Orlando Magic: Nikola Vucevic is a great story, but doesn’t fit anymore

Nikola Vucevic is an All-Star, and his rise should be cause for celebration. But the Orlando Magic can’t keep him long term, and he’s already costing them

Nikola Vucevic has been one of the NBA’s unexpected success stories this season. After seven years in the league as a serviceable starter, all of them with the Orlando Magic, he’s revamped his game and is setting career highs in almost every area.

After playing his whole career as a post-up big, he has extended his game beyond the 3-point line. While most old-school big men have tried to make a similar transition, he has found a rare balance between the old and the new.

Vucevic has shot 37.9 per cent on three attempts per game from deep, but he’s also averaging a career high in rebounds (12.1 per game, 10th in the NBA) and is still fifth in the league in post touches with 8.5 per game. It’s rare for big men to maintain their inside dominance while moving more to the perimeter, but Vucevic has found a way to modernise his game without completely overhauling it.

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His sudden rise reached its apex a fortnight ago when he was named as an All-Star for the first time in his career. He is the first Magic player to make an All-Star team since Dwight Howard in 2012, which also happens to be the last time the franchise made the playoffs.

That trend could still return this season, with the Magic just two games outside of the Eastern Conference playoff picture. The problem is, an eighth-seed berth is the last thing Orlando needs right now.

With the profile of their team, the Magic should still be deep in a rebuild. According to RealGM, they have the fourth-youngest roster in the league with an average age of 25. Realistically, the centrepieces of the franchise should be high flyer Aaron Gordon (23 years old), rookie center Mo Bamba (20), rising sophomore Jonathan Isaac (21) and, at a stretch, recent acquisition Markelle Fultz (20).

That core clearly isn’t enough to compete for a title, now or in the future. Orlando needs more high shots in the draft to move the needle on their chances down the line, and if the Magic were to let their young brigade run the show, they would likely be near the bottom of the standings and at the top of the lottery odds.

That’s where they should want to be – a first round sweep at the hands of Milwaukee or Toronto, and a subsequent 15th overall pick, will do nothing to help them.

Unfortunately, the presence of Vucevic and his breakout season have complicated matters. He has single-handedly dragged Orlando out of the East’s basement and into a playoff race they should want no part of.

That’s why, in the early stages of the season, Vucevic was floated as an ideal trade target. He is a modern center capable of both hitting 3’s and dominating in the paint, an ideal addition for a contending team. While his expiring contract may have made trade returns less profitable for the Magic, it may have also made him more appealing to teams looking to avoid any long-term salary commitments. At 28 years old, he doesn’t fit with the timeline of Orlando’s roster, and it seems unlikely that they will re-sign him this offseason.

And yet, despite all of that, the trade deadline has come and gone and Vucevic is still in Florida. They made no moves at the deadline to signal a playoff push this season, and yet Vucevic’s continued presence shows that they have refused to fully lean into the tank.

After another dominant performance in yesterday’s win against the Pelicans, it’s clear that Vucevic alone could add an additional five-plus wins to Orlando’s total. That could cost them some significant ground in the race for a top-five pick, which would only be made worse if Vucevic were to leave as a free agent with no return.

By keeping him on the roster, the Magic have backed themselves into a lose-lose corner, where they either overpay a player that doesn’t fit their timeline or lose him for nothing after throwing away a chance at a high draft pick.

Vucevic’s All-Star debut should be an occasion to be celebrated, another standout Magic big following in the footsteps of Shaq and Dwight before him. It will be treated as such in the moment, but the Magic may eventually regret holding onto their drought-breaking All-Star quite so tightly.