The Bulls were able to move Zach LaVine before Thursday’s deadline, but they’re having a tougher time dealing center Nikola Vucevic.
Citing multiple sources, The Chicago Sun-Times’ Joe Cowley reports that two separate deals involving Vucevic fell apart on Tuesday. One of Cowley’s sources stressed that the situation remains fluid.
HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto reported earlier on Tuesday that the Lakers and Warriors are among Vucevic’s rumored suitors. It’s not certain whether the two deals the Bulls were trying to put together occurred with those two teams.
Vucevic isn’t the only player the Bulls are looking to move. They’re also fielding trade offers for Coby White and Lonzo Ball, among others. The players they acquired in the LaVine trade with Sacramento and San Antonio — Zach Collins, Tre Jones and Kevin Huerter — are being held out because one or more of them could be attached in a package if a bigger deal materializes, Cowley adds.
Despite the uncertainty, the Bulls defeated Miami, 133-124. on Tuesday. Vucevic, Ball and White were all in the starting lineup and played anywhere from 29 to 33 minutes.
Vucevic has one more year remaining on his contract. He’ll make $21.5MM next season. Ball has an expiring contract, while White has one more year left on his deal.
Head coach Billy Donovan acknowledged that a lot could happen before Thursday’s deadline. The franchise has grown weary of being stuck in mediocrity.
“You’ve got to be able to have a partner in that to make things happen,” Donovan said. “I still think there’s a long process in this quite honestly. You have a few more days left in this (trade deadline) period, you’re going to move into the draft, move into free agency in July, so there’s going to be windows to make these things happen. ’m all for doing what’s best for the organization. All the way from top to bottom everybody felt the same way. We’re kind of in the middle here and we had to make a shift and do something, and that’s been the goal to try and get that done.”
Steven Adams and Landale for Vooch.
Why would Houston want a 34 year old $20 million backup player?
Backup player? Vooch has litteraly been having his best season as a pro. He has been killing it for the Bulls, no idea why more teams are trying to add him
At this point, Vucevic probably holds his greatest trade value as an expiring contract next year. Keep him. No point in going into a full rebuild with the lack of talent coming into the league. The USA isn’t producing talent that is conducive to the rule changes. When the rest of the world has a bad year like last year the draft is trash. The USA pipeline is lacking talent and completely void of depth.
The real decision will be on whether to give Josh Giddey a new deal. Coby White was at his best with the ball in his hands last year when LaVine was hurt. Let Giddey leave (can’t shoot for off the ball, horrible defender). All the guys below were Bulls draft picks except Vucevic. Preserve cap space and wait for a disgruntled star. No need to prioritize having the most lottery ball chances. Prioritize letting the guys you drafted and extended already (White, Williams, Dosunmu) get the bulk of the minutes with last year’s pick Buzelis. Draft ain’t good anyway.
PG Coby White
SG Ayo Dosunmu
SF Matas Buzelis (10-10 last night)
PF Patrick Williams
C Vucevic
Disappointed that the Bulls made the Caruso Giddey trade in the first place but what’s done is done. Wish that the Bulls could miraculously trade Giddey for a protected first round pick.
It was a bad deal. It ended up being made because the Bulls kept trying to get 2 first round picks for Caruso when they should have settled for 1 first round pick in the 20’s.
Caruso is way over-hyped. So much that if he went back to LA, fans would give him a statue.
This is a very deep draft, wtf you talkin about Willis?
This next upcoming draft is absolutely loaded!! I would love to see the Bulls get a guy like Asa Newell from UGA. He would fit perfectly with the Bulls current roster, and it would be alot of fun and entertaining to watch some small ball line-ups with Lonzo Colby White, Lonzo Ball, Ayo Dosunmu/Patrick Williams, Matas Buzelis, and Asa Newell.
Bulls got greedy in their negotiations no doubt. They sold low on LaVine and now want a good haul on the spare parts before an obvious rebuild. What a waste of time.
They needed to get rid of Lavine’s contract – that wasn’t a low sell, but rather a surprise they got his salary out of Chicago.
Vuc is on a nice contract that fits very well for anyone acquiring him.
Vucevic has an okay contract when his 3-ball is going in. It didn’t in January (27 3PT%, 57 TS%). Back at his usual levels of mediocrity.
He needs to be a plus offensive player, not a neutral one, because he’s a negative defender.
20ppg, 10rpg, 3.5apg, and over 80% at the line and 50+ from the floor isn’t too shabby. Especially at $21M per. Shooting 3’s isn’t what he’s paid for, that’s just a bonus when he does.
And he is shooting 40 from 3 as well. Still holding out hope someone will give them a first for him but at this point they should probably just take a couple seconds and move on.
Lavine was putting up solid numbers to get nothing for. I’d rather have him than Butler.
They didn’t get enough, but getting their own 2025 1st rounder back from the Spurs was decent given how much competition there is for the top 10 spots this year.
Agreed. Bulls didn’t sell low. Out of the 29 other teams, there were only a very small number of teams who were interested in LaVine and had things that the Bulls wanted. All these considered, the Bulls did well. Personally, I think that LaVine is an amazing scorer.
Bulls got greedy? Well I hope so. The idea with LaVine was to save money. Check. The idea with Vujevic is to get something good back. They don’t HAVE to move him. They can just run him out there the rest of the year and then summer or next trade deadline. He’s still an excellent player. I hope they’re not in a hurry. now isn’t the time to rush it. Wait for what you want. As for Ball I couldn’t even believe that dumb article about re signing him. Uhhhh No Thanks. Him just take what you can get. Move on. The big piece is gone. The rest just take your time.
So you’re banking on him looking even better next year rather than selling him now to the highest bidder? If now isn’t the time to rush it, when is? You just got rid of the LaVine contract. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. You’re not going to buy your way to a 6 seed this year or next. You just traded for your own pick back even though it was top 10 protected. Vooch and Lonzo do nothing for your rebuild going forward. Especially if you just traded for P-Giddy in hopes he’d be the PG of the next competitive team. Not like there is a shortage of guards on the roster either.
The Bulls have waited years to commit to this rebuild and right when it’s time to pull the trigger, they want to squeeze every drop out of a deal. From the front office that refused to move Demar, Drummond, or Baldy last year for the same reasons.
On top of all of that, every team that’s looking to buy on a 5 is looking for a rim runner (except GS). Vujevic is not that.
“An excellent player”
What is he, the 15th best Center in the NBA when he’s going well?
I’d say a slightly above average starter is an excellent player
By extension, that makes him, roughly, the 15th best center in the world. I’d say that qualifies him as an “excellent player.”
Vujevic is nothing if not consistent. I have no qualms letting him play through next years deadline. He’s been a double-double stretch 5 the whole time he’s been here. He is what he is. I’m not giving him away when for 20 million bucks I can play the long game. So yeah, I have no problem with it. The same teams that are pushing the Bulls to trade him keep saying he’s no good. Then why do they want him so bad?
Agreed. Have to accept Vucevic for what he is. Has a high skill level but not the rim protector type.
Vuc sucks compared to what they are paying for him. The guy has coasted through most of his run as a Bull with a lackluster org around him having selective amnesia to this. MAYBE He’ll be a good player for another team but he learned real fast that the Bulls want the name on the jersey out there, the talent of the player? Not so much apparently. Be mediocre (compared to your pay), collect your check, go home, come back the next year and do it all again. This, like the other Reinsdorf org in Chicago have zero accountability as long as you kiss ‘The Chairman’s ring’
$20M/year ain’t much these days.
Nothing to do with this, BUT
sure looks like KD is on the move. I guess the Warriors talks for Vooch may have gotten halted because Suns said let’s do this?
If the Warriors land KD we all owe Davey an apology. Clearly he’s thinking on a higher dimensional plain than we can even fathom.
KD, Lebron, and reanimated Bill Russell will end up on the Warriors and we’ll all be bowing down to Davey.
What makes you think that they have that much interest in KD? It would create to many holes. And, he rejected GSW once before. It is hard to see an actual fit.
Warriors are looking to make a major move after backlash from Curry/Dray/Kerr said they’re just going to coast.
On top of that, Lakers, Mavericks, Kings, and Spurs just shook up their rosters. Those are the teams the Warriors are in direct competition with the rest of the season.
In my eyes, the three most desperate teams at the deadline are the Heat, Suns, and Warriors. Suns want off of Beal. Heat want off of Butler and Butler wants to go to Ishbia. Beal doesn’t want to play ball? Send KD to Warriors in the same dealand have Beal be the reason that reunion doesn’t happen. He’ll be happy doing exactly what he’s doing now in a no state tax state.
No idea how it shakes out with the Suns being a 2nd apron team. That might as well be witchcraft to me. But im sure with enough teams, the rule benders can find a way.
There are better options.
Every state has you paying state taxes. Politicians in your state have just fooled you into thinking you are not. Or, they have found a way for the Feds to pay for everything. But, you are paying state taxes.
Mmm that’s a tasty nothing burger supreme.
I still say. Vucevic is a nice pickup for Warriors. He makes their front line legit. With Kuminga coming back. They would be legit in playoffs. Thats the trade they should make. They can swing for fences next year. This is a loaded first rd in draft. Resign Wiseman lol……….. I still like him.
You see Buzelis 10/10 24 pts and 2 blocks last night off the bench Al? Weren’t you saying he’a not ready a week ago and needs to be in GLeague, lol smdh
Just saw a tweet from KC Johnson the the Bulls really are extending Lonzo ball. Morons
Shame that Cowley doesn’t know that Collins, Huerter and Tre Jones cannot be added to a trade. They can only be traded one player for another player
They can be included as part of a multi-player package as long as their salaries aren’t added to another player’s for matching purposes.
For instance, the Bulls could send Vucevic and Huerter to the Lakers for Hachimura, Vincent, and Vanderbilt (I don’t think this will happen, just an example). In that scenario, Vucevic’s $20MM salary could be used to match Vincent + Vanderbilt ($21.7MM total) and Huerter’s $16.8MM salary could be used to match Rui’s $17MM. No aggregation necessary from the Bulls’ side, but they’d need to send out more than just Vucevic.
The players the Bulls got can’t be aggregated in another trade this season.
@Hobby916 Yes. My example above isn’t aggregation.
That’s if they do separate trades. You have to trade Huerter for Rui 1 to 1 and then a separate trade with Vuc. Spotrac’s Trade Machine does not let you stack players that way.
@MikeMB They don’t have to be separate trades. If it doesn’t work on Spotrac’s trade machine, Spotrac’s trade machine has it wrong.
Edit: I should clarify that this a matter of semantics, because they’re essentially structured as “separate” trades within one larger trade, as most deals are. It would be negotiated, reported, and announced as a single trade.
Understood!
Bucks,warriors perhaps.
Warriors, Dallas, Pelicans or Memphis is where Vucevic fits
Nobody wants to give them a 1st round pick for him is why he is still with the Bulls.
Apparently the Bears wanted a first round lightly protected pick, my guess is that the Bulls would have gotten a 1st rd heavily protected pick, which would have been good enough, if not for either AK’s pride, or incompetence.
Giddey looked like a starter PG last night. Matas was perfect last night!