Getting Nikola Vucevic back to the block
Nikola Vucevic is an extremely gifted offensive player with great post moves and a sweet mid-range jumper. Now though, he is struggling to get post touches.
Nikola Vucevic is a very dangerous offensive player. Particularly when you put him in the pick and roll.
Vucevic in his three years in Orlando has shown a lot of great offensive skills. His post-up game is solid with a variety of step throughs and hook shots that catch teams off guard. He has a feathery touch on his jumper, able to consistently hit 18-foot jumpers. Centers rarely like to travel that far from the paint.
This has made Vucevic a pretty solidly wealthy guy thanks to that $50-plus million extension that kicks in next year.
Vucevic’s numbers this year are more than solid — 19.3 points and 11.2 rebounds per game on 52.5 percent shooting. All of his numbers are up from last year as he continues to improve his offensive game. Defensively, Vucevic has shortcomings — notably a lack of lateral quickness which makes it tough for him to rotate and cover on pick and rolls — but he is a solid player more than worthy of the extension the team has given him.
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Vucevic’s versatility on offense as both a post player and a jump shooter is what has separated himself from many centers in the league. It has put him in the upper tier of NBA centers (at least offensively, that defensive part is all that is keeping him from being among the very very best).
Yet, Vucevic of late has not looked it.
He is averaging just 15.5 points per game in his last six games after missing two games with ankle soreness. In those six games he is shooting 44.7 percent. For someone supposedly playing so close to the basket, that is a problem.
In that six-game stretch, Vucevic is just 15 of 34 from less than five feet and 7 for 18 on shots 5-9 feet from the basket, according to NBA.com. That accounts for 52 or his 93 field goal attempts the last six games.He has taken 11 of 23 shots from 15-19 feet, the area he would typically pick and pop. And nearly 79 percent of his field goal makes in this stretch are assisted, suggesting he is scoring more on pick-and-pops than on straight post ups.
For whatever, reason, is not in the post as much lately.
“We need Nik on the block,” Magic interim coach James Borrego said. “That’s part of what makes him unique for us. He does score down there for us.
“We’re playing a lot more pick and roll right now, which puts him out on the perimeter. With Dewayne [Dedmon] down, he’s popping up a lot more. We need him down on the block. But teams are doing a good job doubling him too. We have to be solid in our execution when teams double team him, creating open shots elsewhere.”
The defense doubling Vucevic has been part of his decrease in post production. But so too has Dewayne Dedmon‘s presence in the lineup. Dedmon has started the past eight games before missing Wednesday’s contest at Dallas.
Dedmon, decidedly, is not a jump shooter. Only five of his shots have come from beyond 10 feet and 44 have not come at the rim.
Because Dedmon is no threat from the perimeter, defenses are able to sink into the paint more. That has led Vucevic to pop more, he said.
“When I’m with Dewayne, I have to pop because of the spacing,” Vucevic said. “When he gets out, I need to roll. Sometimes it gets mixed up when I change positions. I just need to get used to it. I can do a better job rolling.
“Sometimes it is hard when they go under Elfrid, I don’t want to roll into the guy and get an offensive foul. I’ve been watching tape of it, I need to find a better angle rolling to the hoop. I think it will create more spacing for us in the offense. It is probably more effective when I get the ball in the paint. The jump shot is not bad, I like it, but we need my points in the paint.”
The Magic’s inability to make jumpers, or rather the defense’s belief that the Magic do not have jump shooters, limits the space for players like Vucevic and Oladipo to attack. Teams are doubling and hedging harder on Vucevic because they are not as concerned at getting back to the perimeter.
It is this reasoning that keeps Channing Frye on the floor (although the numbers suggest the net rating is worse when Vucevic and Frye share the floor together than when Vucevic and Dedmon do). Orlando here too needs Evan Fournier back from injury to help spread the floor as well.
To free up Vucevic and his post opportunities, Vucevic not only has to learn how to play with a player tethered to the paint and to stay close to the basket but also deal with double teams aggressively trying to stop him. Vucevic has gotten better at this, Borrego said. The Magic just have to make teams pay for doubling him.
“He’s done better when the double comes, he’s not as antsy,” Borrego said. “He’s much more comfortable moving the ball. The rest of us, once the ball is kicked, have to be more aggressive moving it to the next side, finding the next open shot. We can’t allow teams to double us and not pay for it. We’ve got to do a better job making teams pay when they do double team.”
The Magic have made a significant investment in Vucevic. And so it would make sense to try and find a way to use him to his fullest value and potential.
Vucevic has a lot of offensive skills and the Magic have taken advantage of it in a lot of ways. Involving him in pick and rolls, particularly with Victor Oladipo has been successful. Vucevic scores 1.03 points per possession as the roll man in pick and rolls.
But Vucevic has a lot of skills as a post player. He is improving as a passer and he is relatively official. He still needs to learn and work to get consistently deep post position — he still gets pushed off his spot and is forced to face up more than you would like.
For the Magic to be successful, Vucevic has to find a way to get on the block and finish for his team.