Nikola Vucevic’s responsibility to the Orlando Magic is too much

The Orlando Magic have again asked a lot of Nikola Vucevic. Despite his best efforts, he is starting to show the responsibility is too much.

Nikola Vucevic, Evan Fournier and the other long-time members of the Orlando Magic are feeling the pressure these days.

Evan Fournier has already said it himself. If the team does not make the Playoffs this year, this is likely it for them. The Magic will have to move on at some point and try to find a way for their franchise to move forward and grow.

This is as close as the Magic have been to the Playoffs. In 2016, Orlando was one win better at 21-28 but 4.5 games out of the Playoffs. The Magic of 2019 are 20-29 and 3.5 games out of the Playoffs.

So far this season is following the same destructive pattern as that season.

This might be the best Magic team of the last six years, but that is not really saying much. Orlando wants to be better and is trying to take that next step. But after another frustrating late-game collapse in a 95-91 loss to the Washington Wizards, the present is starting to look like the past.

This year has seen Nikola Vucevic take on a larger responsibility and rise to that occasion. He is posting career numbers and has a real chance of making his first All-Star team. This career year has seen him take some major leaps in his game.

But none of that ultimately matters. Vucevic has put up numbers before. He has nearly scratched the All-Star Game before too. The individual awards are nice.

He knows, just like everyone else knows, winning is all that matters. How the team performs is the only way to build a legacy.

Vucevic could not help but put the blame on himself. That is something maybe fans have been doing for several years. But the responsibility now falls more firmly on Vucevic’s shoulders.

He put it bluntly after Friday’s loss. The game was in his hands and he let his team down. Never mind that he was the only thing functioning on offense in the first half as Orlando missed 18 3-pointers — many of them open in coach Steve Clifford’s estimation. His 28 points were all vital.

But he needed 30 and he knew that more than anyone.

Vucevic was at the center of two key plays at the end of the game. With Orlando and Washington tied at 91, Vucevic stepped to the foul line for two free throws to give the team lead. Vucevic is a  percent free throw shoo7oter this year. He missed them both and gave the Wizards the chance to take the lead.

They did when Jeff Green hit a layup driving past Nikola Vucevic and over Aaron Gordon.

In the Magic’s last-gasp effort to win the game, Nikola Vucevic and Evan Fournier trapped Bradley Beal and were able to force a steal. D.J. Augustin took the ball and started a break. As he tried to escape pressure and pass back to Vucevic, the ball was too low and bounced off Vucevic’s hands and out of bounds.

And just like that another chance to win was lost.

And so once again, the Magic were left with an empty feeling as they stared down another loss — their fifth in the last six games — and a Playoff spot that is inching further and further away from them.

Just like Wednesday, Vucevic was involved in the big play that turned wrong. No matter what good he did throughout the game, this moment would be what defined his game and the game for the Magic.

When the season is over, it is likely these moments the team will look at in regret if they miss the Playoffs as it seems likely they are to do for a seventh straight season if things keep trending this way.

Vucevic has been at the center of all of it. A seemingly lasting symbol of all the discontent and frustration of a failed rebuild.

He has tried to be better and tried to add to his game, be the team player and whatever the group needed. Orlando never could shake him at the trade deadline and he was still incredibly valuable to whatever mish-mashed group the team put together.

Vucevic has always just put in his work and done whatever his team asked of him. And they have always asked too much.

With the team so tantalizingly close to the Playoffs, they are again asking a lot of him. In one final push for this ill-fated group, the Magic are asking Vucevic to go above and beyond. He is trying but it does not seem like it is enough.

But that goes with being the best player on the team. Vucevic has had to do what he could and all the team has asked of him. Even if it is too much.

His defense has taken a step forward and the team has started to find the outlines of an identity. But that is still not enough it seems.

When Orlando has to turn to its best player late games, Vucevic has struggled to push his team over the finish line. In clutch situations — defined as games within five points in the final five minutes — Vucevic is shooting just 38.9 percent. His recent late-game struggles are only part of a larger problem at the end of games.

But it is also probably symbolic of a conclusion many made before the season and likely has not changed even with his stellar play this year. Vucevic is not enough to get the Magic where they want to go. Not as the main star or the key creator.

This team has stretched itself as far as it can go. It has put itself in a position to win so many times and locked itself in the Playoff race near the end of January.

That dream is not completely dead. Orlando is still in range. And one winning streak could very well put the team squarely back in the race. That is how tight the race is — or how self-defeating the bottom of the East can be.

But time is running out as several of the players — including Vucevic have said. They have increased their urgency and increased their push to win. But they are still falling short.

It still comes down to their players and their best players coming through with winning plays in the end. And the pressure has gotten to them with sloppy play and play that can only be described as gaffes.

In the last two weeks, Vucevic has taken the Magic to the precipice of some big wins. And he has struggled to deliver that final push over the top.

Vucevic has been the only thing consistent about the team all year. And it still seems like that is not enough.

To his credit, Vucevic has taken personal responsibility for this season. He knows this is likely his last stand before the team makes a major decision in free agency with him.

But they have again asked too much of him. And Vucevic, as much as he has raised his game to try to meet that responsibility, is falling short once again.

The Magic are not taking that next step they need to despite all his best efforts.