Nikola Vucevic Admits to Tough Transition, But Friday Night Was 'What We need From Him'

BOSTON — It didn’t take long for Nikola Vucevic to make an impact on Friday night. He check into the game with the Nets up 11-10. Less than three minutes later, Boston was up 26-15.

“I thought Vucevic was super aggressive, and that's what we need from him,” Jaylen Brown said after beating the Nets. “That's why he's here. So getting him going, he hit some shots for us. So that was big time.”

It’s been an up and down start for Vucevic, who put up two double-doubles in his first three games with Boston and then followed it up with four single-digit scoring performances before his explosion against the Nets. His nine made baskets against Brooklynn were as many as he made in his prior three games combined.

“I’m still getting used to, obviously, the new offense and all my teammates and learning their tendencies and finding my ways,” he said after dropping 28 points on Brooklyn. “At times I feel like I overthink a little bit, which then makes me kind of hesitant and takes away my aggressiveness. I feel like tonight I was able to put a little more together and play off my teammates.”

Integration to a new team can be tougher for a big because he has to be fed the ball. Vucevic isn’t going to grab a rebound and take off with it. He’s not bringing the ball over half court and calling a play. He has to get to the right spots and wait for a pass, which also means his teammates also have to learn when to pass it to him.

“Because of his versatility, he's going to see different stuff throughout, and we have to be ready to react to that as well as him,” Joe Mazzulla said. “So a lot of it is just constant communication … constantly watching film and getting better at those things, and he takes a lot of pride in that. I thought tonight, he looked really comfortable on the offensive end, just making those reads.”

Vucevic spent part of his All-Star break pouring over film and continuing to get up to speed. He’s learning new teammates while learning a new role off the bench. Whether that changes later or not might just depend on whenever Jayson Tatum comes back, so for now he’s had to learn a new routine on top of learning a new city and new teammates.

“I’ve been starting most of my career, so you’re kind of used to the warmup and then you go straight into starting, so here it’s kind of an adjustment for me,” he said. “Now it’s fine, but the first two, three games you warm up, and then you go sit, and then you come back. It’s just something I had to get used to.”

So that's one hurdle seemingly cleared. The rest will come in time. Vucevic says he wants to perfect his screening to help break down defenses. He is still honing the timing of everything, though he was able to find cutters like Hugo Gonzalez for easy baskets. He knows he has a lot of jobs for the Celtics, from freeing guys up with screens, to giving them space with his shooting, to getting into the paint and mixing it up for rebounds.

A lot of it worked against Brooklyn Friday night, but the remaining 23 games doesn’t give him much time for trial and error. This is a crash course with a lot of tests along the way. He passed one against Brooklyn, but more are coming.

“[I] just have to find the right balance of still playing my game, be aggressive, use my instincts, but make it fit with what we want to run,” Vucevic said. “So I think just the more we play together the more I learn my teammates’ tendencies, the more they learn what I like, it’ll help us. But I thought tonight it came together pretty well. I think the offense was running pretty smoothly and hopefully we continue to build on that.”