Vucevic says rebounds key
Nikola Vucevic is having the best defensive rebounding season of his career.
He’ll need to maintain or improve his rebounding now that the Orlando Magic will play more small ball following last week’s trade of power forward Serge
Ibaka to the Toronto Raptors for swingman Terrence Ross and a 2017 firstround draft pick.
“It’s going to be different for me, for sure,” Vucevic said Wednesday. “With Serge, I thought we did a pretty good job of working together on both ends of the floor, kind of playing both inside-out. Now, with four smalls, I’ll be much more inside. And on the defensive end, I’ll have a much bigger responsibility controlling the whole paint.
“It will be a different look, but we did it some last year and the year before, I think, as well. So it’s nothing I haven’t seen yet. So I think it’ll be fine. It’ll just take time for everybody to adjust to the new style that we’ll play now.”
Vucevic has collected 30.5 percent of available defensive rebounds when he’s been on the floor this season — the highest percentage of his career.
The Magic will need to rebound by committee more now that Ibaka’s gone.
“That’s definitely something we have talked about,” coach Frank Vogel said. “That’s the biggest area that you become weak: on the glass. We’ve just got to make sure we’re committing [to rebounding]. If you’ve got five guys boxing out and pursuing, you should be fine. But you can’t have lapses in that area when you’re small.” game following the All-Star break.
Vogel said “there’s a chance” that Ross will be in the Magic’s starting lineup.
By all accounts, Ross looked sharp in practice Tuesday and Wednesday.
“He’s picking up the schemes quickly, picking up the offensive sets,” Vogel said. “You can’t even tell he hasn’t been here. He seems to be fitting in well with the guys. I think he’s going to hit the ground running.”
Forward said: “He’s playing great basketball. He’s playing team-first, and he’s shooting. That’s what he does. He’s an athlete who can make shots. Yesterday, I was on him about shooting more. I think he’s going to fit in quite well with his speed, with his athletic ability, the way he can get to the rim.”
The Trail Blazers-Magic game will be shown in virtual reality via live streaming on the NBA League Pass full-season package.
The virtual reality broadcast will have multiple camera angles, different graphics and dedicated announcers.
Vucevic spent a portion of his All-Star break in Aspen, Colo., even though his contract forbids skiing.
“I couldn’t ski, obviously,” Vucevic said. “I wish I could. My wife was skiing and some of my friends [did, too]. I really wanted to. I couldn’t. But it was fun just being out there in the snow. Aspen’s a great little town. It was real nice. I wanted to go to see some snow. When you live in Florida, you don’t see much of that.”