Orlando Magic forward Wesley Iwundu doesn’t really grab your attention, and most people may not even know who he is. The 6’7 forward out of Kansas State was drafted with the 33rd pick in the 2017 NBA Draft and started 12 games as a rookie, a number he’s already matched this season. On a Magic team that covets long, athletic players, he’s listed with a 7’1 wingspan and will do one thing a game that would impress anyone who knows to keep an eye on him.
The hard part, though, is that most people aren’t paying attention, both to Iwundu and Orlando’s NBA franchise.
It’s not a matter of shyness. When Iwundu walks into a room, he does so with a beaming smile. He’s as engaging of a player as you’ll meet off the court, as Iwundu seems to enjoy chatting with those who approach him. However, he’s someone who doesn’t go out of his way to make sure you know he’s there — he gives off a relaxed vibe in the locker room, which is ironic, because when you watch him on the court, Iwundu doesn’t hold anything back.
“I want to get after it on defense, man.” Iwundu told Dime. “(I want) my impact felt greatest on the defensive end.”
Iwundu is a bulldog on defense, getting up in the opposing player’s face and making them uncomfortable. He isn’t afraid to get physical with the opposition, an approach that every great defender possesses. For Iwundu, this isn’t anything more than what he has always done on that end of the floor.
“It’s a natural thing, man.” Iwundu said. “Just finding any way to impact the game make a difference in the game. My job is, if we need some help on defense, let me step it up on defense and try to make something happen.”
Iwundu and I met at the King Sports & Entertainment building in Orlando at his request. It’s perfect for a quiet conversation, and he was more than happy to sit down and discuss his approach to basketball — he’s not used to getting attention, both because he’s a second-round role player and his style isn’t exactly flashy. A quick YouTube search for “Wesley Iwundu highlights” pulls up a 12-point performance against the Wizards last year and a 31-point outing in the G League.
“I’ve always been an under the radar guy.” Iwundu said. “Even in college, getting to the draft, if you want to talk about rankings in high school, I was never at the top of the list. I think that’s what’s been fueling my game to get better every day to this point.”
Basketball players are notorious for using any little thing as motivation — Kobe Bryant still talks about getting traded by the Hornets on draft night. For Iwundu, though, that isn’t necessarily the case. In his eyes, no game or opponent is different. Even when he goes up against childhood heroes like LeBron James, Iwundu makes sure to stay level.
“I just feel like I’m not backing down from nobody,” Iwundu said. “I’m accepting all challenges no matter who you are. Looking at everybody the same way, I’m trying to stop you from getting a bucket on me at the end of the day.
“It’s still crazy seeing LeBron play for the Lakers, but you know anytime you matchup against the best player in the world it’s always a great challenge,” Iwundu continued. “You always get up for those types of games”
A player like Iwundu is exactly what the Magic want. Orlando is a team that has struggled to stay focused and consistent since the Dwight Howard trade back in 2012. It would start off the year hot, run into some adversity, and collapse. By March, the team would look like it just wanted to get to the offseason. The team tried to address this in 2017, when it enacted a front office overhaul led by Jeff Weltman and John Hammond that viewed mental toughness as a necessity.
Weltman and Hammond are notorious for valuing lengthy players, and Iwundu’s length may be the biggest contributing factor to how he ended up in Orlando. The Magic have stocked up on long bodies, throwing them all out there against teams to cause havoc. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s almost always game changing. Some teams have to play weird lineups to find an advantage, which has made the life of Jonathan Isaac, who Iwundu considers the best defender in the NBA, easier.
“There’s a lot of guys on this team that have great length, and it’s a great thing to have on the floor,” Isaac says. “It’s a great thing to have as a weapon to deter teams from the basket.”
The team itself has noticed that length. They thrive on it and try to use it to their advantage.
“I think up to this point our length has been a big time factor for us in all these games and even with switching and causing mismatch problems,” Iwundu says. “It’s a great feeling. It’s just, like, a confidence booster when you know you have not only you, but maybe two to three other guys with the same length same ability to do things.”
Iwundu’s long-term fit in Orlando is a bit of a question. As a defender, he’s working to get to a point where he’s indispensable. He attacks ball handlers at the point of contact, and he’s learning how to use length to his advantage, but he’s still trying to learn the NBA way. What he is certain of is that his future in the league is tied to his ability to defend and impact the game in a number of ways, similar to an Andre Iguodala.
“It’s not one thing I do great, it’s everything I do good,” Iwundu says. “By the end, when it’s all said and done, 12-plus years, I just want to be known as a great two-way player — did everything on defense plus made some good things happen on offense. I wanna be known as one of the best defenders in the league.”
Iwundu has the defensive intensity, but his offensive game is going to need some work. He doesn’t have a floor-spacing jumper, and as a result, teams are more than willing to leave him alone and allow him to shoot. It will be up to him to punish them for that. He doesn’t need to be a deadeye shooter, but being capable of making defenses pay for leaving him wide open can be just as dangerous. While the shot isn’t there yet, the confidence is, which is one of the biggest ways he’s improved from his rookie year to his second, which Magic teammate Terrence Ross notices.
“He has a better offensive package.” Ross says. “He’s a more confident shooter. I think that’s the overall thing. His confidence.”
It helps that Iwundu has a handful of veterans around him to teach him how to come to work every day and put in the work. He cites players like Jonathon Simmons, Evan Fournier, and Ross as guys who set an example that he tries to follow.
Iwundu has a long way to go, but it’s evident to anyone who watches him that there’s a path to him being an impactful NBA player for a long time. With some polish, Iwundu can go from being just another second-round pick to a headache for opponents on a nightly basis. It’ll surprise people when it happens, but for Iwundu, that’s OK. Flying under the radar is nothing new to him, so he knows exactly what he needs to do.
