Al-Farouq Aminu has the reputation for Orlando Magic, but plenty of questions

Al-Farouq Aminu arrives in Orlando with a solid defensive reputation. The numbers last year suggest plenty of questions about the impact he can make.

Al-Farouq Aminu explained why he wanted to join the Orlando Magic quite simply.

The team valued defense. Their whole foundation and the reason they made the playoffs was on the back of one of the best defenses in the league.

That is where Al-Farouq Aminu has made his living throughout his nine-year career. Through all the teams he has played for, Aminu has never recorded a negative defensive box plus-minus and he has tallied at least 2.0 defensive win shares every year for the past five seasons.

The Magic, with the eighth best defense in the league last year, had five players hit that mark. The Magic are adding another gifted defender to their team.

And that is the grind Aminu signed up for. That is the kind of team that he fits in with and adds something to. That is what gets Aminu excited about joining the team.

With his long wingspan and defensive mindset, Aminu will fit right in.

Yes, there is that word again. Aminu certainly fits in, giving Orlando another versatile wing off the bench. He works as insurance should Aaron Gordon or Jonathan Isaac miss time, allowing the team to play in a similar fashion.

And Aminu is more than capable of stepping in.

The question with Aminu though is just how he fits in. With the Portland Tail Blazers, he was the glue guy. Able to do a lot of the dirty work and fill in gaps left open by their star offensive players. That cushion is gone now. And so the question remains whether he can make the same kind of impact for the Magic.

Aminu is indeed long in experience. The question is whether that will serve the Magic the same way it did with the Blazers.

Aminu started in all 81 games he played last year and has been a nearly full-time starter for the last seven years. He did not start at least half the games he played in only two seasons during that time.

He averaged 9.4 points and 7.5 rebounds per game last year. He shot 34.3 percent from beyond the arc and 33.7 percent for his career. Certainly, shooting has been something Aminu is continuing to improve, but it is hardly a strong suit for him.

His minutes in Portland and throughout his career have wavered as far as the team’s shooting needs have gone. But Aminu largely kept himself in the starting lineup and in the rotation based on his defense.

This is what the Magic are investing in and hoping to get from Aminu more than anything else.

Aminu has built up a good reputation around the league as a defender. But th enumbers say something of a different story. At least, last year when Portland’s defense took a step back.

The Trail Blazers used Aminu as the defender on many of the opposing team’s best players. That might explain why his numbers slipped.

Opponents shot 2.2 percentage points better than the league average against him las year. And Aminu gave up 1.03 points per possessions on isolation plays, well above the league average.

The still-nascent DRAYMOND metric developed by FiveThirtyEight, which tries to measure defensive impact as it relates to shooting and excluding possessions where the player happens to be nearby, measured Aminu as a slightly-negative defender. He was at least average at best.

There is some reputation overcoming actual results. But last year may have been an outlier. Aminu has build a deserved defensive reputation.

In 2018, opponents shot 2.3 percentage points worse while Aminu defending them and scoring only 1.00 points per possession against him on isolation plays.

That might mean putting Aminu in a bench role could help him reclaim some of his defensive prowess. He is a good defender who may have just had a bad numbers year. Defensive numbers are still hard to track, after all.

Perhaps a smaller role — or a part-time starter’s role — will help Aminu boost those numbers. He will be going up against supposedly worse players and giving the team’s bench a huge boost.

Aminu also will be entering a team that had a much better defensive season and better defensive players around him with the Magic. Portland finished 16th in the league in defensive rating, giving up 109.5 points per 100 possessions. Orlando finished eighth at 107.6.

There is no guarantee the Magic will build that defensive reputation again. Aminu will play a part in that. He was part of a Blazers team in 2018 that finished sixth in the league in defensive rating. So team defense around him seems to matter.

More from Analysis

• 2023 Orlando Magic Playoff Lessons: Philadelphia 76ers can’t seem to avoid conflict
• Orlando Magic FIBA World Cup: Franz Wagner can be a star if he takes it
• Orlando Magic are going to find out who they are in 2024
• 2024 Orlando Magic Player Outlook: Moe Wagner is the spark off of the bench
• NBA 2K Ratings represent Orlando Magic’s hope and skepticism

Again, defensive numbers are hard to track still. But the Blazers were certainly better with Aminu on the floor. And this is perhaps the impact the Magic are paying for.

Portland had one of its best defensive ratings with Aminu on the floor and he tied Damian Lillard for second on the team in on-court net rating. The Blazers were +8.2 with Aminu on the floor.

Some of that, including the strong offensive output, is definitely a product of playing with gifted scorers and shooters like Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. He will not have that luxury with the Magic — Terrence Ross is not quite at that level.

Aminu had a similarly strong positive impact on the floor in his minutes. That is really what the Magic want from him.

Aminu is a player who fills in gaps on whatever team he plays on. He does the little things that do not show up in a box score. There is a clear positive correlation for Aminu’s minutes with the Blazers.

But there is still a mystery about just how much of Aminu’s defensive reputation is well earned. The numbers do not track well for Aminu from last year.

Playing him in a bench role might focus this impact a bit more. Or he might be the kind of player the starter’s need in some instances to fill in gaps and give the team an added grit.

There are plenty of questions about Aminu’s fit with the team’s rotation. he is very similar to other players the Magic have on the roster. But he fits the versatile style the team prefers.

The question for the move to work is whether he can have the same impact on the team without the dominating scoring threats he enjoyed in Portland.