Nikola Vucevic's name has been swirling around the NBA trade rumor mill for at least a calendar year, but Chicago Bulls Executive VP of Basketball Operations Arturas Karnisovas chose not to pull the trigger (again) on a deal to move his starting center this offseason. That was a divisive option to take, but based on Vucevic's hot start in the Bulls' regular-season opener against the Detroit Pistons, Karnisovas may have been right.
This year is Vucevic's 15th in the NBA. He'll turn 35 on Oct. 24. Barring injury, he'll bypass the 1,000 career games played mark before the calendar flips to 2026. All logical signs pointed to trading him while he still had value.
Karnisovas might have made a rare shrewd decision.
Bulls choice to not trade Nikola Vucevic may have been the right one
Vucevic is one of the most skilled offensive centers of the past decade. He has the full arsenal on that end of the floor -- post-ups, floaters, mid-range jumpers, a 3-point stroke, you name it and he likely has it.
But he's never been a particularly agile player, even in his prime when he made two All-Star teams in three seasons (2018-19 and 2020-21). That's kept him from being even an average defender. As he's gotten older, he's become more and more of a sieve. He's consistently targeted in pick-and-rolls, as he's too slow to slide with players on the perimeter, while also providing nothing as a rim protector in drop coverage.
The Bulls have transitioned (no pun intended) from running a half-court heavy offense built around Vucevic and DeMar DeRozan to an up-tempo, run-and-gun style. Chicago finished last season second in the NBA in pace and hopes to play even faster this year. Vooch is an odd fit with this team in several different ways.
But if this year continues the way it started, things might work out OK.
The Bulls were notoriously slow starters in 2024-25, and this year's preseason didn't provide much hope for change. But behind Vucevic's history-making 12-point first quarter, Chicago led 35-19 after 12 minutes. Billy Donovan's squad had 10 assists on its 12 made baskets, shot 57 percent from three and outrebounded the Pistons by 10.
Vucevic nearly outscored the Pistons by himself over the game's first eight minutes and finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds at halftime.
Will this kind of production hold up over the course of an entire season? It's easy to say no, but Vucevic hasn't played fewer than 70 games since the 2018-19 campaign and has averaged a double-double every season since 2017-18. He shot a career-high 40.2 percent from three last year.
Maybe the better question to ask is, will he still be around to help the Bulls make the playoffs for the first time in four seasons, or will his value skyrocket to the point that Karnisovas finally trades him at this year's deadline?