Getty Nikola Vucevic #9 of the Chicago Bulls celebrates.
The Chicago Bulls (20-24) are all set to take on the Detroit Pistons in Paris, France on January 19. They will have been off for four days by the time the game tips off but, against a Pistons team near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings and missing its best player, the expectation should be for a win.
It will help keep the vultures at bay as teams have been keeping tabs on the Bulls amid their intermittent struggles with consistency.
The Bulls are expected to have a quiet trade deadline but it may not be by choice.
Their trade assets are limited both in quantity and, according to one rival executive, in value in the eyes of other teams. It could force the Bulls to either hold onto players like big man Nikola Vucevic despite seemingly needing to find an upgrade.
Nikola Vucevic a ‘Big Man in Little Man’s Game’
“It would take a specific kind of team to want him,” the exec tells Heavy Sports NBA insider Sean Deveney. “Dallas would be a good spot if the Bulls wanted Tim Hardaway Jr. back.”
We have heard Hardaway’s name in connection to the Bulls before. But they have previously been linked to DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine. Perhaps the mention of Vucevic is simply the natural progression.
But the Bulls are said to have no interest in moving either DeRozan or LaVine.
That has left Vucevic in a sort of quasi-limbo since both head coach Billy Donovan and vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas have been staunch supporters of him.
“He is a big man in a little man’s game,” the exec tells Deveney explaining Vucevic’s plight. ”He can still score and he can take up space defensively…How many teams, though, need or even want a player like that? Not a great defender, slow, needs the ball to run through him in the high post, all of that. Unless you’re [Nikola] Jokic, it is tough to be that kind of center.”
Vucevic was brought to Chicago in large part to be the Bulls’ (lesser) version of the two-time MVP Jokic. Karnisovas saw enough in Vucevic to mortgage a good chunk of the future to land the 12-year veteran.
That deal has come back to haunt the Bulls as Vucevic has regressed while the pieces they gave up have flourished.
They still owe another first-round draft pick to the Orlando Magic for the deal, too.
Nikola Vucevic Making Do
To his credit, Vucevic has found a stride this season much like White fitting in as best he can alongside DeRozan and LaVine. Vucevic has often been the scapegoat when the team comes up short but teammate Goran Dragic has taken umbrage with that pointing out just how much the big man has had to sacrifice.
Vucevic is averaging 17.5 PPG on 61.1% true shooting – the best mark of his career – with 10.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists. There were rumors of mutual interest in working out an extension but there has been no movement on contract talks for Vucevic.
He is also shooting over 38% from beyond the arc.
The underlying theme here is that other teams are not valuing the Bulls’ players at the same level they have or are (see: Patrick Williams).
And perception is all that matters when trying to work out a trade.