Among all the twists and turns that have already happened this season, there’s one that hardly anyone would have seen coming.
With a record of 10-11, the Orlando Magic so far have been a halfway-decent team, holding their ground as the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Here’s another one: The primary reason for their success has been the play of their longest-tenured player, Nikola Vucevic.
Coming into the season, the most excitement surrounding the Magic was centered around the future of their frontcourt, led by the likes of Aaron Gordon, Jonathan Isaac and Mo Bamba. Those three have done about as well as what could be expected from them this current season, but Vucevic has taken the reins as the alpha dog of the squad.
Though he already has a pretty solid reputation offensively, “Vooch” is putting up some of his best numbers as a pro. His scoring average of 20.4 points is the highest of his career, which can be attributed to him playing the most efficient basketball of his career. The man’s currently shooting 55 percent from the field, including 40 percent from three-point land on 2.8 attempts a game, which are the best percentages he’s had since becoming a pro.
Throw in his 11.3 rebounds a game (the highest since his first year with the Magic), that Orlando’s offense is plus-14.5 in net rating when he’s on the floor and going by practically any advanced metric: per-36, offensive rating, true shooting percentage, etc. – it shows that Vucevic has established himself as one of the league’s best big men.
This is one of the feel-good stories that’s not getting enough attention when you think about all that Vucevic has gone through since landing in Orlando. He arrived in Disneyland just as the Magic were rebuilding from the first “Dwightmare,” had to watch previous ownership repeatedly make bone-headed moves and found himself in endless trade rumors.
Even as he made a name for himself, his play led to nothing of value, as the Magic have never made the playoffs with Vucevic onboard.
After all this time, it looks like Vucevic’s patience and efforts are finally starting to pay off. The Magic appear to finally be on the up-and-up, but one question remains.
Do they keep Vucevic after this season?
The quick response would be that they’ll cross that bridge when they come to it. It’s too early to be thinking about this upcoming offseason, but it’s never a bad time to ponder about the team in the long-term.
Vucevic is going to be looking for another payday this summer. Presumably, it’s one that’s going to be much more lucrative than the four-year, $53 million extension he signed in 2015. Orlando will have plenty of cap room this summer. Between him, Terrence Ross and potentially Jonathon Simmons (his deal is non-guaranteed), the Magic will have a shade under $30 million coming off the books.
This writer is by no means an expert with the salary cap, but the Magic should have enough room to give him the contract he desires with the cap going up to around $109 million and the luxury tax set at $133 million. The conundrum would be whether they think that would be the right move.
As fantastic as the Swiss center has been, it originally appeared as though his days in Orlando were numbered when they took Bamba with the sixth overall pick in this year’s draft. Bamba’s impressive summer league performance combined with his freakish length made him seem like Orlando’s center of the future and Vucevic’s successor. So far, the Magic have integrated him into the league slowly.
Bamba has by no means lit the world on fire. The Harlem native averages 6.8 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 17 minutes per game while shooting 51 percent from the field, including 32 percent from three. Those are decent numbers for a rookie who many believed was going to come into the league with a very raw game.
Every young player gets nurtured differently for them to achieve their potential. In Bamba’s case, having him work his way up is probably the best path for him. Perhaps by Orlando drafting him, Vucevic pushed himself to play at a higher level.
But if the Magic plan to keep Vucevic, that could do some harm to Bamba’s development. Unless they’re the Philadelphia 76ers, teams don’t take talented centers that high in the draft hoping that he’ll be a backup. If Orlando believes Bamba is the future, having him play as a second stringer for an extended period could stunt his growth.
Since drafting Bamba would have assuredly meant that they believe the latter has a brighter future than the former, the logical move would be to let Vucevic go. That’s playing with fire for Orlando, however, because there’s no guarantee that Bamba will be as good as or will the lead Magic to more success than Vucevic.
Maybe the Magic roll the dice and let Vucevic walk. But let’s remember that they’ve been burned in recent years when they got rid of talented players for what turned out to be either basically nothing or pennies on the dollar. Sure they didn’t know that Victor Oladipo and Tobias Harris would pan out as well as they have, but with Vucevic playing at arguably an All-NBA-esque level, maybe cutting ties wouldn’t be the smartest move.
Right now, it is too early to decide what Orlando should do as the season is still young. Although, that label loses more and more validity by the day. How this ordeal with Vucevic gets solved depends on how the Magic play from here on out.
If the Magic start to revert back to where they’ve been for the past six years, then they should let Vucevic go. There’s no point in keeping the 28-year-old around on a lottery team as he enters his prime. If it goes that way, then trading him mid-season with the value he has would be the best route.
That pathway would be much easier than if, say, Orlando keeps up its stellar play or gets even better as the season progresses. If that happens, then this gets more complicated.
The Magic potentially making the playoffs with Vucevic as their best player would make it harder to let him walk. Unless Bamba proves without a shadow of a doubt that he is the better option long-term, keeping Vucevic may be a necessity to sustain their success, which could make what they do with Bamba all the more interesting.
This, of course, is thinking too far ahead. It’s just nice that, for once, Orlando is in the headlines because they’ve played some good basketball.
Whether that continues depends on what route they choose with Vucevic, who could be the team’s first All-Star since Dwight Howard.
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