Resigning Vucevic already appears to be a bad choice made by the Bulls.
The Chicago Bulls had to make some difficult choices last summer on which players they could afford to keep around after a staggering nine of their teammates from the previous season entered free agency. The Bulls persuaded Andre Drummond to take his player option and signed Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu to incredibly team-friendly contracts and all of these decisions are already looking very good in hindsight.
Nevertheless, Nikola Vucevic, arguably Chicago’s most contentious summer acquisition, hasn’t yet lived up to the expectations of his huge contract. The Bulls had anticipated that Vucevic, who inked a three-year, $60 million agreement, would continue to be a vital member of this squad at center.
Re-signing Vucevic when the Bulls were clearly in need of a rebuild — or at the very least, a retool — frustrated a great many fans this summer. Still, when compared to the deals other players signed in free agency, Nikola’s contract didn’t look all that bad if he could continue playing at the level he did in 2022-23.
It appears that he was unable to maintain his current level of performance after all. This season, Vucevic’s efficiency numbers have drastically decreased. His field goal percentage has dropped five percentage points, and his already-mediocre three-point percentage has dropped an incredible 7.5% down to 27.5%, although he is averaging almost the same number of points, rebounds, and assists as he did a year ago.
Vucevic currently holds the worst true shooting percentage of his career since his rookie season. Already 33 years old and a dozen years into his NBA career, we have very little reason to believe he’s going to be making any significant improvements any time soon.
The Bulls could have simply not re-signed Nikola Vucevic and started Andre Drummond instead. pic.twitter.com/iRu1gD6aOT
— Hoop Informatics (@HoopInformatics) February 9, 2024
For many years to come, the Bulls will regret extending Nikola Vucevic.
Since the summer, I have had my doubts about the choice to re-sign Vucevic, but nothing makes it clearer than the performance of the team against the Cavaliers last night. Vucevic reacted by scoring just 9 points on an embarrassingly low 4-for-16 shooting clip and getting the lowest plus/minus of any player on either team, right when the Bulls could have used him to have a huge game.
Rather than winning a truly required game, the Bulls lost to an opponent from the Eastern Conference in Orlando earlier in the week. Chicago finishes with a 26-29 record and doesn’t appear to be any closer to winning it all than they have during the previous two years.
To top it all off, this new Vucevic contract will drag Chicago down for years to come, just as the Bulls were about to be released from the financial weight of Lonzo Ball’s contract. Wendell Carter and Daniel Gafford, two former Bulls centers, are helping other teams succeed, but Chicago will have to pay a 35-year-old traffic cone $20 million a year.
Coby White and DeMar DeRozan are watching film of White’s pass through Vucevic’s hands for that late TO. They’ve rewound the play 4 times on a laptop.
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) February 15, 2024
Rather than winning a truly required game, the Bulls lost to an opponent from the Eastern Conference in Orlando earlier in the week. Chicago finishes with a 26-29 record and doesn’t appear to be any closer to winning it all than they have during the previous two years.
To top it all off, this new Vucevic contract will drag Chicago down for years to come, just as the Bulls were about to be released from the financial weight of Lonzo Ball’s contract. Wendell Carter and Daniel Gafford, two former Bulls centers, are helping other teams succeed, but Chicago will have to pay a 35-year-old traffic cone $20 million a year.
