NBA Power Rankings: All 30 Starting Centers
By Shane Young
16. Nikola Vucevic — Orlando Magic
Orlando has a unique monster on their hands with … another international center. This time, he’s from Switzerland, as Vucevic has been holding down the paint nicely for the Magic during their rebuild.
Come on, are they really going to acknowledge that it’s been successful when Orlando has averaged just 21.5 wins over the last two seasons? For him, individually, it hasn’t been a collision. We’ve actually been able to examine everything he has in the post, and how impactful his attention to rebounding has been.
Beginning in tank-a-thon Philadelphia, nobody figured this prospect drafted out of USC would turn into one of the few double-double robots in the league. Vucevic accumulated 36 double doubles all of last season (his third year), and it was enough for him to crack the top 15 in that category, behind only seven centers.
His control on the boards has been off the charts for his age, especially when taking into account Orlando’s other animal in Tobias Harris pulling in a ton as well. In the top 10 of Rebounding Rate, only five of the centers played over 30 minutes per game. Vucevic was one of them, and had an impressive rate of 19.5 percent.
Since the rebuilding torch seemingly was passed to Aaron Gordon, figuring out how they manage the frontcourt next season is beyond me … and anyone thinking about it.