Orlando Magic Playbook: Nikola Vucevic’s passing makes him unique big man

The High-Low Assist

Everyone knows Vucevic likes to operate in the mid-range. He takes a good chunk of his shots outside of 10 feet — 380 of his 963 field goal attempts this year have come from 10-19 feet. Outside of his work near the basket, Vucevic plays in that mid-range area where he can work.

It is here Vucevic is adept at this most basic offensive set — the high-low set.

Even middle schoolers learn this basic action where one center aligns himself at the top of the key or free throw line area and can distribute the ball to the low post or to cutters working off him. This is a great way to build up dribble hand-offs and initiate screen and rolls.

Vucevic gets many of his assists here, like the one above where he finds Aaron Gordon cutting around Evan Fournier on a pin down and getting free to the basket. These are the easy assists.

And sometimes wacky things occur, like in Saturday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets when Vucevic threw a lob to Gordon that bounced off the front rim and into the basket.

Perhaps that is as much a sign of Vucevic’s need to continue improving his passing as it is his skill in delivering a pass. A lob like that is always difficult and it came from a tough angle. So give him the benefit of the doubt.

Typically, this is where Vucevic is really good.

At the beginning of the season, it looked like this would be a great way to use Vucevic. Have Bismack Biyombo or Serge Ibaka line up in the post and Vucevic in the high post trying to distribute the ball to them. It was a way to create space.

The Magic rarely went back to it.

The reason this kind of pass can be so successful is because of the space Vucevic creates. When you watch these plays, centers have to step out and cover Vucevic, respecting his shot. This creates space for players to cut and move around Vucevic.

You can see that in the way Gordon cut in the play at the top of the page — the paint is wide open — and how he finds Ibaka in the post in the play above. The defense has to commit to Vucevic and give everyone else the space to receive the pass.

He has a good sense in how to make these passes and get the ball to the right person on cuts through the lane. If the Magic were to go more high-low. That is less likely now with Gordon in at power forward instead of a true post-up threat. But clearly they make some attempts to do so.

Vucevic is clearly capable of making these quick decisions and distributing the ball. He has done it over and over again. Vucevic actually has some good passing skills. The trick with him is getting him to move quickly.

The ball tends to stop when it reaches his hand. That is a big complaint or knock on his game. He tends to favor isolations at times and the ball and movement stop when he touches it.

In these passes in high-low sets, Vucevic moves quickly to set his teammates up. This is among his many skills when he receives the ball in the mid-range. Vucevic can find teammates as they cut and move off him. And that is how he can wrack up assists in bunches when given the chance.