Ranking the 6 players involved in Chicago Bulls’ trade for Nikola Vucevic

On March 25, 2021, the Chicago Bulls made a blockbuster trade, attempting to bring the team back into relevance. Chicago sent Wendell Carter Jr., Otto Porter Jr., and two first-round picks to the Orlando Magic for Nikola Vucevic and Al-Farouq Aminu.

Vucevic’s tenure with the Bulls has been filled with ups and downs, with his numbers taking a dip from his last 2-and-a-half seasons with the Magic. As a Bull, Vooch has averaged 18.2 points and 11.1 rebounds per game on 49% shooting from the field and 34% from deep. With Orlando, he was a two-time All-Star and averaged 21.4 points and 11.4 rebounds per game on 49% shooting and 37% from long range. This drop in stats is understandably a result of Vucevic’s role going from the top option to the second and then third scorer with the Bulls. However, the Bulls’ lack of success compared to expectations has brought about questions of whether the All-Star center was worth the destruction of the Bulls’ future.

Now that each draft pick has conveyed from the trade that brought Nikola Vucevic to the Bulls, there are clear rankings of each player involved.

These questions have especially come about during this offseason, where the Bulls are in a spot that no NBA franchise wants to be in: a mediocre squad with very few future prospects. The Bulls had to trade a couple second-round picks for the 35th overall selection, which turned out to be Julian Phillips, a forward out of Tennessee. Phillips was Chicago’s only pick in the draft, as the Bulls did not make a splash that fans had hoped for.

Even though the Bulls did not have a first-round pick in the draft, the Orlando Magic were able to use the final pick in the Nikola Vucevic trade to select Jett Howard with the 11th overall pick. This means that the trade has finally been realized, and the Bulls ended up sending over picks that turned out to be Howard and Franz Wagner, as well as Carter and Porter. The Orlando Magic have built a really solid young core, and this trade was a big reason why. Wagner and Carter are two of their key existing players, and they complement former number one pick Paolo Banchero extremely well. New draftees Anthony Black and Jett Howard are poised to contribute from day one, and the Magic also possess excellent assets to bring the team to contender status.

With the trade finally completed, the six players’ rankings are clear.

6. Al-Farouq Aminu

The Chicago Bulls received Al-Farouq Aminu from the Orlando Magic as an addition to Vucevic, but he did not play a meaningful role on the court with the team. Aminu appeared in just 6 games and scored 9 total points towards the end of the 2021 season. His career was on a decline at this point, as he played 35 total games over 1.5 seasons with the Magic and averaged 5 points and 5 boards per game. This was a drop from the 9.5 points and 7.1 rebounds per game he averaged in four seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers.

Aminu then came to the Bulls, where he was traded to the San Antonio Spurs less than five months later for the Bulls to acquire DeMar DeRozan. Aminu was then waived by the Spurs, effectively ending his NBA career. Although his time with the Bulls was short-lived, he will be remembered as being part of the first major trade that the Chicago Bulls made in the 2020s, as well as the first one that Arturas Karnisovas made during his tenure.

5. Otto Porter Jr.

Otto Porter’s time with both the Bulls and the Magic was more eventful than Aminu’s, but it was also for just a short time. Porter was acquired by the Chicago Bulls in 2019 in exchange for Jabari Parker, Bobby Portis, and a second-round pick. Porter was coming off of a max contract extension he signed in 2017, which was for four years and $106 million. This turned out to be another bad trade for the Chicago Bulls, as they gave up Bobby Portis, who turned out to be a vital piece in the Milwaukee Bucks championship run as well as their dominance in the Eastern Conference over the last few years.

In Porter’s time with the Bulls, he was underwhelming. He averaged just 12.5 points and 5 rebounds per game in just 54 appearances across 2.5 seasons. Porter’s tenure was marred with injuries, and the Bulls needed to offload his large contract, and the Vucevic trade was a good way to do that.

Porter also was with his new team for a short time, also changing teams that next season. He went to the Warriors on a $2.4 million veteran minimum contract, where he played 63 games and played a sizable role in the Dubs championship run, including a start in Game 6. Porter is now on the Toronto Raptors, where he suffered a season-ending foot injury in January.

4. Jett Howard

Jett Howard has not played a minute in the NBA, but his potential alone is exciting for the Orlando Magic. The 6’8″ guard/forward played one season with Michigan, the alma mater of his father and coach, Juwan Howard. At Michigan, Howard averaged 14.2 points per game and was named to the All-Big Ten Freshman First Team.

Jett will now suit up with the team that his father played for during the 2003-04 season, looking to follow in his footsteps and set himself on a path to become an All-Star. Howard’s strengths lie in his size and shooting ability. The 20 year old has tremendous size for a shooting guard and has the versatility to play the small forward as well. He shot 36.8% from deep in his freshman year, and this was on 7.3 three-point attempts per game. This solid shooting percentage on high volume is an incredibly encouraging sign for the Magic, as Howard will bring much needed shooting to an Orlando roster that was 25th in 3PM last season.

A few things that Howard will have to improve as he comes up to the NBA include his aggressiveness on offense and his defensive play. Howard did not do much damage off the dribble in college, which was concerning considering his physical prowess at his position. Additionally, he struggled on defense and was not adept at crashing the boards, averaging just 2.8 rebounds per game despite his size.

Regardless of these downsides, Howard has shown his ability as a scorer, including his 34 point burst against Iowa in January:

Howard showed his ability as a scorer, seemingly making every shot he put up. If Howard can tap into this scoring in the NBA, he will be able to make a strong career for himself.

3. Wendell Carter Jr.

Wendell Carter Jr. was selected 7th overall by the Chicago Bulls in the 2018 NBA Draft, and the Bulls had hoped that he would be their center for the future. He was with the Bulls in maybe their second worst era since the days of Michael Jordan, posting an abysmal 40-79 record with the team. Carter was poorly utilized by the Bulls, and he averaged 10.8 points and 8.1 rebounds per game in Chicago, shooting 50.9% from the field and 24.1% from long range. When the Bulls decided to go after Nikola Vucevic, they realized that they did not need Carter on the team, and he was young enough and had the potential to be a strong trade asset. This led him to be a key player in the Vucevic trade, and he seems to have found a home in Orlando.

Over the last two seasons, Wendell Carter Jr. has improved his numbers with the Magic, averaging 15.1 points and 9.6 rebounds per game while shooting 52.5% from the field and 34.2% from three. Carter has improved in every stat category except blocks per game, and he has shown that he is a really solid starting center while becoming a key player in the Orlando Magic core. Carter has shown his ability to make winning plays by scoring inside, shooting well from deep, and crashing the boards. This actually led to wins, including this game winner against the Detroit Pistons:

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Carter Jr. has developed into the player that the Bulls had hoped he would be, and he is still only 24 years old. When analyzing this trade, Wendell Carter and Nikola Vucevic have largely become comparable players, and this is not even including the trajectory that both big men are on considering their career progression.

2. Nikola Vucevic

Nikola Vucevic was the target of this blockbuster trade, as a two-time All-Star with the Orlando Magic. Vooch helped lead the Chicago Bulls to their first playoff appearance since 2017, where they would eventually lose in 5 games to the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round. Since coming to Chicago in 2021, he has shown both his strengths and weaknesses, at times looking like his all-star self. However, there were points in this past season where it looked like Andre Drummond would be a better fit as the starter, even though that never actually happened. One of the key reasons for Vooch’s poor play as a Bull was his struggles from long range. In his last 1.5 seasons with the Magic, Vucevic shot over 40% from three-point range, but this did not fully transfer over to his time in Chicago, as he is shooting just 34% from deep.

While Vooch has struggled from distance, he has been a beast in the paint, with most of his best games revolving around dominance inside. This was shown in his career high 43 point showing against the Golden State Warriors in January:

Vucevic’s contract is now expiring, and he is now an unrestricted free agent in this offseason. The Bulls have an important decision to make here, as they can re-sign their center, do a sign-and-trade, or let him walk without receiving anything in return. Vucevic is technically eligible for a 4-year, $118 million deal, but word around the league is that the Bulls are targeting a 3-year, $65 million contract.

This would be an interesting move for the Bulls, as they would have to properly utilize Vooch, which is something they have not done in his 2+ years here. If the Bulls choose to re-sign Vucevic, they need to fully commit to him and refuse to keep him on the perimeter, where he is less effective. Otherwise, the Chicago Bulls need to do a sign-and-trade for either draft picks or a young player in order to start retooling the roster.

1. Franz Wagner

The best player to come out of this Bulls-Magic trade is 21-year-old Franz Wagner. Wagner was selected with the 8th overall pick in 2021, and he has quickly become the second-most valuable asset that the Orlando Magic have to offer, behind Paolo Banchero.

Wagner is a ridiculous offensive weapon, averaging 18.6 points and 3.5 assists per game on 48.5/36.1/84.2 shooting splits in just his second season in the NBA. The Michigan product is a 6’10” forward that is remarkably agile and has tremendous basketball IQ. Going into the draft, Wagner projected to be a glue guy that would make the right plays on offense, but he was able to develop at a rapid pace into the Magic’s second scoring option. He has shown that he is a 3-level scorer, being able to score the ball from everywhere on the court and in a variety of ways.

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Wagner has shown his ability to use his size and agility against smaller defenders to get to the rim at will and consistently score. He has also been able to shoot the ball well from deep, adding to his lethal offensive abilities.

As the Bulls-Magic trade finally settles, it is clear that the Magic came away with a better deal. Orlando received key players that are setting them up for the future, while the Bulls received a really good center but have not used him properly and have risked their future for little payoff. The key here is that the Bulls need to take this as a learning experience and be wary of mortgaging their future, unless it is for a superstar that can bring the Bulls to the next level.