Chicago Bulls: Nikola Vucevic has ‘messed up’ the rotation

Although it feels like first-year head coach Billy Donovan and the Chicago Bulls have found traction finally since the trade deadline, the fans shouldn’t get too comfortable just yet with the success in the win column. We’ve seen this before when Donovan and the Bulls win a few games in a row and then they falter into a much longer losing streak.

Something just doesn’t feel right for the Bulls in their roughly 15 games since the trade deadline back on March 25. Maybe this is all part of the process of the new front office regime rebuilding this team, but the results certainly weren’t great immediately after deadline day.

The Bulls do have a two-game winning streak going since the weekend. To build this winning streak, the Bulls defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers at home back on April 17, and the Boston Celtics on the road in upset fashion on April 19. But the schedule throughout the rest of the month of April will not be easy by any means.

A potential problem area to identify for Donovan and the Bulls at this point of the regular season starts with all of the moves that the new front office regime made at the trade deadline. Screwing with team chemistry can be a volatile move in season.

Lagging effects of the Chicago Bulls trading for Nikola Vucevic

The biggest deadline day move that the Bulls front office made back on March 25 was landing star big man Nikola Vucevic and veteran forward Al-Farouq Aminu from the Orlando Magic. The Bulls wound up shipping off two first round draft picks, third-year center Wendell Carter Jr., and veteran small forward Otto Porter Jr. to the Magic to get Vooch and Aminu.

Since landing Vooch and Aminu (among a number of other trades back on March 25), the Bulls have won just five games in nearly 15 outings. A tremendous lack of consistency combined with spotty absences from players like star shooting guard Zach LaVine, second-year point guard Coby White, and veteran shooting guard Garrett Temple, among others, has caused the lack of success in the win column.

And according to a report this week from Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic, a lot of the Bulls rotation players do feel that the addition of Vooch and the loss of other integral pieces at the deadline has “messed up” a lot of the chemistry for this team as a whole. The Bulls did have spotty results since Vooch landed in the Windy City, and the chemistry was likely to falter for a few weeks at minimum.

Vooch himself has played pretty well for the Bulls since arriving in Chicago a little less than one month ago. In 14 games played with the Bulls this season, Vooch averaged 23.2 points per game, 9.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.9 blocks. And he’s shot an insane 51.0 percent from the field, 46.7 percent from beyond the arc, and 86.7 percent from the free-throw line.

Next up for Vooch and the Bulls is a meeting with the divisional foe Cavs for the second time in four days. The Bulls will face the Cavs on the road in Cleveland on April 21 to try and extend their winning streak to three games, with tip-off time set for 6 p.m. CT.