Bol Bol is finding his groove again with the Orlando Magic

If the Orlando Magic’s season has been one of surprising highs and puzzling lows, then center Bol Bol has come to personify the feel and temperature of the organization.

With the Magic struggling for healthy bodies for much of the first half of the season, Bol came out of the gates flying. He was their most important player to begin the year, and marveled fans with his unexpected and seemingly off-the-cuff offensive abilities.

With rookie Paolo Banchero dazzling and Franz Wagner making everybody reconsider his position in last year’s draft, it was Bol Bol who became the unexpected surprise. Found money for a franchise that desperately needed it.

But then, just as quickly as it seemed Bol Bol had arrived, he vanished back into the crevices of the Orlando Magic’s rotation again and he has at times struggled to find his footing and role with the team.

A slump was always likely to come. Otherwise, the contending Denver Nuggets would not have so readily given up on him and the Boston Celtics would not have passed on him even easier. Come it did, and although it did not seem like the time to really panic had quite arrived, it was a disappointing development.

In January, Bol managed only 17.4 minutes of action on the court per game, having played a much healthier 24.7 minutes per game in December, when he was coming to the end of his roll.

The reason for this was simple. Starting center Wendell Carter was healthy again, Jonathan Isaac was back from his lengthy hiatus and showing defensive flashes and Moe Wagner was a great source of energy off the bench.

Then there was Mo Bamba, the fifth-year big man who was in direct competition with Bol Bol for minutes.

It would be a stretch to say the two overlapped in terms of skill set, but what was equally true was the roster was not big enough for both of them to thrive in limited minutes.

Some fans were surprised by the modest haul that the Magic got for Bamba at the trade deadline, as he was moved to the Los Angeles Lakers for Patrick Beverley (who will be bought out) and a second-round pick.

But the reality is this is what Bamba was deemed to be worth around the league, with the front office of the Magic agreeing with the evaluation.

It is no coincidence that in the first game the Magic played after trading Bamba, Bol made a statement by going off for 17 points and three rebounds in only 15 minutes of action.

Tied for the most points he had put up in a game since he gave the Atlanta Hawks 21 back in mid-December as part of the team’s impressive seven-game winning streak.

Bol also hit a 3-pointer which, incredibly given his natural ability to take them and never have to worry about being blocked, was the first he had made since a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers all the way back on Dec. 28.

We are not going to sit here and give a professional basketball player his flowers after a made shot from deep six weeks after the last one went down. Yet it felt like a kind of watershed moment for Bol.

It also likely helped that the game, which the Magic won in impressive fashion, came against the team that gave up on him in the Nuggets.

But in a contest where former Magic player Aaron Gordon had himself a night with 37 points, Bol was back to producing those head-scratching and dumbfounding plays.

So far in February Bol is playing even fewer minutes than the aforementioned tumble in January, at 15.8 per night. But with Bamba now out of the picture, that number is sure to rise some.

Bol is also averaging 8.2 points, up on last month’s 7.1, despite playing less.

The rest of his modest numbers are much the same, although shooting 80 percent from the free-throw line is a welcome sight for a franchise that has slipped to 14th (78.6 percent) in this area.

For all the defensive inefficiencies Bol displays on the court, he can now assume his natural position of being an offensive quirk that gives opponents something to think about.

This is still the player who has started 32 of the 51 games he has appeared in this season, and who gives head coach Jamahl Mosley much-needed flexibility in how he is used.

Bol is also posting the highest effective field goal percentage (61.5 percent), free-throw attempts (1.8 per game) and Player Efficiency Rating (16.1, more than Banchero, Markelle Fultz and Cole Anthony) of his young career this year as well.

All that was needed was for the organization to make a little room for Bol to feel comfortable in returning to the player he has already shown he can be this season. They did that in moving Bamba, and already the results look promising.

Had the Magic decided to trade Bol (which was never seriously considered) and gotten more back than Bamba fetched them, how much would it have hurt if he had gone elsewhere and really popped?

The franchise is entering a phase where they can no longer give young players ample opportunity to make mistakes as they lose games. R.J. Hampton has already become a casualty of this way of thinking.

Bol is different.

After a tough stretch, he now looks set to be a factor, albeit a limited one, in their attempt at making the play-in tournament.