Nikola Vucevic has emerged as a quality player in the NBA in his second year. He is among the league leaders in double doubles and rebounds and has done wonders with the playing time and the opportunity given to him from this rebuilding Magic team.

Vucevic is averaging 12.5 points per game and 12.6 rebounds per game and has seen an increase from his rookie year in his per 36 minute numbers. Vucevic has climbed into the Most Improved Player conversation with his ability to work around the basket and his rebounding ability.

"One thing about Nik is he is very consistent," Vucevic's former coach in Philadelphia, Doug Collins, said on March 10. "That’s what you want from a player. Basically, every night you know what you’re going to get from him. I’m very proud of him. He has worked hard. I f you charted him in college, every year he got better. I think he is going to do the same thing as an NBA player. The big thing is just stay healthy."

His consistency has been well noted and Collins said he recognized Vucevic's skill early on in the Draft process. His playing time was cut as Vucevic struggled to get back from a knee injury in the middle of last season. Even in the Playoffs when he was theoretically healthy to play. There was some measure of frustration that the rookie was on the bench late int he season from the always fickle Philadelphia fans.

Still, Collins said Vucevic is the kind of player that could be putting up double doubles in this league for a long time to come.

It is clear too though that Vucevic has areas he needs to improve. He told Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel that he plans on spending his summer improving his strength, working on his post moves and getting some big-game experience playing for Montenegro at EuroBasket.

Which player has benefited most from the NCAA Tournament? That question deserves a complicated answer. And probably is more the fodder for blogs and pundit shows looking to talk about something and draw wild conclusions over singular games (Yes, I just insulted myself).

The reactions to Florida Gulf Coast's Randy Enfield jumping from Florida's West Coast to the actual West Coast has drawn reactions across the spectrum, with many wondering if he was hired based solely on two games. Two games is hardly a representative sample size.

For many NBA fans though, the NCAA Tournament is the first exposure to the top draft prospects. This year that meant bad news for Marcus Smart, Shabazz Muhammad and Ben McLemore. All three struggled in their games in the spotlight. McLemore, the presumed No. 1 pick (if there is such thing as a presumption in a draft like this), shot only 10 for 39 from the floor -- although he finished with 20 points in Kansas' overtime loss to Michigan in the Sweet Sixteen.

If there has been any "climber" so to speak in the national eye it is Trey Burke of Michigan. The Wolverines' point guard has had a fantastic tournament and has solidified himself as a candidate for the national player of the year. Many have compared him to Jameer Nelson. Regardless what you think of Nelson overall, he has had a successful nine-year career now.

The other riser? It is the guy who is not playing at all. In fact, hist team was eliminated in the first round of the NIT.

You had to do a double take when you looked at the scoreboard as Beno Udrih drained a three-point with about two minutes left in the game.

Could this result be real? Could the Magic have made it all the way back from a 25-point deficit in a game the Rockets were tearing up the interior defense with the pick and roll and eating the Magic's defense alive?

They did not quite make it all the way back. They never got closer than five points, with Nikola Vucevic failing each time to make a shot that would have pulled the Magic closer. A 25-point deficit and porous defense for the majority of the game outweighed the fight Orlando always has to get back into the game as Houston pulled out a 111-103 victory at Toyota Center on Monday.

The Magic are always fighters. They never gave up even after quickly falling behind 32-14 in the first quarter and giving up more than 60 points in the first half. The Rockets did not seem to need James Harden or Chandler Parsons to pull the Orlando defense apart.

Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik were the main culprits defensively. Lin scored 19 points and 11 assists and Asik had a career-high 22 points and 18 rebounds. It seemed that every time the Rockets brought the ball down the floor, they could get into the lane and pull Vucevic or Tobias Harris away from his man and simply dump it down to the open man underneath the basket. The Magic did not help the helper and that gave Omer Asik a lot of free reign in the paint and enabled him to get good rebounding position.

That left a big hill for the Magic to climb. One they dutifully tried to ascend like Sisyphus rolling that boulder up the hill (no matter how large it became or how many times it rolled back down the hill).

Tobias Harris has been the biggest surprise of the season for the Magic after acquiring him in the J.J. Redick trade back in February. Nobody really knew who Harris was. He hardly played in Milwaukee.

This season with the Bucks, he played only 11.6 minutes per game and saw his minutes cut with Luc Richard Mbah a Moute in front of him on the depth chart after he returned from injury. Harris is young and apt to make some mistakes. For the hard-charging, defensive-minded Scott Skiles leading a team with Playoff aspirations, Harris struggled to see the floor. In Milwaukee.

As we are learning now, much of it was probably not deserved and really came down to how much the coaching staff in Milwaukee trusted Harris and his ability to grow in Milwaukee.

The move to Orlando was an incredibly good one more than anything for the opportunity it afforded Harris.

"When I was in Milwaukee with [Tobias], I always knew he had potential and talent to be a great player," said Beno Udrih, who came to Orlando with Harris in the trade with Milwaukee, following the win over Washington. "I think in Milwaukee, they were just holding him back and they didn’t give him a real chance to show what he can do. Here, he got a chance and he is definitely proving himself and taking advantage of the chance."

Opportunity is a very powerful tool for a young player.

The losing streak is at 10. Not any temporal streak. The Magic won Friday night after all.

This is a 10-game losing sterak against Atlanta, a team that has somehow figured out Orlando. The tables have turned in this rivalry. Or perhaps it is just one Playoff team beating a non-Playoff team. The better team just found a way.

Orlando opened up a lead in the first half, but never could pull away. The Hawks got the lead and did not let go. The Magic never lost distance with the Hawks and never got blown out, but they never found their shot either. Not after a hot start.

Good team meets bad team.

The Hawks were certainly the better team, getting the stops, turnovers and shots they needed in a 97-88 win at Philips Arena on Saturday. Those little things are what the Magic still have to learn as a young team.

There were plenty of encouraging moments as there always seem to be with this young Magic team. Orlando got 20 points and eight assists from Beno Udrih, filling in for the first time for the injured Jameer Nelson. Nikola Vucevic returned after a five-game absence to score 17 points and grab 15 rebounds, shaking off any rust he might have had.

Tobias Harris said it felt like deja vu as Washington opened the third quarter on an 18-4 run, erasing a 12-point halftime lead and making the Magic think another double-digit deficit would be gone. Orlando shot 51.1 percent in the first half and had the game rolling against an improved Washington squad.

The Magic's field goal percentage started to drop and their defensive focus and intensity seemed to begin to wane.

Harris and the Magic would not let this be deja vu after losing a 19-point lead in Charlotte the previous time out. Harris was part of that collapse and he struggled at the end of the game. He and Jacque Vaughn reviewed the end of that game and Harris was instantly better.

And that is tough to do after scoring a career high in points. 

Harris surpassed that career high with 30 points, shooting 11 for 21 from the floor and grabbing 11 rebounds. That included a big two-point shot when he pump faked the defender off the 3-point line and stepped inside for a jumper that gave the Magic a five-point lead, the Magic's final field goal of the game.

What that does not show is the play that Harris called a "gamble" where, with the Magic up three points, Harris left Wall early as he was set to pass the ball to Trevor Ariza at the three point line. Harris was there to meet him for what Ariza probably thought would be an open 3-pointer. The shot was no good and Orlando held on for a 97-92 victory at Amway Center on Friday.

"The key for us, especially being a young team, is getting into a habit where we take every possession, that when they are on offense that we focus and dig down on every possession," Tobias Harris said. "Toward the end of the games, and a lot of the games we have had in the past, teams have been scoring on us, especially in the fourth quarter in the last five minutes of the game. My goal tonight was to get our guys together and know that each and every possession counts."

Harris was a constant offensive threat throughout the game, adding three blocks to his record and while he did not record an assist, the defense was sufficiently focused on him to get others open. Harris had 11 points after one quarter and helped the Magic get on their way.

When the Magic hired Rob Hennigan, they made no hiding the fact that the Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs are their models. With the Thunder in town last week, there was glowing praise for Hennigan as a talent evaluator and for what he is beginning to build in Orlando.

The top two seeds in the Western Conference are solid models for the organization. They are both located in small markets nad have established themselves as two of the best franchises in the league. The Spurs have been constant contenders since winning the championship in 1999 and have virtually been in the Playoffs and title hunt since Duncan was drafted in 1997. That is 15 years of excellence.

The Magic have hired numerous people from that lineage to help reshape their franchise. Rob Hennigan was an intern with the Spurs before joining the Sonics/Thunder organization as a scout with Sam Presti (a former Spurs executive himself).

These two organizations are clearly the models Orlando wants to follow for sustained championship-level success in a small market.

Last Friday, with the Thunder in town, the Magic got a close up look of the organization they are openly trying to emulate. They saw a team that went through growing pains by losing in a difficult fashion for two or three seasons, stockpiling draft picks and making smart decisions in the Draft.

Oklahoma City drafted Kevin Durant after Portland selected Greg Oden and then took Russell Westbrook with the the fourth pick in the Draft.

Orlando is only at the beginning of this process. The Magic's future is much murkier. There is some nice young talent but no cornerstones to build the franchise around. Orlando is still waiting for its Kevin Durant to begin building that championship team.

This season has been tough.

The losing sucks and the thought of having the worst record in the league sucks even more. Alex Martins gave us the familiar line after the season ended last May and after the Dwight Howard trade -- the Magic have made the Playoffs 14 times in their 23 year history (now 24 years, I guess since it is official that the Magic will not be going to the 2013 Playoffs). There is an expectation that Orlando will be in the Playoff hunt because of this.

So this year is strange. It is not like everyone did not know the Magic would struggle this year. That was understandable. The reality of it though is a little bit jarring.

Especially in a year when the Draft is not so hot.

It seemed if Orlando was going to be patient this would be a two-lottery proccess and the franchise would sacrifice both this season and next to build franchise cornerstones.

And then this comes out (h/t Deadspin):

That, boys and girls, is the hope for all the lottery teams of 2014. That is Andrew Wiggins of Huntington, West Virginia, by way of Canada. This is the guy all NBA and basketball fans need to start getting excited about.

Not to overhype.

A few weeks ago, in response to Kobe Bryant's then-debilitating ankle injury and accusations that Dahntay Jones somehow committed a dirty play by cutting under him while he was still in the air, I listed the dirtiest players in the NBA. I tried to take a different look at it and list players that were "dirty" in a number of different ways. I looked at "complainers" and "floppers" as much as the players usually associated with the word (and I egregiously excluded Joakim Noah).

This has me thinking today about who are the dirtiest players in Magic history?

Before diving into things, let me define what I consider "dirty." There are a few things. First and foremost, a "dirty" player is one the opposing team hates playing against. These are the players that do their generous bending of the rules and test the boundaries of rules. Again, players that opponents hate playing against and do everything to get under their skin.

These are also players with a little bit of a mean streak, perhaps. They may not fill the stat sheet, but they are essential to a winning team.

Now, the Magic have an interesting and complicated relationship with players considered "dirty."

Rich DeVos has always stressed bringing quality players and quality people into the organization. I remember when Keon Clark was a free agent in 2002. At that time, Clark was seen as a rising young defender at center and the Magic were a team desperate for a center. He averaged 11.3 points and 7.4 rebounds per game in the season before free agency.

As the Magic were negotiating with him, Clark was arrested for drug possession and the Magic quickly pulled out of the running. It was a good basketball decision as Clark played only two more injury-riddled seasons and failed to live up to expectations. The drug arrest was cited as a key reason for the Magic cooling off on him. DeVos did not want to sign a player that would cause problems off the court.

The same concern arose when J.J. Redick was arrested for a DUI before the Draft.

There are, of course, exceptions. DeVos gave Shawn Kemp a second chance in Orlando after his weight and off-court issues. But largely, Magic history is devoid of any players one might call "mean guys" and so finding dirty players is tough.

I will attempt to do so though. Here are the five "dirtiest" players in Magic history by my strange standards:

The Magic had only eight players available tonight and it showed at the end of the game.

Kemba Walker was weaving in and out of the defense throughout the fourth quarter and it was his final salvo that put a nail in the conffing for the Magic and made it a very realistic possibility that the Magic finish with the worst record in the league (and the most ping pong balls in May's NBA Draft Lottery).

Walker was trapped on the perimeter and the Magic were switching on every screen. There must have been a miscommunication or a slow rotation because Walker threw the ball toward the rim toward a flying Josh McRoberts who threw down a one-handed alley-oop that made it a six-point game and completed Charlotte's 114-108 win over Orlando at Time Warner Cable Arena.

The Bobcats still own the NBA's worst record, but are just a half game behind the Magic in the standings.

In a game with so much offense, Orlando simply ran out of fuel at the end. The Magic played only eight players and had no post players in reserve with the team sticking to its decision to shut down Al Harrington and the team not ready (or unwilling) to play Hedo Turkoglu in his first game back from suspension.

Those eight guys played too exhaustion at the end. The Bobcats closed on a 16-6 run, erasing a four-point Magic lead as the shots ran out for the Magic and the offense slowed enough to give the Bobcats control of the game.