Chicago Bulls: 3 players that have suffered since the Nikola Vucevic trade

Thaddeus Young, PF

As the Bulls take on the Cavs on the road on April 21, they will look to continue to have veteran forward Thaddeus Young as one of their most reliable producers either in the starting five, or coming off the bench. It’s really hard to decipher the pattern for which Young has either been in the starting five or in a reserve role this season.

While it seemed like Young remained a staple of the Bulls starting five in the last couple of months, he’s actually only held a starting role in 17 games of 53 total played in this season. The first start that Young got with the Bulls this season came back on March 14, and he started in most of those games since.

But in each of the last three games, Young started to hold a reserve role. His playing time also took a pretty big dip since Vooch arrived in the Windy City. In the month of April thus far, Young has seen his playing time dip by around three minutes per night.

Young’s production hasn’t necessarily suffered as much as you might think with the dip in playing time. But he was definitely producing at a more efficient level pre-Vooch trade. His offensive and defensive rating are both moving in the wrong direction in the month of April compared to March. And he’s down around six percent in shooting from the field compared to last month, and close to 10 percent worse in shooting from beyond the arc.

It might be a settling-in period for Young right now as he’s adjusting to a new role and a new flow with Vooch in the starting five. Hopefully, that is the case as Young was one of the better players for this Bulls team as a whole this season.