Nik Vucevic will remain in Orlando for the foreseeable future.
The Orlando Magic have agreed to a four-year, $53 million contract extension with big man Nikola Vucevic according to Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel. Vucevic’s new deal will kick in this year. Here’s some more from Robbins.
The Orlando Magic and the representatives for center Nik Vucevic are finalizing a contract extension that will add four years to his current deal and will run through the 2018-19 NBA season, industry sources told the Orlando Sentinel.
The deal will pay Vucevic a total of $53 million over four seasons, and the extension will not include an opt-out clause that would enable Vucevic to become a free agent before the summer of 2019.
Vucevic is now the fifth former 2011 first-round pick to agree to an extension before October 31st’s deadline. Cleveland’s Kyrie Irving, Denver’s Kenneth Faried, and Phoenix’s Markieff and Marcus Morris all signed extensions with their respective teams earlier this summer.
Vucevic, 25, was acquired from Philadelphia in August of 2012 as apart of the gigantic four-team trade that saw former Magic center Dwight Howard head to the Los Angeles Lakers. Vucevic is a long armed, big bodied brute who specializes in rebounding. Kevin Love, Joakim Noah, Zach Randolph, Dwight Howard and Vucevic himself are the only five players in the league to average at least 10 rebounds per game in each of the last two seasons.
Vucevic isn’t a great rim protector or athlete, but he’s an amazingly talented big man who Orlando seems to believe in.
Nikola Vucevic averaged 14.2 points and 11 rebounds per game last year for the Orlando Magic. Vucevic had five games with at least 20 points and 15 rebounds last year, including a 30 point, 21 rebound showing against the Los Angeles Clippers.
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