Magic's Vucevic: Trade from Sixers 'worked out for me great'

There are times when Nik Vucevic thinks about how things would have been had he remained a 76er.

The 7-foot center averaged just 5.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 15.9 minutes as a rookie with the Sixers during the 2011-12 season. In the doghouse of then-Sixers coach Doug Collins, Vucevic was traded to the Orlando Magic as part of a four-team deal on Aug. 10, 2012.

That's when his career took off.

The Swiss native averaged 16.2 points, 10.7 rebounds and 32.7 minutes in 276 career games with the Magic before Tuesday night's matchup with the Sixers at the Wells Fargo Center. The sixth-year veteran was averaging 11.7 points and 12.3 rebounds this season.

"You never know what could have happened," Vucevic said. "I got traded. It worked out for me great."

The trade to Orlando enabled him to play a lot of minutes from the beginning and improve.

"I'm not saying I wouldn't get a chance here, but it worked out for me," Vucevic said. "As far as my rookie year in Philly, it was a good year for me, a great learning experience."

But as good as he's been in Orlando, the 26-year-old hasn't made the Eastern Conference all-star team.

Vucevic feels that he's been overlooked. However, he puts things in perspective. The Magic have averaged just 25 wins since he's been there.

"If the teams win, myself and everybody else will get recognition," he said. "Yeah, am I overlooked a little bit? I think so, it's just the fact that we are not winning and we haven't been the playoffs. That's just normal."

Orlando coach Frank Vogel, a Wildwood native, went up against his longtime mentor in Sixers associate head coach Jim O'Brien in Tuesday's game. Vogel served on O'Brien's staff when O'Brien was the Sixers' coach during the 2004-05 season.