Nikola Vucevic
The Orlando Magic took the 7th seed last season and got to the playoffs after a mediocre start to the season and the team were up and down for the most part from October to Janaury. Steve Clifford had come over from the Charlotte Hornets at the start of the new season and it's always tough to get to know the new playstyle and the new grove of the team. Clifford is a good coach in my opinion but hasn't had the player material in Charlotte on his side talent wise and not in Orlando either. His idea of how to play basketball is pretty easy to understand and it's direct, he doesn't have a lot of handoffs to missdirect the opponent like for example the Golden State Warriors.
Clifford likes to get the ball down low to Nikola Vucevic to get easy buckets but Nikola also showed he could step out into the midrange and to the three point line for shots, that opened up space for the whole team to operate in the paint and close to the bucket.
Vucevic had a career year last year and did a lot to establish himself as a reliable big man in the league. Clifford, who's a defensive minded coach had a good defensive scheme, top 5 in the league, that put Vucevic in good positions to protect the rim even though he's not a elite shot blocker he has a big body that made it tough for teams to score in the paint, top 10 in the league.
Like I said, Vucevic had a career year last season and got voted in to the All-Star game, will he have the same impact and stats this season? That's the question. He was in a free agent year last season like Kemba Walker for example, there's other players too, that give it there all, that extra push to show the franschies that they are worth a better contract or even a maxcontract. Now that he's got it, I don't believe Nikola will come up to the level he played at last season and this will be a tough loss of prodcution for the Magic this year.
Playoffs
After a up and down first part of the season came a turning point in February and Magic started to play really well and their form was going up. Under the last three months of the regular season Magic won 22/30 games and that led them to a 7th seed in the Eastern Conference after being down in the 11-12th seed for a long time. The biggest factor in this run between February and March was Terrence Ross, even if Nikola Vucevic was a big part of the Magic success and played outstanding, Ross was their number one player under the most important part of the season. Ross was clutch in close games and to have someone who can catch fire coming of the bench is a big deal in this league, just ask the LA Clippers. At last Magic made the playoffs with a 42-40 record for the season and they would go up north to the future champions in the Toronto Raptors.
Orlando took the first game somewhat unexepected and we all tought that Raptors playoffstruggles would continue but the Magic didn't have that fire power to withstand the 4 games after that. Vucevic was not as effective as he was in the regualar season and struggled against Serge Ibaka/Marc Gasol and with that Orlandos offense was just not as good and they went out of the playoffs with a 4-1 loss in the series.
Magic this upcoming season hasn't changed much, new to the team is Al-Farouq Aminu from the Portland Trail Blazers, he came to the team in this summers free agency. Magic still got the same problems like last year, no elite point guards which is a most have in todays NBA, Magic will go up against elite players at that position night in night out, DJ Augustin and Micheal Carter-Williams are not a starstuded point guard duo if we consider what other teams have at that position.
Evan Fournier is a player who's up and down a lot, he can catch fire but then all of a sudden he's ice cold again. If Terrance Ross can continue helping the team from the bench like he did the last three months of the season then he will be a key factor. I don't think the Magic have enough good and consistent players to get all the way to the playoffs this season, I would pick them to be around 9th-10th seed at the end of the regular season.
Miami Heat, their division rival, has loaded up with Jimmy Butler and I think the Detroit Pistons will take the 8th seed against this Magic team. Orlando needs their defense to click on all cylinders every game, Jonathan Isaac will be a key part of that defense, will he be as good or better than last year? Will Nikola Vucevic shine as bright as last year with his new contract extention? No, I don't think so. The team is mediocare with not enough fire power, if they don't come out playing like they did in Feb-Mar last season at the same time, they will not make the playoffs.
