Celtics’ Nikola Vucevic Concerns Linger Even in Injury Return

The Boston Celtics completed their season sweep of the Raptors on Sunday, also winning their 10th game in the last 12 outings, and in doing so welcomed back a player who could yet be a pivotal part of the playoff rotation: center Nikola Vucevic, who was acquired at the trade deadline, played 11 games, broke his finger in the 12th game (on March 6) and had not played since.

Vucevic’s absence was mostly overshadowed by the return of Jayson Tatum, but the fact that the Celtics have not been able to work their critical bench piece, obtained from the Bulls at the deadline for Anfernee Simons,  into the rotation is a concern. He played only 13 minutes in his return on Sunday, scoring four points. The Celtics have four games ahead to get Vucevic up to speed and determine how they will use him in the playoffs.

That’s not a lot of time. And on Sunday, coach Joe Mazzulla was asked about Vucevic’s return and gave a worrying answer for Celtics backers.

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Nikola Vucevic’s Best Celtics Game Came in Debut

The return for Vucevic was a modest one, but after the game, Mazzulla told reporters that the team still has not really seen how the best version of Vucevic fits with these Celtics.  He was asked about being worried that Vucevic, who has not been to the playoffs since 2022, might try to come in and do too much.

Quite the opposite, Mazzulla indicated.

“He just wants to win. He has been in the league a long time,” Mazzulla said. “If anything, making sure he is aggressive enough to where we have the best version of him so that we can have a different layer from him in terms of what we want to accomplish. I think up to this point, the best version of him for our team is what we saw in the Miami game. So I think we have to get that back and replicate that.”

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Nikola Vucevic Was ‘Fine’ in Injury Return

And that’s the worrisome thing for the Celtics–the Miami game was Vucevic’s debut, back on February 6. He played for a month with Boston without playing as well as he did on that night, and has since sat out another month with the finger injury.

It’s a safe bet that when  the Celtics traded for Vucevic on February 5, they did not expect that he would peak in his debut.

Again, there is a eek of regular-season action to figure this out. As for how Vucevic looked on Sunday, Mazzulla was ambivalent.

“It was good. I think it was only 13 minutes,” he said. “I thought, offensively, he made the right reads. Missed a couple. Second half, we were looking at some different matchup stuff, so didn’t get him in as much as we wanted to in the second half, but he was fine, I thought. Just going to continue to get him acclimated.”

 

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Celtics Big Men Must Control Paint, Set Screens

No doubt, Vucevic is a much different player in the middle than starter Neemias Queta, more skilled as a scorer and passer, but not as solid defensively. Mazzulla said there are things he is looking for from Celtics big men, no matter which one is on the floor.

“His role as a big is one, defensively, controlling the paint with rebounds and his pick-and-roll defense,” Mazzulla said, :and then offensively, being dynamic and—we don’t quite know how teams will defend him. Sometimes we have to be able to read that in real time.

“So I think his role is just like our other 5s, they’re the connectors, they’re the people that make plays for us on the offensive end with their screening which, you know, he takes pride in. And then defensively, rebounding and controlling the paint.”

 

 

Sean Deveney is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including “Fun City,” “Before Wrigley became Wrigley,” and “Facing Michael Jordan.” More about Sean Deveney