The Orlando Magic faced questions when signing Al-Farouq Aminu and when pairing Aaron Gordon and Jonathan Isaac. But there is no logjam.
The Orlando Magic made only one key addition to the roster that made the playoffs last year. Everything else stayed the same as the team spent its summer retaining the same roster that made the playoffs.
The only addition was Al-Farouq Aminu.
The 6-foot-9 forward has built his reputation as a versatile defender. His poor outside shooting often helped confuse where he ultimately played and the position he could fulfill. Al-Farouq Aminu has spent much of his career answering a lot of these questions.
All the while, he provided teams with valuable grit and timely enough shooting to keep kicking it in the league. He started last year for the Portland Trail Blazers in 81 of their 82 games. In his last three years, Aminu played the majority of his minutes at what was listed as a power forward, according to Basketball-Reference.
The Magic adding Aminu to the team was something they were excited about. Orlando had added a high-level reserve to fill in minutes, presumably behind Aaron Gordon at power forward. . . or Jonathan Isaac at small forward.
Fans almost immediately responded with bewilderment to the Magic’s acquisition of Aminu. Observers also did not seem to get fully what the Magic were after in making this signing.
Aminu seemed of the same type as several players the Magic already had on the roster.
His perimeter and defensive versatility echoed the way Aaron Gordon and Jonathan Isaac already played. And the team added another versatile forward in Chuma Okeke in the draft, although he will be out for some time as he recovers from a torn ACL.
There is certainly an overlap of skills there. And when Chuma Okeke returns a logjam will exist as the forward will not have a path to minutes. Chuma Okeke will not have the downward versatility to play guard as Wesley Iwundu has. Finding Okeke minutes will be difficult with the team’s current roster.
But that logjam does not exist now.
The Magic added Aminu for depth, hoping to play the same style and the same way at every point in the game. The Magic are hoping to keep a versatile defender at power forward at all times while having the ability to switch between the forward positions.
This is how the Magic played for much of the 2019 season too.
Orlando started Isaac and Gordon together for most of the season. That was a pairing that raised some questions before the season began. To many, both are better suited to play the 4.
That might ultimately be true. But the two played well together.
Orlando proved that they can fit together nicely in their proof of concept season last year.
When sharing the floor last year, the Magic had a +1.7 net rating with the two on the floor (108.3 offensive rating and 106.6 defensive rating), according to the NBA’s stats database. Both numbers were better than the team’s overall averages with the defense a full point per 100 possessions better.
After Jan. 31, when the team made its playoff run, the Magic had a -0.9 net rating with the duo on the floor, but a still robust 106.9 defensive rating (despite it being far worse than the team’s overall defensive rating).
There are certainly still questions about how both Isaac and Gordon pair together. But they are both young enough and capable enough to continue working together and figuring out what their limits as a duo are.
Two-man lineup data also can be full of noise. While their duo numbers suggest some struggle, the Magic’s starting lineup was one of the best lineups the team used during that time.
The Gordon/Isaac experiment certainly has earned a continued look as the team paths its chart forward. And Orlando has doubled down on that to trot out similar lineups featuring Aminu.
The reality is that for teams like the Magic, the forward positions do not have much of a difference. Questions about who is the power forward and who is the small forward in these lineups is pretty moot. It is an antiquated way of looking at the game.
The way the Magic use both players is very similar. It is more about the skills they have and what they bring to the table. Lineup demarcations in the modern NBA are less important. In fact, positional nomenclature is more about who a player can defend rather than what they do on offense.
Coach Steve Clifford can engineer an offense to cover up their flaws. And shooting is still a major flaw for all three players — Aminu shot 34.3 percent from beyond the arc last year, Isaac shot 32.3 percent and Gordon shot 34.9 percent. That is the key to this whole thing working ultimately.
But it is the defense the Magic are investing in. And it is the defense that makes this work.
Orlando has a solid three-man rotation of versatile forwards. All three are strong defenders and can switch to any position. That is the ideal the Magic are building toward.
They will be able to play all three a healthy amount of minutes, although Aminu will certainly see his minutes drop from 28.3 per game he played last year. If there is any pressure signing Aminu puts it is on the minutes Wesley Iwundu will receive.
But there is little concern about how these three will play and interplay with each other. Orlando’s positions are fluid with Gordon and Isaac on the floor together.
It is not perfect. And so that logjam might exist if this versatility plan does not come through.
The Magic need shooting still. They need Gordon and Isaac especially to improve as 3-point shooters to make this whole thing work. Isaac had a nice surge toward the end of the season. Gordon has continued to improve as a 3-point shooter. This whole thing still relies on that piece of the puzzle.
But there is time for all three to play — perhaps even together in super small, versatile lineups. That is the power versatility gives this team. That is the versatility the team invested in.
Where Gordon and Isaac ultimately play is less consequential than how they play together. Even adding Aminu into the mix, it is less important where he plays in relation to the other players and more about how they play together.
If there is a logjam on the roster, it is more about the mystery of whether these players can play together. But judging by how they are versatile defensively, the only impediment to that is really their shooting.
There are still risks to where the Magic have decided to invest their roster. But the idea of versatility is at the center of everything. And that will prevent any logjam at the position from occurring.