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Orlando Magic Shooting Month: 5 Most Improved Magic shooters

By Philip Rossman-Reich

Nikola Vucevic has established himself as a solid player. But notice will only come with flash, and more importantly winning. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports
Nikola Vucevic has established himself as a solid player. But notice will only come with flash, and more importantly winning. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports /
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Nikola Vucevic, Orlando Magic
Nikola Vucevic put up stellar numbers to carry the Orlando Magic as far as he could. Mandatory Credit: Mary Holt-USA TODAY Sports /

5 most improved Orlando Magic shooters

Nikola Vucevic

The Orlando Magic got Nikola Vucevic as a wide-eyed second-year player still waiting for his first real opportunity to play. The Magic had plenty of that to give in their first year after trading Dwight Howard. Vucevic was the “centerpiece” player of that Howard trade — a four-team monstrosity that saw Andrew Bynum and Andre Iguodala get moved but not to Orlando.

Orlando did not really know what it had. The team really never found out what it had until much later in his playing career. He seemed destined to get traded every year, but Orlando found it hard to part with him.

At a certain point, Vucevic made it impossible for the Magic to trade him until they got their ransom from the Chicago Bulls in 2021.

Vucevic proved to be a double-double machine, which was a great place for a young player to start. He was a solid screener in pick and rolls, he could post-up effectively and he could step out to the mid-range and hit jumpers.

The Magic really could use him however they needed.

But it was not until he added a 3-point shot that things transformed for Vucevic. Limited before to inside the paint, teams could crash the paint and challenge him defensively with little impunity. Vucevic got his numbers but the floor was crowded.

In his first four seasons with Orlando, he shot 18 total 3-pointers. He took a big leap with 75 3-pointers in 2017 — the season when Serge Ibaka arrived and pushed Vucevic to the perimeter a bit more.

Vucevic was starting to add the 3-pointer, but it was still not a shot he was comfortable with. In his first six seasons with the Magic, he shot just 30.6-percent from deep on 0.7 3-point attempts per game.

But he needed to adapt his offense. And when things clicked, it clicked.

In the 2019 season, he took 231 3-pointers and made 36.4-percent from deep. That made Vucevic an All-Star and became a huge part of his game.

He never reached that high of a percentage again with the Magic. But his ability to stretch the floor not only made him an All-Star but gave the Magic’s offense some needed space. It was something the team desperately missed in the years after Howard left.

He returned to the All-Star Game in 2021, making 40.6-percent of his 288 3-pointers before his trade to the Chicago Bulls. In his final three seasons with the Magic, he made 37.0-percent of his 3-pointers on 4.3 attempts per game.

There really are few players who transformed his play the way Vucevic did. The 3-pointer turned Vucevic into something completely different and made the Magic a playoff team again, even if the team still had its limitations and its struggles.