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Do you find someone who talks to you like Steve Clifford talks about Nikola Vucevic. Sunday afternoon, the Los Angeles Lakers will be face to face with Magic. Clifford, after the USC Galen Center field team practice, reacts to a question about Vucevic as if you had questioned her about a member of her own family. His eye widens, he springs and almost stumbles on his own words.
"Inside and out," says the Orlando freshman head coach about how Vucevic's play has impressed him so far. "And it's not just his rating, it's his passing ability and his skill level that create room for his teammates."
Behind Clifford, Vucevic himself slid his 7-foot body around the bow, taking 3s with a shot resembling a shooter guard. He is barely missing. Vucevic is taking nearly three per game this season; Last year he had a career record of 3.6 per game. Previously, he averaged a 3 per game in one season of his career. In other words, it was a classic center.
The Magic, known for its affinity for players who are not trusted shooters, is in the last 10 with a 3-point percentage (although Terrence Ross draws 42.5% of the depths), which Vucevic draws 39 percent deep, looks like Steph Curry. It is quite fitting that in a league that has democratized 3-point shooting, Vucevic, a 7-footer, is the creator of the Magic space. But what is different in this season's love affair with long distance shooting is that Montenegrin has had the time to invest to make it a reliable weapon.
"Last summer, I played for the national team, so it was harder to find the time to practice them," Vucevic told me. "This summer, I did them a lot more. The goal was to give the impression that it was an ordinary shot. "
For now, everything seems to be as easy as just setting aside for Vucevic. He has already played four games of 30 points or more this season, including two against the Lakers and Warriors on consecutive nights this week. Last season, he finished the year with only three games of this type. On the season, the center averages 20.8 points, 11.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game. He is more than ever on the starting line and is shooting more than 80% off this point. His actual field goal percentage is 58.4%, the best of his career. In the East, they are All-Star level numbers. And although Vucevic is surely beaten by Joel Embiid for a center spot, he is poised to win a spot in the lineup.
Vucevic does not have a shooting coach. In fact, it will seem slightly offended if you ask for it. "My shot form is good and my jump shot has always been good, so I do not need it," he says. "It's just a question of realizing and training your body to find the openings on the ground and to take a few steps back."
Like many players in the league, Vucevic builds an outdoor game after years of painting, but this season he is putting more emphasis on shooting closer to the edge. His shot percentage in the restricted area increased by 4%, and his shots at less than 10 feet, where he shot 66.4%, now account for more than half of his attempts.
Vucevic begins to fear the mediums, even if the Magic are not. Assuming he plays all 82 games this season, he is ready to make 281 average shots. Two seasons ago, he had played only 75 games, he had managed 449 times in the same region. "I was so used to having shots in the mid-range that it's now about knowing what I feel for the 3 and finding those places to see where I can get easier shots," he said.
Vucevic's style of play is the chrome matte of other players. His playing is slow, pungent and methodical, a mix of school post moves and new-age spacing unblocked under Clifford's direction. The former Hornets head coach has turned Vucevic into a game maker (his utilization rate is 26.9%, a career high). Clifford placed Vucevic high on the ground, not only to take a 3 when open, but above all to sift and roll, screen and jump, and pass. "His ability to pass the ball, especially because the way is very open because it is not on the ground, is the extra quality that it brings to the offensive that few people possess, "said Clifford. "I know that just by the work of the film and the items we list, our best games are those where we score a lot of cups, and that comes in large part from his ability to make those passes."
Eight years later, Vucevic has perfected the art of waiting for the cutters to head for the basket. And he also knows when it is better to lower his head and deploy his post movements. Despite Vucevic's connection to the 3-point line, he still averages 7.5 post-ups per game and is one of the top 10 scorers of the season in painting (minimum of six touches per game) . It draws a lot of attention on Magic, which has no other reliable scoring option, and it has made the most of it, including punishing the smaller teams.
Instead of shooting – or perhaps despite this – Orlando, under Clifford, tried to become a passing team that relies on off-ball movement. Only two teams have averaged more runs per game than the Magic, no team creates more potential aids, and only the Bucks and Warriors have more points of help. The 26.3 assists per game (up about three from last year), Orlando is on average in fifth place in the league. And all this revolves around Vucevic: he is one of the top five in the league among the centers in assists, passes, potential aids and help points created.
"My ability to go from top to bottom opens up many opportunities," says Vucevic. "We get a lot of easy points from there and that hinders the defense when there is a lot of movement." For the moment, Vucevic seems to have taken some defenses by surprise, but it is unclear how long it will take before the opponent adapts his new skills. But one thing is undeniable: the departure of Magic's 10-11, surprisingly good compared to its criteria, would not have been possible without the production of Vucevic.
Vucevic is also in a contract year, which may explain why we are seeing his best version yet. This type of career season could also be the boost it needs to attract attention in both the commercial and free agency market. The theoretical chronology of Orlando is closer to that of Mo Bamba (20 years old), Jonathan Isaac (21) and Aaron Gordon (23). Vucevic is 28 years old. This departure is probably the ceiling of the team with Vucevic as no. 1 option. Even now, the points differential of Magic is minus-3 and, despite the importance given to the passes, it is still an offensive team located in the bottom of the top 10.
Although Vucevic does not have a well-defined business partner at the moment (and why would a marginal suitor abandon his assets if he could sign it this summer?), It's up to Orlando to do its best to treat Vucevic and to continue his reconstruction without him. The Vucevic experience was fun – you do not have to tell Clifford twice – but it may never be worth more than it is now.
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