by Paul Gerald
f you spent
much time following the Orlando Magic last season, you might have forgotten
David Vaughn is even on the team.
The former Tiger forward played in less than half of the Magic's games, most of them before the end of December. He only played eight and a half minutes per game. Add up his rebounds-per-game and points-per-game and you get five. He's not even listed on the Magic roster on the team's official Web page. His phone number in Orlando is disconnected.
From
first-round pick to obscurity in two short years.
And now the Magic's general manager says there's no guarantee Vaughn will be on the team next year. John Gabriel says Vaughn's future with the team probably depends on how he does in a July free-agent camp for fringe players.
"There are no definites for anybody," Gabriel said just after the Magic were knocked out of the NBA playoffs in the first round. "These camps are partly for guys who are still considered fringe players, aren't starters, and are trying to get a place in the league. They're open to anybody who wants a job. David has an opportunity to solidify his position on this team."
That sounds good enough, but listen to this:
"It's not unlikely that a guy like him who's a later pick [25th overall] doesn't hang on for more than one or two years."
Sometimes, when Magic players and coaches talk about Vaughn's progress, it sounds like they're talking about an unexciting date, you know -- "she had a nice personality."
Penny Hardaway: "David's been doing a great job for us. He's been working hard and getting us some good minutes." On the night Hardaway said this, the Magic won by 12, and Vaughn never took off his warmups.
Gabriel: "He has not had a go-to offensive game, inside or outside. He's a little better perimeter shooter than from the inside, which is odd for a guy his size. He's got some blemishes, like all young players."
Assistant coach Tree Rollins, who works with front-line men: "He's got a good NBA body, he's working hard -- we've got no problem with him there -- and we think he's going to be okay."
There are finer compliments than "he works hard" and "he looks like an NBA player."
For his part, Vaughn says all the right things. He's "just trying to play solid and do whatever it takes to win" and that "every guy can't score 20 points a night or you'd have teams scoring 200 points. Some guys just have different assignments, and I'm one of those guys. I think I'm coming along very well. I just try to stay focused."
Vaughn saw a fair amount of action early in the season, when starters Hardaway, Dennis Scott, Nick Anderson, and Horace Grant were all out with injuries and no center had emerged to replace Shaquille O'Neal. He started six of the team's first 16 games, his only six career starts, and managed 12 points in one and 13 rebounds in another.
But when the regulars came back, Vaughn sat. Then the Magic signed 38-year-old forward Danny Schayes, who has averaged double-figure scoring in just two of his 16 NBA seasons. Effectively, Vaughn's season was over. Later, Vaughn was put on the injured reserve list with a "nagging" injury in his quadricep. He was replaced on the roster by rookie Amal McCaskill. Often, putting a player on the injured list is nothing more than a roster move. (One NBA PR man joked this season that he had to remind a rookie which knee to limp on, since he was on reserve for a knee injury.)
All of this leads some to speculate that the Magic see Vaughn as a wasted draft pick.
"If those folks knew NBA coaches like we do," Gabriel says, "they'd know that they don't have a long life expectancy as a coach, so you go with what know, even if it is a 38-year-old Danny Schayes."
Just ask former coach Brian Hill, who was in the Eastern Conference finals two years ago and the job market this year.
Vaughn says he likes playing in Orlando, and especially playing with Hardaway. "I hope to stay here," he says, "but in the NBA you never know, because it's a business."
When the Magic needed Vaughn last season, the team turned elsewhere. Whether he has a future in Orlando is the question which weighs the heaviest on Vaughn's mind.