Orlando Magic: 3 players facing most pressure in 2019-20

1. Nikola Vucevic

Fresh off of signing a four year, $100 million contract to return to the Orlando Magic, there is no question that Vucevic faces the most pressure heading into next season.

After a career year in which he was named an All-Star for the first time as he entered his prime, the hope is that Vucevic will give the Magic a few more seasons like the one he just completed.

He averaged a double-double for the fifth time in seven years in Orlando, but unlike in previous seasons, these were not empty numbers that ended with the organization returning to the lottery.

Granted Vucevic had much more help in the form of Gordon, Isaac and Terrence Ross, but he also became a top five center in the NBA.

His fantastic offensive skillset continuing to expand away from the rim as well.

Vucevic is now under the most pressure though, because opponents will key in on him even more than they did last season, and with his new contract he will be expected to take the Magic back to where they where last time out at the very least.

That is the hard part for “Vooch”, whose contract is front loaded so as to make him potentially easier to move down the line. Now that a standard has been set with this group, simply getting back to that point won’t appease everybody.

Even though the aforementioned growth of the younger players is what will take them further, failure of everybody else to step up will result on Vucevic getting the blame.

That is just the way it is for a franchise’s best player, and one who not everybody wanted to see brought back. As brilliant as Vucevic was last time out, committing to a big man (of which there are plenty in the league today) who was in a contract year could be dangerous.

He may be creeping into all-time lists in Orlando, but with Bamba the big of the future, bringing him back was not without question.

Even more so as the money given suggests that Vucevic had other offers, although it is not known if that was the case. To add to this expectation, there is no escaping the fact that he had a poor showing in the playoffs against the Raptors as well (11.2 points and eight rebounds per game).

The Raptors went on to become champions, but Vucevic was really poor at a time when he was needed most. He needs to bounce back even better in 2019-20, especially if they make the playoffs.