The Orlando Magic need someone to be consistent and steady for a team going through wild swings. Nikola Vucevic is always there producing that anchor.
The future seemed fairly bright even after the Orlando Magic lost a big lead to the Golden State Warriors. Their first West Coast road trip was an inflection point for the team. They wrapped it at 3-3 and still in the Playoff race. The Magic had a reason to be optimistic entering the second quarter of the season.
They knew December would present some trouble. The road trip was just the start of a long, difficult stretch that included the trip to Mexico City. The Magic would have their work cut out for them.
To get through it and have a chance at staying in the Playoff race — as watered down as it is — they would need a rock and some form of consistency.
This is not a team that is a picture of that trait. If anything, the team has suffered from rampant inconsistency. In some instances, the team has played stellar defense and offense that can put up points in a hurry. But other times, and often in the same game, the defense will struggle to stick to the gameplan and pay attention to detail and the offense is stuck in the mud.
This team needs its rock. It needs its mooring. Perhaps that is part of the larger questions the Magic have to answer about the roster moving forward. Those questions are coming into sharper focus as the team reaches the midpoint of the season and is struggling to keep its footing.
Still, the team has some form of a rock. Someone it can turn to largely for consistency when things are going bad. Someone who does make the team better with his mere presence.
And just like in the first quarter of the season, Nikola Vucevic has been that rock. He is the most consistent player on the roster. It is no surprise Nikola Vucevic is getting legitimate All-Star buzz, so long as the Magic remain winning.
Vucevic turned in another stellar quarter for the Magic. He averaged 20.0 points per game and 12.7 rebounds per game, adding 3.8 assists per game for good measure. He shot 51.2 percent from the floor. And, if that was not enough, became a first-time father.
Those numbers are in line with his averages for the year — 20.2 points per game, 12.0 rebounds per game, 3.7 assists per game and 52.9 percent shooting. The Magic need someone who will just be steady with the wild swings some of their players go through.
That anchor is Vucevic.
At this point, Vucevic grades poorly when the Magic do not go to him enough or he does not demand the ball. His selfless nature gets in the way of his potential stardom and sometimes the team just needs someone to take over.
It is not in Vucevic to demand the ball enough. And maybe sometimes he still wants to shy away from contact. But those times are fewer and fewer now. There is no mean streak in Vucevic, but he is effective and makes the right play.
Vucevic is always willing to pass to the open man and is looking to get others involved. The Magic need that consistency and, if anything, need to play through him more.
Vucevic remains the best player on the team and one of its most impactful. But for sure, some of his effectiveness has started to slow from the first quarter of the season when he was clearly the best player on the team and running away with it.
In the second quarter of the season, the Magic had a -0.6 net rating with Vucevic on the floor. That was the second-best mark among rotation players behind only D.J. Augustin. The team had a 106.2 offensive rating with Vucevic on the floor and a 106.8 defensive rating.
Vucevic started to slip a bit defensively after a stellar start. He is still doing better than in previous years. He keeps his hands active and does a better job protecting the lane. But, like the rest of the team, the attention to detail has not had the same clarity and sharpness as it did at the beginning of the year.
Regardless of that, the Magic are miles better with Vucevic on the floor. He is vital to everything the team does.
Ultimately, none of this matters to Vucevic. He will be the first to tell anyone that. As will many players on the team.
Vucevic has put up solid numbers for much of his career in Orlando. The Magic have unleashed him offensively in a way that he has not before. And his defense has reached a new level overall.
But ultimately, wins are the only way to judge Vucevic. And that is more than fair to ask of him.
Orlando went 7-13 in the second quarter of the season. That record is hardly enough to inspire confidence. In most years, that would probably be enough to knock the team out of Playoff contention. Or keep it on the very fringes of hope.
This Eastern Conference has enabled the Magic to stay in the thick of the race with that kind of performance.
Vucevic deserves All-Star discussion. But his hopes of getting in are tied solely to the Magic’s ability to win. And having lost 12 of their last 17 games, that is feeling very shaky. Nothing else matters to Vucevic in his career at this point.
And so he probably feels like he has to do more. Even if he has done all the team could ask of him and more as its most consistent and best player.
Of course, the bigger decision is still to come. If Vucevic wants to stay in Orlando for at least the rest of the year if not longer, he has to win. If the Magic continue their tumble down the standings, the team will have no choice but to cash in this chip for whatever it can find and recoup some value.
It is always a tough decision to trade the team’s best player. No matter how much better Vucevic has looked, it is clear he is not in the team’s long-term future plans. Maybe there is some hope for him that he can be a short-term stopgap until Mohamed Bamba is ready. But it is not likely Vucevic is very interested in that either — this is likely his last big contract coming up.
Those questions and decisions await Vucevic in the third quarter of the season. Winning remains the big issue and knock on his career.
Outside of all that, Vucevic turned in another stellar run of play. He remained the team’s most consistent and steady player through a lot of ups and downs. And the Magic would be a far, far worse team without him.