When the Chicago Bulls front office decided to begin a new era, Nikola Vucevic ꦉwas ✤the first surprising acquisition. Now, three years later, he may be the last one standing.
Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley have decided to pivot again after a failed experiment. Their core of Vucevic, Zach LaVine, and DeMar DeRozan failed to produce satisfactory results, as the nucleus officially shut their book this offseason with only one playoff win. DeRozan is now trying to write a new story with the Sacramento Kings, while LaVine is anxiously awaiting his chance to grab ink and a pen. The worst-kept secret in the NBA is both the Bulls and LaVine’s eagerness to break up.
Meanwhile, Vucevic’s future remains unclear. He quickly became an afterthought as LaVine and DeRozan attempted to co-exist. Despite that fact, Chicago still signed him to a $60.0 million deal last offseason that keeps him connected to the franchise until the end of the 2025-26 season. Trade rumors have quietly popped up over the past couple of months, but these have not come tied to any strong reporting. Instead, Vucevic appears to be the odd-veteran-ꦰout as the team be🐬gins its youth movement. And he commented on that for the first time in a recent interview.
Vucevic spoke to in a wide-ranging discussion. Of course, he was asked about his time in Chicago, which led to the big man commenting on the offseason changes. Please note that we’re sharing a transcription of the original interview provided by .
“The rest of us focus more on scoring: LaVine, DeRozan, and me. He [Lonzo Ball] brought us all together, sped up the game, meant a lot on defense, guarding the best players with Caruso … Although his numbers might not have been impressive, he meant a lot to us.”
We tried with youn🍨g players, and then we had numerous injuries. Trade talks also affected us, preventing us from achieving the results we thought we could, but when results don’t follow, changes come…
DeRozan l🐓eft, Caruso left, the team got younger, and they wanted to go in a different direction. We’ll see how the season goes꧒, and then decisions will be made based on that.”
I’m sure we’ll get a much better understanding of what Vucevic thinks about the Bulls’ “different direction” at Media Day, but this sure is an interesting start!
Nikola Vucevic Talks Big Changes
First things first, I can’t believe members of this team continue to bring up Lonzo Ball’s injury. Not only was that three seasons ago, but Ball was initially viewed as the fourth-best player on the team. In other words, it shouldn’t have ever been his responsibility to push this team in the right direction. That’s the job of the three All-Star-level players.
It’s also the job of these players not to allow the rumor mill to eat them alive, but here we are. While we can all understand how trade talk may negatively impact a locker room, I couldn’t help but chuckle when reading this line from Vucevic. Trade talks didn’t prevent them from achieving the results they wanted. Instead, it was the Bulls’ inability to achieve those results that led to the trade talks.
If anything, this front office was far more lenient than it should have been. They sat out THREE straight NBA trade deadlines, which is a nearly impossible task in today’s NBA. No subpar roster had a longer leash than this one since the 2021 changes, so I frankly don’t want to hear anything about how trade talks held them back.
Now, does this mean the front office did everything they could to remove locker room drama? Of course not. Their handling of the Zach LaVine situation was bad, as they allowed those rumors to leak not even a year after signing him to a new max deal. Still, I’m not accepting that as the main reason this group came up short. The truth of the matter is they simply played poorly. Must I remind Vucevic of his 29.4 percent 3-point shooting percentage from downtown?
The big man’s last comment about this upcoming season sure is intriguing. While things get lost in translation, it’s hard not to think he’s somewhat skeptical of the offseason moves. I have to imagine he’s specifically frustrated that winning doesn’t appear to be the priority. The 33-year-old isn’t getting any younger, and he came to Chicago thinking that he’d be consistently competing for the postseason.
This is likely why his last comment leaves a lot open for interpretation. I don’t necessarily think he’s one to go into a season with plans to rock the boat, but there is probably only so much tanking he can take. I guess the good news is that if a market develops for him, the Bulls would likely jump at the opportunity to move him. The bad news is that finding the right market could be difficult, especially with his steep $20.0 million payday.
But, hey, that’s all the more incentive for Nikola Vucevic to enter the season with a chip on his shoulder. With DeRozan gone, the door has opened for him to return to a key offensive role and improve his stock around the league. Do that, and he could be playing winning basketball somewhere else real soon.
