The Orlando Magic will face their first big injury challenge of the season with Nikola Vucevic out for the foreseeable future with a bone bruise to his knee
The Orlando Magic received both some bad news and a sigh of relief Thursday. MRIs revealed Nikola Vucevic suffered a bone bruise in his right knee after a non-contact injury during the third quarter of Wednesday’s loss to the Houston Rockets.
The Magic announced he would definitely miss Friday’s game against the Raptors but his status moving forward would be determined by how he responded to treatment.
For some extended period of time, the Magic will be without their star center — averaging 15.8 points per game and 8.0 rebounds per game.
That will leave the Magic in a bit of a lurch. As I wrote for our sister site, Orlando Magic Daily, the Magic could face some difficulties trying to replace him:
Still, even with the extent of Vucevic’s injury unknown, there has to be some curiosity of whether the Magic could survive any long period of time without Vucevic in the lineup.
In the small sample size of this season, Orlando has a 98.3 offensive rating with Vucevic on the floor and a 103.5 defensive rating. The offensive rating is slightly better than the Magic’s early-season average of 97.0.
With Vucevic off the floor, the offensive rating drops to 94.9, but the defensive rating drops dramatically to 91.9 too.
The Magic will be relying mostly on Dewayne Dedmon it seems to fill those minutes Vucevic leaves open.
Dedmon has proven himself a defensive ace and the Magic’s defense the last two years has improved significantly with him on the floor. He struggles to score though and has limited offensive skills.
As Brett Roberts writes for Orlando Magic Daily, Dedmon has an opportunity to show off some of his improvement from the offseason and erase his reputation as a foul-prone rim protector with few offensive skills.
Per-36, Dedmon is averaging 8.7 points, 2.1 blocks/steals and 12.5 (!) rebounds per game. Ignore those 7.1 fouls per 36 minutes for the moment.
His defensive impact is very clear to see. The Magic post an 85.9 defensive rating with Dedmon on the court, compared to a 103.6 defensive rating with him off the floor. That is a significant change without Dedmon. The offense does suffer — 95.1 offensive rating with him on the court, 97.7 with him off the court — especially when compared to Vucevic. But the defensive impact continues to be hard to ignore.
The Magic should be a different team when they take the floor tonight and for the foreseeable future with Nikola Vucevic out.
It will take Dewayne Dedmon stepping in and filling the minutes Vucevic leaves behind and making sure he stays in the game by avoiding fouls. If he does, the team’s defense should improve pretty significantly.
Otherwise, Jason Smith and Channing Frye will have to fill in center minutes. That does not bode as well — although Smith has posted good on-court defensive rating numbers so far this season.
The Magic have one of their first challenges of the season thrown at them now. It will be time to see how they respond.
