeland. He continued to show improved shooting and playmaking ability.

But the question is whether it is enough to make the NBA remains. And that question remains unanswered for Caupain.

After two years in the Orlando system without much of a chance, Caupain probably has to see if a different environment will give him the chance to prove that.