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Can the Orlando Magic re-discover Nikola Vucevic?

The biggest difference in the Orlando Magic’s playoff run in 2019 was that Nikola Vucevic was reliably good every single night. He might have had maybe two bad games the entire 2019 season. He was deservedly an All-Star.

This year, the Magic expected him to come a bit back down to earth. It would be quite the feat for him to repeat the excellence of his 2019 season. But he was still going to be a really important player.

This year though has been a struggle for Vucevic. A lot of it has frankly been how the Magic have tried to use him. It is so different from last year. And then add in the lack of efficiency that he had last year, and it has kind of been a bad year for Vucevic.

At the mid-point of the season, Vucevic was averaging 18.8 points per game and 11.2 rebounds per game. But he was shooting just 44.6 percent from the floor and 36.0 percent from beyond the arc.

He was getting his numbers (especially after getting into a rhythm after his 11-game absence with a sprained ankle). But it was nowhere near the same as his All-Star year.

Those numbers have improved lately. He is averaging 19.5 points per game and 11.0 rebounds per game while shooting a 51.5-percent effective field goal percentage (three percentage points worse than last year). Vucevic is not someone to take over a game. He is someone who paces the team with consistent production throughout the game.

He is at least back to that. But it still has not been as good as it was last year and it does feel like it has taken some things away from other parts of the team’s game.

A lot of that is his usage to me. His post-ups were significantly less efficient and he was taking a ton more 3-pointers.

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This year, he is scoring 0.80 points per possession on 3.9 post-up possessions per game according to NBA.com’s Synergy data. Last year, he scored 0.93 points per possession on 5.4 post-up possessions per game.

It might have been unsustainable for Vucevic to be that good in the post again. But he is also getting less opportunity on the low block to score those easy baskets. He has slowly migrated away from the basket.

Vucevic is averaging a career-high 4.6 3-point attempts per game. That is 1.5 attempts more per game than last year and his career-high by 1.0 attempt per game.

Vucevic has a tendency to drift away from the basket. He always prefers to avoid contact. Physicality is something he has to focus and work on. It is part of his effort. And that is part of his flaw as a center.

He should not eschew 3-point shooting or exclusively work the post. He needs to find a better balance.

The Magic were finding that too. After the All-Star Break, he averaged 21.8 points per game and 12.0 rebounds per game with just 3.4 3-point attempts per game (albeit shooting 23.5 percent). Vucevic was being a better facilitator and working closer to the basket.

That seemed to be a better balance for Vucevic.