Orlando Magic Player Evaluations: Andrew Nicholson

The Good and the Bad

Nicholson seemed to find his post game again late in the season. And it was good to see him get back to that part of his game.

But it was an uneven season for Nicholson throughout that saw inconsistent playing time and really no role for him throughout the meat of the season.

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/9/2015.

In 2014, 89 of Nicholson’s 420 field goal attempts were from beyond the arc — 21.1 percent. This past year, Nicholson took 41 of his 190 field goal attempts — 21.6 percent. So Nicholson was still taking a few too many 3-pointers perhaps. Especially for someone who shot just 31.7 percent on 3-pointers this year.

Nicholson did not make any demonstrable improvement as a 3-point shooter. And he clearly was not good enough as one to be a full-time stretch-4 with his defensive struggles. This is why he went back to the bench.

He did do more in the post this year compared to last. Nicholson had 39 post-up possessions this year (1.1 per game) with 0.72 points per possession on post ups, according to NBA.com. That is not a huge number by any amount. Nicholson is still largely used exclusively as a shooter.

And he is not good enough of a shooter for that role. The thing that made him unique — his post game — was not being used and when he was posting up, he was not executing.

All that spells a player who is woefully underused and misused. . . or a player that is close to seeing his NBA career go away (Nicholson will enter free agency in 2016).

The last 13 games of the season, Nicholson saw more consistent playing time. And his production started to come up because of it. Nicholson shot 50.7 percent from the floor and scored 6.6 points per game and 14.7 points per 36 minutes.

It was these games that gave hope that Nicholson could still find a role with a new coach, salvaging even a little something from his season.

Next: Best Game of 2015