The Chicago Bulls have been resistant to sweeping changes to their core group simply for the sake of making them. But they did trade Alex Caruso and DeMar DeRozan during the offseason, and their interest in moving Nikola Vucevic and Zach LaVine is no secret.
So far, the markets for LaVine and Vucevic have been slow-moving.
However, the current setup has seen the remaining veteran duo play as well as they have in recent seasons, and Vucevic even made history in the win over the Milwaukee Bucks.
“Good stat from Bulls PR: Nikola Vučević became 2nd center in NBA history to tally at least 16,000 points and 800 3FGM in a career,” Chicago Sports Network’s K.C. Johnson reported on X on December 28. “Bucks Brook Lopez is other.”
Vucevic is one of 18 active players to achieve the statistical landmark.
Vucevic finished with 23 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists, and 1 steal versus the Bucks.
The performance marked Vucevic’s 19th double-double of the campaign, ninth-most in the NBA as the halfway point of the regular season approaches.
Nikola Vucevic Can Make More History
Vucevic is boasting a 20.7/9.9/3.3 line while slashing .573/.455/.853 through 31 appearances this season. The points are his most since the 2020-21 season when he was an All-Star and was traded to the Bulls from the Orlando Magic before the deadline.
Vucevic’s rebounds are at the lowest they have been since the 2018-19 season.
However, Vucevic’s long-range efficiency is a career-high. Vucevic notably did not shoot threes much to begin his career, attempting 26 total over his first five seasons.
Only 47 players in league history, regardless of position, have accomplished what Lopez and Vucevic have, per Stathead. Vucevic will stand alone if he can maintain a 20 PPG, 9.0 RPG, and 3.0 APG line on .570/.450/.850 efficiency the rest of the way.
Despite his historic pace, there has not been much interest in trading for Vucevic, who is in Year 2 of a three-year, $60 million contract with the Bulls.
The one team rumored to have an interest would have work to do to complete a trade.
Nikola Vucevic’s Strong Season for Bulls Not Sparking Trade Market
“The Suns are said to be interested in Chicago’s Nikola Vučević and would seem to have an obvious pathway to making the Bulls an offer by attaching draft compensation to the contract of Jusuf Nurkić,” The Stein Line’s Marc Stein wrote on December 26.
“The new rules, however, prevent Phoenix from taking back more cash in a trade than it sends out. Nurkić is playing on 2024-25 salary of $18.1 million. Vučević is making $20 million this season. That’s an easy match under the NBA’s longstanding old rules, but the Suns can’t swap Nurkić for Vučević now even if they were willing to attach every ounce of draft capital they possess. They also can’t combine salaries in any trade, which rules out adding a minimum salary to the deal to ensure they exceed Vučević’s $20 million.”
The Suns are $31.4 million into the second luxury tax apron, per Spotrac. They would need to get below that to either swap Nurkic for or combine contracts to land Vucevic from the Bulls.
The NBA trade deadline is on February 6, so a lot can change before the current window closes.
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