The NBA trade deadline is nearing ever closer which means phones are beginning to ring much more frequently. Feb. 23rd is the final day for trades, and it’s looking more likely that the Orlando Magic will be making a move by then. Half the team appears to be on the market, but nobody on the entire roster is as movable as Nikola Vucevic. The sixth year big man is on a team-friendly contract while playing the best defense of his career. Known as an offensive scorer, Vucevic has been arguably the Magic’s best player throughout his entire tenure on the team, but a rebuild in Orlando is sorely needed.
Vucevic is one of the best offensive centers in the NBA. Despite looking rather thin he can bully his way to the rim against bigger defenders and score against most other bigs, but where his real dominance comes is with his footwork. Vucevic doesn’t use his strength to score, but incredible speed and positioning to get where he wants to be in order to put up points. He’s never in his career averaged 20 points, but he’s shockingly efficient for a volume shooter that can’t shoot 3-pointers. Before this season, Vucevic only shot less than 50 percent from the field once and he has a career true shooting percentage of 52 percent. Stick Vucevic in the early 2000’s and he’d be touted as one of the NBA’s great bigs. In this era, he lacks the playstyle of the “modern center”, but makes up for it with incredible efficiency.
When not scoring, Vucevic contributes to the Magic as their top rebounder. Again, he doesn’t pull down boards with strength but positioning instead. He’s been a double-digit rebounder for his entire career and is one of those guys that coaches are okay leaving behind to pull down offensive boards. As the majority of teams favor of getting back on defense, Vucevic stays behind because he’s so effective at stealing points on the offensive glass.
As talented as Vucevic is, he also may have reached his ceiling as a player. He can definitely make small improvements with experience, but there aren’t going to be any more large jumps for him. Which is why, despite his effectiveness, the Magic are looking at trading him to help jumpstart their next rebuild. The previous rebuild has been an utter failure and Orlando has to collect assets that will help them move to their next one smoothly. This means keeping young players with room to grow and sending away talented players that can contribute elsewhere. Vucevic might not grow anymore, but there are a lot of teams out there that could use a player of his skills. His play style fits what a lot of teams like to use as their backup center. A quick scoring big that can take advantage of weaker second units, and Vucevic’s rebounding should be helpful for anybody in need of it.
Vucevic also becomes the most likely player on Orlando to get moved, because he has the best contract among players Orlando wants to trade. The Magic have to trade one or two of their bigs to free up space in their rotation. Serge Ibaka shouldn’t be hard to move from a talent perspective, but nobody is going to give good return on a player who’s contract is expiring like Ibaka’s. Bismack Biyombo just signed a brand new contract likely making him a non-starter in any trade. This leaves Vucevic as the best option for good return. His contract is inexpensive with time left on it. Vucevic is good enough for the Magic to demand good return on trades involving him and teams are more likely to concede to that value when adding him to the roster should be pretty seamless.
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If the Magic do end up trading Vucevic it will not be a trade out of necessity, it will be one of business. They need to restart their rebuild in a positive way and a potential return on Vucevic gives them the best chance of doing that. It’s possible he stays in Orlando following the deadline, but it’s much more likely he ends up on a team in dire need of rebounding help — teams like the Celtics and Pacers where a solid rebounding big could help them out while shoring up their second unit in scoring. Wherever Vucevic goes he’s going to be effective no matter the situation. The real question is what will the Magic get in return?