Orlando Magic: 2017-18 player grades for Nikola Vucevic

Weaknesses

Like so many players on this roster, the fact Vucevic couldn’t be on the court to help his team was a setback. He played in only 57 games because of a broken bone in his hand, the lowest total he’s managed in the last four seasons.

The real weakness, however, is being stuck in the position of putting up impressive numbers for the team, but not seeing any sustained success for the organization on a larger scale.

This isn’t Vucevic’s fault, apart from questionable shot selection and a tendency to fall in love with that outside shot now that it is dropping. He does all he can for the team, but because it hasn’t led to any sort of playoff push, he gets labeled as an empty stats kind of player.

Yet if there were a star player on the team of any kind, Vucevic would look and fit so much better as a second, or even third, option offensively.

Combine that with the reduced role centers as a whole are experiencing in the league today, and it is easy to see why people have turned on him. Defensively Vucevic was pretty awful too, as he has been for the majority of his career so far. Yet somehow the team allowed fewer points per 100 possessions (106.5) when he was on the court than off it (108.6).

His on-court defensive rating is still poor, but it just highlights again that no matter how much Vucevic improves, it still won’t be enough. He and the Magic have outgrown each other and this season highlighted that fact.