The next level for Nikola Vucevic: Improving his defense

Nikola Vucevic is already an accomplished offensive player. His defense though remains the question for him as now competition is coming to push him.

It became a familiar scene throughout the Orlando Magic’s 2016 season. On that opening day it played out in painfully familiar fashion and it would not change throughout the season.

Late in the game, John Wall ran a pick and roll. Elfrid Payton got eaten up on the screen and Nikola Vucevic hung back, hoping Payton would get around and recover. He was essentially there to catch Wall.

Wall, of course, is the speedy point guard of centers’ nightmares. Now with a full head of steam, he came right at Vucevic. There was no chance for Vucevic to catch him, so to speak. Wall was getting to the basket and finishing at the rim, securing the win.

This kind of play is the essence of the problems for Nikola Vucevic on the defensive end. He was constantly stuck in a weird no-man’s land defensively. He lacked the speed both to hedge and recover and to catch point guards heading down hill. Without rim-protecting athleticism, Vucevic was the constant focus for opposing attacks.

Entering the 2017 season, Vucevic’s defense is again the focus. With the team committing vast resources to the defensive side of the ball, Orlando has made defense its focus and bet to make the Playoffs.

Those defensive questions will center on Vucevic once again entering the 2017 season. The center of every trade rumor, question and storm seems to point back to Vucevic once again.

It is unfair to pin all the Magic’s defensive problems on Vucevic. Payton himself had a pretty significant regression on defense. Despite Scott Skiles coming in promising to change the team’s defensive mentality, the team improved its raw defensive rating marginally.

Vucevic was not one of the players who statistically got worse on defense last year.

His defensive box plus-minus improved from -0.1 to 1.1 points per 100 possessions against the average player last year. But that is in line with his career averages. But his field goal percentage allowed at the rim dropped from 53.7 percent to 54.0 percent.

The skill that seems to be most important from a defensive center, Vucevic just does not excel at.

“I think a lot of it is being in places earlier,” Vucevic said early in the season. “When I watched a lot of my games in the past, I would arrive like a half a second late. It’s about making that read early. Trying to get to that spot early. Don’t jump on pump fakes. Stay vertical. Learning from my mistakes. I can work on my offensive game by myself. But defensively, it is hard to work by yourself. I can do that by watching tape and talking to coach.”

This was a sentiment Skiles noted too early in the season. Vucevic needed to work to get to his spots quicker. When the Magic were playing well early in the season, Skiles said it seemed like Vucevic was getting there.

The final product was hard to say whether he had actually improved. He certainly did not reach another level. And the Magic suffered for it defensively.

Frank Vogel said he believes he and his coaching staff can teach Vucevic to work for better positioning and anticipate better on defense. But it is unquestionable Vogel’s eyes light up more when he talks about the defensive potential of having Serge Ibaka and Bismack Biyombo as rim protectors. They clean up so many mistakes and make life easier.

Vucevic on his own certainly does not make life easier for his team. The Magic have never been able to take off defensively.

Perhaps an added rim protector will help Vucevic defensively. Maybe lacking a good shot blocker behind him or trust in his teammates has led to defensive indecision. Thus his numbers are all over the place.

He has only rarely played with a rim protector. Really the extremely raw Dewayne Dedmon is the only one.

Last year, Vucevic and Dedmon played just 13 minutes together. The stats are horrifying and statistically negligible. But in the 2015 season, Vucevic and Dedmon played 283 minutes together posting a 99.6 defensive rating. It was Vucevic’s second best two-man unit defensively that season (granted, the one ahead of it was Vucevic and Willie Green).

There is a whole lot that is inconclusive when it comes to Vucevic and his defense. And not much signal of how he can get better.

It is very unclear whether adding that rim protector will cover up all the defensive shortcomings. Better positioning though can clearly help. What little Vucevic did improve last year did help his defensive numbers.

Ultimately though, committing to a defensive gameplan and executing that positioning comes down to individual effort and attention to detail. For whatever reason, Vucevic has gotten better incrementally but has not made a major defensive impact on his own.

After four years, time seemingly has run out for Vucevic. He has to prove he can be a true starting center on both sides of the ball to maintain his starting spot. Results will matter more than whatever individual production he can create.

Vucevic has come under threat in his position on the team because he did not take the next step or reach the next level in his career. Vucevic kind of flat lined in 2016 compared to his 2015 season. Now that his extension has started, the reality may be that this is the player he is.

And defensively, that may not be enough for a team hoping to hit the top 10 defensively and assure a Playoff bid.

Vucevic will have to continue evolving and expanding his game. Defense will be absolutely key to this. Vucevic is an incredibly skilled offensive player, his defense though seems to limit what the team can do. The Magic have to be able to repel attempts at the paint — whether on the perimeter at the point of attack or with Vucevic hedging or protecting the rim.

Next: Frank Vogel discusses building chemistry

That will be his next level defensively.