Has the Nikola Vucevic experiment failed for the Bulls?

In yet another bad loss for second-year head coach Billy Donovan and the Chicago Bulls on the afternoon/evening of Jan. 17 (also Martin Luther King Jr. Day), the Memphis Grizzlies got the best of the star duo of forward DeMar DeRozan and center Nikola Vucevic. The Bulls fell short to the Grizzlies on MLK Day on the road at the FedEx Forum by the convincing final score of 119-106.

This was another game where the Bulls essentially lost the game in the matter of just one quarter. The second quarter didn’t give the Bulls positive fortune in any sense. The Grizzlies got the best of the Bulls by a 13-point margin in the second quarter, which was also the margin of victory for Memphis.

One of the most disappointing aspects of this game for the Bulls was the play of Vucevic. He didn’t play at all for Donovan and the Bulls in the fourth quarter thanks to his sluggish start to this game. It doesn’t take long to look at Vucevic’s stat line and see why he was essentially not part of this game in the fourth quarter.

Vucevic finished up this game with just seven points on 2-of-13 shooting from the field, 1-of-5 from beyond the arc, and a perfect 2-of-2 from the free-throw line. And he also came up with 10 rebounds, three assists, two steals, two blocks, and two turnovers.

The way Vucevic showed out in the last few games for the Bulls is something that greatly dims the outlook for his role in terms of impacting this team’s success in the win column for the rest of the season.

There was a point in time earlier this month when it looked like Vucevic was starting to turn a corner for good. But that hope was quickly shot down at the outset of this losing streak for the Bulls.

Chicago Bulls seeing Nikola Vucevic regress still heading into the second half of the season

Really the only games that Vucevic was on point for the Bulls were in the Jan. 15 loss to the Boston Celtics and Jan. 14 loss to the Golden State Warriors. He definitely had his moments, and the box score stats looked good for Vucevic in the Jan. 14 loss to the Warriors. But he still didn’t have the impact necessary for the Bulls to keep pace with the Warriors in that game.

All in all, this loss to the Grizzlies just goes to show how important the play of key stars for the Bulls like shooting guard Zach LaVine and DeRozan is. It just looks like the Bulls can’t consistently rely on the offensive production from Vucevic.

The all-encompassing advanced metrics for Vucevic this season go a long way to show his lack of impact on any winning efforts for the Bulls thus far. Vucevic has his lowest number of win shares per 48 minutes through the first half of the 2021-22 regular season since 2016-17, at .104.

That number is also going to get worse once you take into account his performance in the loss to the Grizzlies.

Vucevic has also registered the lowest box plus/minus of his career this season since 2014-15, at 1.3.

Last but not least, you can see the neutral impact at times this season from Vucevic in his on/off-court plus/minus per 100 possessions. He now has an on/off-court plus/minus per 100 below zero this season after the loss to the Grizzlies on MLK Day.

All of this leads to the question, has the Vucevic experiment now officially failed in Chicago?

That’s still hard to say at this moment. It’s easy to overreact to some of the struggles Vucevic had through the first half of the regular season on both ends, especially with the team in the midst of this bad four-game losing streak.

Yet, the jury should be out on that decision at least until the Bulls get back to, or at least close to, full strength in the next few weeks. There is less space for Vucevic to work with, and more for him to do on defense, with key players such as LaVine, point guard Alex Caruso, point guard Lonzo Ball, etc., out for the last couple of games.

The counter to saying that the jury should still be out on Vucevic would be if the front office found a trade deadline deal that could upgrade this roster in any significant manner. If a forward appears on the trade block that could really elevate the Bulls’ title contender status down the stretch this season, it might be worth including Vucevic in the discussion if that is the way to get the deal done.

But saying that the Bulls should ship off Vucevic at the trade deadline next month is a volatile idea at this point. Vucevic has an expensive contract, and is still important to this starting unit, even if he is struggling mightily at times this season.

It would be difficult for the Bulls to find a plethora of takes at the trade deadline if Vucevic was one of the main trade chips involved.

My personal opinion on this matter is that the Vucevic experiment is close to failing for the Bulls. But that decision can’t officially be made until the postseason fate is determined for the Bulls, depending on the role that Vucevic plays in that, or if he’s dished out at the deadline next month.

Vucevic is definitely having one of his worst seasons in terms of counting stats and advanced metrics through the first half of this campaign. He needs to find his stride soon if the Bulls are going to keep him in a pivotal role among their big three down the stretch this season.