Orlando Magic: Nikola Vucevic Can Be Magic Legend

For players on rebuilding teams in the NBA, they must surely look enviously at their peers on contending teams from time to time. Indeed, it has happened many times before that a player has angled for a move away from a rebuilding team and into a more ideal situation. For perennial strugglers or smaller market organizations, this is a constant struggle and a real fear each and every year.

Despite only being in existence for 26 years, the Orlando Magic have had some good times: two NBA Finals appearances and some superstars in the form of Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard. They are going through a transition period at the moment though and need all the reassurance they can get that their young players will be sticking around for the long term. This is what makes Nikola Vucevic’s words so comforting to hear.

In an interview late last week, “Vooch” spoke about his desire to stay with the Magic not only for the long term, but in an ideal world, the rest of his career. Now, he only signed a four year, $54 million deal last year anyway, so he wasn’t going anywhere as it stands. But it’s been a bit of a disappointing season for Orlando, and this is a boost that has come at the right time.

Vucevic is already the third best center in Magic history, a double-double machine and probably an All-Star in the next three years. Defensively his game needs a lot of work, and he’s not much of a rim protector. Offensively though, he can score in a variety of ways, has nice footwork and can pass out of trouble as well. He has a nifty little jump shot he can fall back on too.

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But it’s the fact he wants to be on this team that is the most heartening. Yes this is a guard-dominated league these days, but good big men are hard to find and can be difference makers. Vucevic is a different player to say a Roy Hibbert or a DeAndre Jordan, but he is capable of having a similar impact on a franchise.

He took a reasonable amount of money to stick around for the long term and help this team grow. Already he is the an elder statesman of sorts on this team, and in my opinion the best thing to come out of Howard’s exit from the team. (And to think, this team could have ended up with Andrew Bynum!)

Now, second year guard Victor Oladipo is absolutely one player this team needs to keep around for the long term as well. He’s more than just a building block, he could yet morph into a top five shooting guard and the second option on this team. I say second because Vucevic is playing so well, it’s hard to ignore his case for being the best player on this team.

Returning to the Magic’s past for a moment, it took more than a little luck to land O’Neal and then Howard. The same could be said for how Vucevic ended up with the team, albeit in a different way. So the stage truly is set for him to be the next great Magic big man.

Will he stay with this team the rest of his career? Of course we don’t know, but the fact he’s come out and openly stated his desire to do so, when he could have just said nothing at all, means a lot to a team that is on course to not crack 30 wins for another season.

One word of warning though, both for now and the future. Both O’Neal and Howard were dominant big men who rampaged through the league early in their careers. Injury slowed both down, but only after they had been in the league a decade plus. Vucevic on the other hand, seems to suffer from little niggles here and there, whether it be concussion or muscle problems.

It’s nothing to be too concerned about right now, but it is worth noting. Big men break down quicker than other players in this league. If that begins to happen earlier in a player’s career than it should, it could derail their long term success in this league. Do I expect Vucevic to be the starting center for this team when it makes it to the second round of the playoffs in six years though? I do.

Really though the stage is set for Nikola Vucevic to kick on and become a star in Orlando. He plays the right way, says the right things and has been carrying this team for large stretches this season. Now all we need is a bit of team success and league wide appreciation for his numbers and game. That will come in time.

Are we clutching at straws here? Is Orlando’s present so disheartening and future so unclear that we need to take this news and turn it into something more? A battle cry for the future? I don’t think so, it’s simply getting excited for a new dawn in Orlando Magic basketball. A new dawn that Vucevic wants to spearhead from inside the paint. Nothing wrong with getting excited about that.

Next: NBA: 50 Greatest Players Of All Time

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