Drew’s 3rd season in the NBA could make or break his career.

The NBA season kicks off tonight with three games slated around the Association. Personally, I could give a crap about the NBA. As much as I love watching college hoops, I can’t get into the NBA until The Finals and even then it’s just an “eh” thing for me to turn on. That said, I do find myself checking the Magic’s boxscore each morning to see how Andrew did, or more recently, to find out if he even got any time. His rookie year was fun, last year, not so much.

The Magic did pick up Andrew’s contract option for this season but now comes the big challenge. Andrew took a big step back last season, and that information comes from just about any source you want to read it from. After a promising Rookie campaign Drew got buried on the Magic bench last season behind guys like Kyle O’Quinn, Big Baby Davis,Tobias Harris and even complete scrub Mo Harkless who is just an abomination of a player. We can gripe about Drew’s playing time, the bottom line is he looks like a borderline NBA player right now.

This is a massive season for Drew and given the addition of Channing Frye, it looks like Andrew won’t be getting much clock at it all. I’ve read a ton of NBA team previews and there resounding theme is this: If Nicholson doesn’t play when when given chances, he will wind up cut at year’s end or in the D-League during the year. This is a shame because the Canadian has certainly shown flashes of being an impact off the bench scorer in the NBA. His versatile offensive arsenal hasn’t changed (though his 3 PT jumper didn’t develop further last year) but his defense, passing and other intangibles seem to be lacking. I even read a report that said Drew just looks happy to be collecting a paycheck…that stings. Grantland’s preview literally put an icon of a pile of shit next to Drew’ name which indicated he’s a “poor player”…..It also doesn’t help that the Magic are coached by Jacque Vaughn who by all accounts, is a horrible NBA coach. Even Bill Simmons said this month that Vaughn is horrid and will be fired this season.

So, where does all that leave Andrew? Likely in a bad spot. With so many forwards ahead of him on the depth chart it’s tough to see him getting meaningful minutes. At this pointI’d hope some other team seems potential in him and offers Orlando a deal. I think a change of scenery is needed for him to make it in the NBA. If that doesn’t happen I could see Drew overseas next year which would be a real shame given his stock/potential in 2011-2012.