Orlando Magic: 3 goals for Nikola Vucevic in 2018-19

3. Become untradeable

Teams, for the most part, are dumb. Teams under Rob Hennigan are dumber. Luckily, the Magic do not employ him anymore. After trading away Oladipo, Maurice Harkless and Harris for basically nothing, the Hennigan era ended in few wins and a bad reputation. It’s borderline shocking that he didn’t trade Vucevic when he was killing it under Hennigan’s watch given his proclivity to trade good, young players.

Now that Vucevic is expendable, if he wants to stay in Orlando, this is the season to prove it. He could make himself untradeable with a career year…maybe.

All signs are not pointing this way. Vucevic averaged only 29.5 minutes per game last season and 28.8 per game the year before. While his production went up from 2016-17 to 2017-18, Vucevic’s output minutes-wise doesn’t bode well for his future in Orlando. Now that Bamba is on his heels and Magic fans are calling for “out with the old, in with the new,” Vucevic seems more available for trade than ever.

While no one is untradeable in today’s NBA (cough, Blake Griffin), in order for Vucevic to stay in the blue and white, he would have to have a season to remember. In 2014-15, he attained the title of “All-Star Game snub” after averaging 19.3 points and 10.9 rebounds on 52 percent shooting. At the time he was only 24 years old and many thought he would be back in this conversation.

Well, he really hasn’t since. It’s not his fault that the Magic have been an afterthought and get no national love, but his output since the 2014-15 season has trended downward.

It is probably in the Magic’s best interest to trade Vucevic given that he is in the final year of his contract. They could receive a good package back from a playoff team who needs a talented center for the second half of the season. However, if Vucevic is averaging 20 and 10 at the All-Star break and the Magic are winning some games, could they justify trading him?

All in all, this goal might be a fool’s errand because the better he does, the more valuable of a trade target he could be. He is still only 27 and is coming off a 16 and nine year in 29.5 minutes per game. It’s hard these days to find stretch centers with those types of numbers. He could also be utilized as a teacher for Bamba and leader in the locker room. Given that the Magic’s average age is 24.5 this season, they need all of the veteran help they can get.

If I had to put money on it, I’d say that Vucevic is a goner at some point this season. However, if he kills it early on, would Orlando trade him? It’s a question that will need to be answered sooner rather than later.