Orlando Magic: 3 players facing the most pressure in 2018-19

3. Nikola Vucevic

Center Nikola Vucevic has been the most consistent player the Magic have had since Dwight Howard left in 2012. He has averaged a double-double in four out of his six seasons in Orlando. Why then should he be worried about his future with the team?

Vucevic is one of the few players on the roster who should be equally concerned not only with his position in Orlando, but in the NBA as a whole. Those numbers he’s put up have been on bad Magic outfits, so much so that he has been labelled as an “empty stats” kind of player. There is zero correlation between the points and rebounds he can put up and any kind of sustained winning for Orlando.

That’s a problem for Vucevic and a tag he’ll have a tough time shaking, no matter where his career takes him next. Even more importantly for Vucevic, though, is the fact that he is also playing for a new contract in the NBA.

An unrestricted free agent next year, there is no guarantee the Magic will offer him another deal to stick around. He has been the subject of trade rumors forever, and if you look at Orlando’s roster, the young players all play in positions that will take minutes from Vucevic.

Mohamed Bamba is a center and so is Khem Birch, who was a defensive revelation for Orlando last season. Jonathan Isaac is listed as a forward but could play at the 5 in small-ball lineups. This is something Aaron Gordon could also do if Clifford gets creative with his lineups.

This is worrying news for Vucevic, himself a gifted offensive player who continues to improve. But if there’s no room for him in Orlando, then he’ll be playing for a paycheck elsewhere as he approaches free agency

Given how there’s only so much money to go around next summer, and that centers aren’t getting paid like they used to, Vucevic is now under immense pressure to make sure he either proves he’s indispensable to the Magic, or does enough to get picked up by another team for a good amount of money.

2. Evan Fournier

A recent piece by The Ringer amazingly doesn’t put the Magic as having the worst starting guard combination in the Eastern Conference. That is a small miracle itself, given that the point guard rotation to begin the season will consist of D.J. Augustin, Jerian Grant and Isaiah Briscoe.

The logic behind their thinking is that Evan Fournier will be the other starting guard in that scenario, and quite frankly, that places a whole host of pressure on him for a number of reasons. The first, and most clear one of all, is that Fournier will be expected to generate a lot of offense.

On the surface that doesn’t seem so bad, since Fournier averaged a career-high 17.8 points per game last year. His 3-point shooting percentage of 37.9 percent was bang on his career average, but Fournier was taking 5.9 3-pointers per contest, another career high.

Looking beyond those numbers, however, and Fournier was a source of irritation for Magic fans as last season wore on. After a hot start, he demanded too much of the ball (usage rate of 23.3 percent, compared to his career average of 21.3 percent), and had a Player Efficiency Rating of 15.5.

Given that the league average is 15, Fournier wasn’t influencing the outcome of games for Orlando, despite what his personal stats may have said. In some ways he was following in the footsteps of Vucevic in this regard, and his defensive input was terrible.

The Magic had a defensive rating of 107.7 (20th in the league) for the season, but that number got as high as 109.3 when he was on the court. It is clear Fournier needs to show improvement in this area, and you can be sure Clifford will try and get this out of him.

That’s where it gets more difficult for Fournier. He is making $17 million this coming season, and is owed $51 million over the next three seasons. It’s a tough, but not impossible, contract to move.

If you look at Orlando’s roster and the youth movement that is taking place however, it is unclear if a ball-dominant guard who can’t defend and stunts the growth of other players offensively has a long-term future in the pinstriped blue.

This is why Fournier is under so much pressure this season. Generate offense like he’s supposed to do, and he’s taking the ball away from others. Put up points but still watch the team finish below .500 (the most likely outcome and not all because of him), and he will get much of the blame for not chipping in defensively or scoring enough.

Fournier is in a tough position here, with no clear way out. That is not an enviable place to be in on a rebuilding team that finally looks like it is moving in a certain direction — one Fournier isn’t guaranteed to be a part of.