Welcome to the Block Party
Let’s talk about blocks baby, let’s talk about you and me… “No, no, no,” (read in Dikembe or Grover voice) really let’s talk about a good block. That feeling you get when the superstar on the other team is driving in to the basket for the umpteenth time but a hero from the home team emerges and sends the ball flying away from the basket while the home team collectively ooooooohs hoping the ego of said “superstar” is somehow hurt by our enjoyment of our hometown hero. It’s a really unsung beautiful part of a basketball game and a potentially beautiful future for our hometown Orlando Magic.
With Nikola Vucevic’s future uncertain, I wanted to look for the silver lining. What sort of addition by subtraction could we look for in a potential larger role from Mo Bamba? How will him and Isaac be able to protect the paint together?
Personally, I think Orlando should pay Vuc as much as possible for 2 more years. With either scenario it’s certain Bamba needs an increased role in minutes. In only 47 games Mo was still ranked #41 in blocks in the NBA. That’s all while averaging a tad over 16 minutes in the games he DID play. What I found interesting was that his BPG were the highest of any player on the Orlando Magic this past season at 1.36 (playoffs excluded).
If Mo played 82 games this year at 1.36 blocks per game, he would have had about 112 blocks on the season. That would rank him 12th, ahead of Giannis Antetokounmpo and below Jarret Allen. If he were able to play 26 minutes next season just slightly under what Isaac did in his sophomore year after sitting most his rookie year to injury, not factoring in his off-season workouts, and the NBA game gradually slowing down for him next season, he’s looking to lead Orlando with approximately 1.87 BPG in 26 min of play. If that were ranked with this year’s top blockers that would put him 9th behind #7 Joel Embiid: 1.91, #8 Hassan Whiteside: 1.89 and one spot ahead of Drummond 1.75.
Mo’s endurance and stamina are in question, he did seem to tire quickly and struggled with foul trouble. I’m not saying he’s a lock to put these kinds of numbers up, but optimistically I expect him to take a big leap forward, and I believe with minutes anywhere in the 26-minute range we can add Mo to the discussion of NBA block leaders next season. That is B.I.G. (<see what I did there?)
J.I. ranked #20 with 98 blocks this season 2 spots ahead of Vuc at #22 with 89. Crunching the numbers for J.I., increasing his minutes from 26.6 to just 30 minutes JI could be looking at 119 blocks over an 82-game season.
If Vuc is still with Orlando, we can expect similar numbers. I was really impressed with Vuc’s effort on defense this year. Under Steve Clifford’s guidance and free agency lurking in the summer, the seemingly unathletic big showed he had another gear in the regular season really earning his spot as an all-star.
Shout out to AG for squeaking in and rounding out the top 50 in the NBA. AG was the most impressive player on our team in the playoffs from my perspective.
So why does this matter!? Are blocks really that important? Well kinda… There are so many important things to make a winning basketball team but Clifford and the FO believe they are going to do it by their defense. Isaac, Bamba, possibly Vuc, and Ag protecting the paint for Orlando forcing other teams to make shots from deep is a good start. Whos scoring for us is another discussion and a much longer article!
This summer is going to be very exciting for us fans to see what moves the front office makes to take the next step in the team’s evolution. I think defensively this team will be fun to watch and MAYBE the national media might even be forced to talk about us.
I’d love to hear your thoughts, and opinions! Be sure to find me on Twitter @The_Wyatt_Alan and if you aren’t yet follow, @thecloseupmagic where we keep the dialogue going. Happy Free agency Magic Kingdom!
By Wyatt Nebergall