D.J. Augustin has been on the same team for a long time now. He started his career off with a four-year stretch with the Bobcats, but then over the next four years he played with 6 different teams. By the end of that, I had an annual “Where Will D.J. Augustin Get Traded To” trade-deadline-day get together with all my friends where we tried to guess where he would get traded. The winner then got a custom-ordered Augustin jersey from the new team.
But now he’s been with the Magic for three whole seasons, my annual gathering has ended (a combo of Augustin not getting traded and not having any more friends after I ghosted them all so I could make more highlights), and I’m yearning for better times. Times when Augustin would get traded and then miraculously become really good for 30 or so games for his new team, before regressing at the start of the next season.
Augustin is already 31 years old (general oldness is a trend for Bobcats-drafted players these days), but I will go out and say that he’s playing the best basketball of his career. All those years of accumulated veteran savvy, combined with the “played for half the league” multiplier, means that he knows exactly what to be doing on the basketball court. He’s more efficient than ever as the starting PG for a playoff (??????maybe???????( team.
If it turns out that Markelle Fultz recovers and takes Augustin’s starting gig, I wouldn’t mind resurrecting my trade-deadline tradition. I’ll even make my guess right now: Miami Heat.