From the moment the Orlando Magic acquired big men Bismack Biyombo and Serge Ibaka in this summer's free-agency, a lot of fans and analysts alike are wondering if their resident young center Nikola Vucevic will still be the team's starter or not moving forward.
Orlando signed Biyombo to a four-year, $72 million deal on July 7 after trading for Ibaka last month. While Ibaka is expected to take the starting power forward role, many questions have emerged whether Vucevic will take a step back and become Biyombo's substitute at the no. 5 spot next season as $17 million per year is deemed too much to spend only for a backup center.
Some say that signing Biyombo just does not make sense from a basketball standpoint since the Magic is already thriving with Vucevic, who averaged 18.2 points, 8.8 rebounds, and a career-high 2.8 assists last season playing in 31.3 minutes per game for then head coach Scott Skiles as one of the league's most promising young centers.
Biyombo is not that adept offensively but is evidently the better defensive player, which could explain why Orlando snagged him from the Toronto Raptors as current head coach Frank Vogel is a known defensive guru.
Which brings back to the question of whether Vogel and the Magic will keep him for the foreseeable future now that Biyombo is around. Are they going to find a way to share their playing time fairly or will they attempt to play them together on the court at the same time?
These questions prompted Fansided's Ryan Doyle to cite Hardwood Houdini's suggestion of dealing with the Celtics in a wild trade scenario.
The proposal is to send Vucevic to Boston in exchange for point guards Marcus Smart or Terry Rozier, center Jordan Mickey, and a 2018 first-round pick.
Doyle said that such a deal will not favor Orlando as Smart and Rozier are both "developing guards who will not help the Magic day one" and could even cause a "a mess of guards" in Vogel's rotation while Mickey is not yet ready to become Biyombo's backup center.
Today's Fastbreak reported, though, that the Magic is "not rushing" to trade Vucevic as the team is "going to try to make things work" with a surplus of "capable bigs".
Vucevic is just entering the second year of his four-year, $53 million agreement with Orlando which will expire at the end of the 2018-2019 season when he will become an unrestricted free agent.
