Orlando Magic: 2018-19 player grades for Nikola Vucevic

Nikola Vucevic started 2018-19 with questions about his abilities to lead the Orlando Magic and ended it as the best player on a playoff-bound team.

Nobody on the Orlando Magic roster had a season quite like center Nikola Vucevic. It began like his previous few years in the league. with Magic fans and fans of other teams alike questioning if he was an empty stats kind of player.

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Somebody who could put up big numbers, but who was not capable of carrying his team towards the postseason.

There was good reason to believe this; Vucevic averaging a double-double in four of the previous six campaigns before 2018-19.

An important change for Vucevic came in 2018-19 however, with coach Steve Clifford choosing to run the offense through his considerable skills in that position.

This unlocked Vucevic’s true potential, as an ever improving 3-point shot (a respectable 36.4 percent from deep), combined with his passing ability and footwork, allowed him to punish opponents nightly.

The other big knock on Vucevic’s game to that point had been his deficiencies defensively, but coach Clifford found a way to work around that.

The Magic ended the regular season ranked eighth (107.6) in this category, with the team actually having an even better rating of 106.4 when Vucevic was on the court.

Given how much his defensive woes had been highlighted in the past, this illustrated how Vucevic became a better two-way player for the organization.

That he received a spot on the All-Star team highlighted how much he grew as a force on a winning team, one which went 42-40 and return to the playoffs for the first time since 2012,  before being bounced in the first round.

The four-year, $100 million deal Vucevic signed off the back of his best season a fair reward for his efforts, even if it remains to be seen if he can continue to build on what was his best season as a professional in the NBA.