2017-18 Orlando Magic Player Evaluations: Nikola Vucevic

Nikola Vucevic put together another statistically impressive year for another bad Orlando Magic team. With change on the horizon, the stalwart center finds his future in jeopardy.

Here we are again. The season is over in April and I am writing the season evaluation for Nikola Vucevic.

Once again, as has been the case in all six of his seasons with the Orlando Magic, Vucevic put together a statistically impressive season. Yet it did not correlate to wins at all.

Vucevic attempted to add something new to his skill set this offseason: 3-point shooting. Vucevic attempted 204 3-pointers this season and managed to knock down 64 of them for 31.4 percent. It was an encouraging number and kept some defenses honest, especially early in the season when he made them at an impressive clip.

While the idea of adding a 3-point shot was an admirable one for Vucevic, it clearly did not help the Magic this season. Teams more or less welcomed Vucevic to shoot from range and rightfully so.

Now, in year six of the rebuild, it is time to reflect on what we have seen. And honestly, what I have seen is Vucevic is the appropriate face of this failed, elongated rebuilding process.

Vucevic embodies the culture that has plagued the Magic. There is an obvious air of complacency around him. He sulks about being benched and is essentially the starter by his veteran status with the team. Then again, he often proves himself to be the best of bad options, placing a hard ceiling on a team trying to grow.

Vucevic embodies the culture that never pressed players to be accountable for their faults or their lack of effort. Think about how many times Vucevic let somebody get an uncontested layup when he was in a position to try and contest. The numbers back that up as he gave up 65.9 percent shooting at the rim according to Second Spectrum data on NBA.com. That is the worst mark for him since the NBA started tracking the stat.

Think about how many times Vucevic played a pick and roll and ended up in no man’s land. Or even worse, think about the times he ended up not putting a hand up when the ball handler put up a mid-range jump shot.

With only one year left on his contract, and with the new front office trying to reset the culture in Orlando, the 2018 season will more than likely be Vucevic’s last with the Magic.

It is not that Vucevic was all bad this season. But the team finally seemed unable to find any positive to overcome his flaws. And another frustrating season for the team consumed anything positive for Vucevic in the long run.

The Good and the Bad

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 4/22/2018.

Coming into the year, we kind of knew what and where Nikola Vucevic wanted to improve.

Vucevic openly mentioned he wanted to extend his range out to the 3-point line and this season he attempted to show off that range.

It did not necessarily work out for Vucevic as he ended up shooting 31.4 percent from three on 204 attempts.

The idea of putting Vucevic at the 3-point line to create spacing and pass lanes for Orlando’s players was a good one for the Magic in theory. But Vucevic consuming so many possessions and not being an actual threat from range ended up hurting the Magic in the end.

It is very fair to argue Vucevic was doing very well from range before his injury. On December 23, Vucevic broke a bone in his hand and it cost him to close to two months of action. Prior to the injury, Vucevic was shooting a respectable 34.3 percent from deep. After the injury, he managed to make only 25 percent from deep.

The one thing that was extremely interesting for Vucevic was his 3-point shot distribution. According to NBAsavant.com Vucevic only took TWO corner threes all season long.

Much of this shot selection is probably because of Orlando’s coaching. Seemingly, the Magic’s offense relied on Vucevic making passes from the top of the key to their other players quite a bit. He was involved in a lot more high pick and rolls and that meant anchoring him near the free throw line rather than popping out to the corners from the low block.

But one would wonder why Orlando would not let Vucevic, a prolific mid-range shooter take a lot of corner threes. It seems like common sense, and maybe that is part of why the coaching staff is gone.

One thing Vucevic really excelled at truthfully — and has continued to improve throughout his career — is his passing. Vucevic did a great job of passing this season from the top of that key. He averaged a career-high 3.4 assists per game — a mark that ranks him fifth among all centers, according to NBA.com. That is a valuable weapon for a team short on them.

But Vucevic’s limitations and his ultimate value have always come down to the thing he has always struggled with most: His defense.

Vucevic did what he has done the past couples season on defense. He starts out giving a decent effort on defense early in the year and then falls into his bad habits and crumbles when this team starts to struggle.

Orlando Magic

This wavering effort is the type of damning indictment on the culture the Rob Hennigan regime let fester during his tenure. Vucevic never was corrected for his poor defense and clearly did not get the message.

For a little while this season, Magic fans and the front office caught onto the fact Elfrid Payton was also a huge problem on defense. Some people hoped trading Payton would help solve Orlando’s pick-and-roll defense woes. Essentially, blaming Payton for all of the problems in that area.

Quickly, we learned that this was not the case. After Payton was traded, Vucevic came out and quite honestly may have put up the most pathetic defensive play in his career. According to NBA.com’s tracking numbers, Vucevic let his matchups shoot above their average numbers from every single spot on the court. And, as mentioned previously, he posted his worst field goal percent defended at the rim since the NBA started tracking that metric.

The pinnacle of Vucevic’s defensive woes definitely had to have come versus the Atlanta Hawks on Dec. 9. Two-way contract player Tyler Cavanaugh went for 14 points and eight rebounds on 5-for-8 shooting. More importantly, the Hawks beat the Magic.

Vucevic put up his first career triple-double in this game. Vucevic’s individual offensive brilliance was a saving grace for a depleted and injured Magic team. But his defense ultimately gave the game away.

That pretty much sums up the Vucevic experience.

Best Game of 2018

Oct. 20 vs. Brooklyn: 41 Points, 17/22 FGs, 6/8 3PT FGs, 12 rebounds, 3 assists

Hello darkness, my old friend. This game perfectly exemplifies Nikola Vucevic’s career with the Orlando Magic. Vucevic puts up monster numbers against a bad team and the Magic lose.

One might wonder how one could put up the numbers Vucevic did in this game and still have his team lose. Well, the answer is defense. And as has been the case with Orlando and Vucevic for six years, the team’s opposing big men bullied the Magic in the pick and roll.

This has been the story for years with Vucevic as much as any major Magic player.

But this should not take away from the fact Vucevic had a masterful offensive performance in this game, especially with Aaron Gordon out and Elfrid Payton leaving the game at halftime.

Vucevic started the game out strong, hitting a bunch of threes early on. Being the smart player Vucevic is, he let those threes set up the rest of his game.

Vucevic murdered the Brooklyn Nets in the pick and roll and the pick and pop. When Vucevic popped early and knocked down those threes he recognized the Nets started playing up on him and began to roll. With that, the Nets genuinely had to play a guessing game that left them scrambling all game.

Heck, in this game Vucevic even used pump fakes from the 3-point line to set up drives. It truly was a masterful offensive performance from Vucevic. It displayed exactly how useful Vucevic could be offensive if he was able to be a consistent 3-point shooter.

But the game ended in a loss which pretty much sums up Vucevic as a player. At a certain point, a player’s career has to become about wins and losses more than individual numbers. Vucevic has long been past that point.

2019 Outlook

As I noted earlier, the Orlando Magic are now trying to rid themselves of the culture of the past. Nikola Vucevic is the physical embodiment of that culture. He is the poster child for the Rob Hennigan era. Vucevic is the face of losing for this franchise.

Some of this might be unfair to Vucevic because Orlando has not had overly talented teams around him these past six years. Then again, Vucevic never should have been the one to survive and last this long. He should never have outlasted guys like Victor Oladipo and Tobias Harris, who have both prospered since leaving.  Vucevic endured, probably holding the team back.

It is because Vucevic somehow, someway was given far too large of a role with the team. The Magic have attempted to build around Vucevic throughout his career, trying to keep his production while covering for his flaws.

They traded away Victor Oladipo in an effort to complement Nikola Vucevic with the “rim protecting” Serge Ibaka.

That did not work out at all. Oladipo is currently pushing the best player in the world, LeBron James, to his limits in the NBA Playoffs.

Maybe that is a bit unfair. Maybe the Magic were trying to move Vucevic even after signing him to that sweetheart extension in 2015 and could never find any takers.

It has been clear the Magic should be looking to move on from Vucevic for years. It is no coincidence his name continually came up in trade deadline rumors. The question was always what the Magic wanted in return.

Vucevic is a high usage center who is not overly efficient. In fact, according to NBA.com, more than half of Vucevic’s shot attempts are either open or wide open. Vucevic only shoots around 44 percent on those shots. Defensively, guys like Jarrett Allen and Alex Len routinely have the best games of their careers against him.

Additionally, the Magic have moved on from guys like Kyle O’Quinn and Dewayne Dedmon who, especially for the money they have made, are obviously better players.

Now, the Magic have Khem Birch. A player that the current front office has brought in.

The Magic were clearly at their best this season when Khem Birch was playing center. He passes as well, if not better than Vucevic. Birch also rebounds more effectively and is a significantly better play on defense. He does not demand the ball on offense, allowing Orlando’s more talented offensive players more space.

it just feels like it is time for the Magic to turn the page on this era. And nothing would symbolize that more than moving on from the player who has been here for all six of these frustrating seasons.

With a new front office, I believe that the Magic feel it is time to stop repeating past mistakes. Vucevic will likely have played his last game for the Magic (at least for now).

Final Grade

Nikola Vucevic is not a bad player if he was used in the correct role. But the Orlando Magic have consistently not done that. And, really, the one time they did try, Vucevic complained about it convinced he was a starter and this was his team. He earned that entitlement simply through longevity. That does not mean it is right.

Vucevic is a very useful bench player on a playoff team that needs some volume scoring to keep the game within reach.

With the Magic, Vucevic is a high-usage starter who is inefficient and consistently cripples the Magic on both ends of the floor.

Ideally, for Vucevic he is traded to a situation where he is placed on the bench and used in a role similar to Greg Monroe with the Boston Celtics.

Vucevic can do what Monroe does as well as space the floor more effectively. Vucevic’s next coaching staff likely will attempt to move him more to the corner on his 3-point attempts. That will tremendously help his efficiency.

But, as we see in the regular season, Vucevic will continue to be exposed on defense. And if anybody is watching the Playoffs right now, it is clear teams will continually attack the weak link on defense. Vucevic would be exposed and benched fairly quickly in the Playoffs.

It is hard to justify starting that kind of player and using him as such a major piece of the offense. The Magic’s problem has always been relying on players to do more than their ideal role. Vucevic has been a victim of that as much as anyone.

Vucevic is not a bad player. But the situation that he and the Magic currently find themselves in, is not healthy.

Next: 2017-18 Orlando Magic Player Evaluations: Jamel Artis

It is time for the Magic to cut bait for the betterment of both parties.