There is little room for sentimentality in the NBA.
This is a cutthroat, winner-take-all, zero-sum business. There is one winner and one loser every game. There is one champion at the end of the season.
Teams do not have the luxury of playing favorites. That is often how they get stuck.
When a story comes along that makes sense and also brings some sentimentality, you take it. Especially in an offseason where everyone feared there would not be major changes and most of the team would be retained, seeing a familiar face who has been away for a while feels like a major victory.
The first salvo of free agency brought one of those reunion stories to Orlando as Nikola Vucevic turned down several larger offers to sign a one-year, $3.9 million with the Magic, according to Shams Charania of ESPN. Vucevic is returning to the place he spent 10 mostly forgotten and frustrating years to ehlp a team that is eager to win big in the Playoffs.
Vucevic is not the All-Star he was when the Magic traded him in 2021 to set off their rebuild. But he is still a solid offensive contributor, capable of scoring at all three levels and a reliable jump shooter at least, even if defensive concerns remain.
Orlando needs the offensive boost one way or the other. And in a market that has seen centers get paid, finding a rotation-caliber center with the minimum salary is good work for a Magic team restricted by the salary cap and aprons.
It is a nice story. But the Magic certainly need something more than a nice story. They need players who can contribute and help the team win.
For as flawed as Vucevic might still be, he can do that. And getting any player who can contribute meaningfully at the minimum is a victory in free agency.
Coming home
Nikola Vucevic's tenure with the Orlando Magic is mostly remembered for how much the team struggled.
He was the player who put up numbers while the team struggled to win. Talk about him entering the Orlando Magic Hall of Fame is usually met with scoffs. The team simply did not win and Vucevic was the face, playing for the Magic for nine years with only two Playoff appearances.
Nikola Vucevic was consistent and rarely complained -- even as the Magic seemingly made moves that would have pushed him out like acquiring Serge Ibaka and Bismack Biyombo in the same summer. Vucevic just kept doing his work.
He averaged a double-double in eight of his nine seasons with the Magic. Vucevic averaged 17.6 points and 10.8 rebounds per game in those nine seasons with Orlando.
What helped him break through for his first All-Star appearance in 2019 was the development of his 3-point shot. He shot 36.4 percent in the 2019 season and finished with 33.9 percent and 40.6 percent shooting with the Magic in his last two seasons. He made a second All-Star appearance in 2021 before the team hit the reset button.
Nikola Vucevic was part of the revival that started after Jeff Weltman arrived as president of basketball operations, leading the team to its first Playoff appearance in seven years in 2019 and a second playoff trip in 2020. Both ended in five-game series losses.
The Orlando Magic clearly had a ceiling. In an injury-filled 2021 season, that led the team to act early and move him to the Chicago Bulls for Wendell Carter, Otto Porter Jr. and two first round picks -- that became Franz Wagner and Jett Howard. Both Carter and Wagner are essential pieces for the Magic.
Vucevic never really left Orlando. His family still kept a home in the city. And it was clear there was still some pull to bring Vucevic home.
Not just a homecoming
But this cannot just be a homecoming as nice as that story is. The Orlando Magic are trying to win.
They clearly needed some center help after realizing that Moe Wagner was going to leave -- he will sign a two-year, $19-million deal with the Brooklyn Nets, according to Shams Charania of ESPN. That left the Magic hesitant to enter the trade market with Goga Bitadze as their best trade asset.
Orlando also desperately needed shooting. And Vucevic has developed into one of the best 3-point shooting big men -- shooting 34.9 percent from three in his time with the Chicago Bulls. Vucevic still has a strong close-to-the-basket game and can hit from the mid-range too. He knows how to score.
Vucevic approximates a lot of what the team is losing in Wagner. He should be a solid fill-in starter if Wendell Carter has to miss time and a reliable offensive option.
But there is also a reason a center-desperate team like the Boston Celtics opted to let him leave in free agency after acquiring him at the trade deadline.
Vucevic averaged only 9.7 points and 6.6 rebounds per game in 16 games with the Celtics. He shot just 34.0 percent from three. A late-season finger injury slowed him down, but he appeared in only six of the Celtics' seven playoff games, averaging 6.2 points per game and shooting 7 for 24 from three.
Nikola Vucevic was never considered a great defender -- Steve Clifford milked all he could out of him to build a top-10 defense in the 2019 season. And his defense has declined as he has aged. That is one of the big reasons he fell out of favor in the Celtics' playoff rotation.
The Magic are betting that his offense and shooting will fit in and add to the team while they can build a defense around him to shield him in those minutes.
Their eyes must be on the Playoffs.
This is something the Magic could not do with Moe Wagner last year, but were successful with in previous seasons. The Magic still have a lot of faith in their defensive foundations.
And Vucevic is likely looking at only a bench role. He provides a lot of skills the team needs.
It is certainly a nice story for the Magic to bring Vucevic back home. At the minimum, the Magic are certainly happy to bring back someone they project can fill rotation minutes. But they want that contribution more than the sentimentality.
Everyone is hopeful this will be a happy homecoming.
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