Orlando Magic: 5 big goals for 2018-19 NBA season
By Chris Murch
3. Decide what they want to do with Nikola Vucevic early
It seems like every summer and trade deadline since 2016, Nikola Vucevic’s name pops up in trade talks. With The Athletic’s Michael Scotto reporting that Vucevic was once again up for trade from Orlando, this narrative was restarted.
However, Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman has this to say last month about the prospect of trading Vucevic:
"“We have no designs on trading anyone right now. That’s something that we’ll worry about later. Vooch is a high-quality player and an even higher-quality person. He’s very valuable to our team today, and he’s very valuable to what we want to be about going forward. So I wouldn’t even entertain those thoughts yet.”"
These conflicting reports on Vucevic’s future with Orlando signal a writing on the wall that has long been there. At the end of the day, the Magic front office has to decide early this season what the best option is with Vucevic. If Bamba shows early star potential, why keep him? Flip him for picks or a player and a pick to a playoff team (like the Lakers) who need a center.
Vucevic is on an expiring contract and is rapidly approaching 30. If the Magic have designs on him for the future, it will most likely have to be as a backup to Bamba moving forward, but why pay someone the big bucks to do this when a guy like Khem Birch has shown promise?
The Nikola situation could turn messy quick if the Magic don’t decide early on what they want to do with him. It’s a touchy situation given his tenure and his good play over the last seven years in an Magic uniform, but hard decisions are going to have to be made regardless.