What the Chicago Bulls should do with the Nikola Vucevic situation

Were the Chicago Bulls fleeced in the Nikola Vucevic trade?

Here’s a reminder of the trade details:

Chicago Bulls receive: Nikola Vucevic, Al-Farouq Aminu

Orlando Magic receive: Otto Porter Jr, Wendell Carter Jr, 2021 first-round pick (top-4 protected), 2023 first-round pick (top-4 protected)

There are a couple of key points to make about this. Primarily, I don’t think either team lost this trade – I think at the time, and again a year later, the trade made perfect sense for all parties.

For Bulls fans complaining that Wendell is playing so well now, you’ve probably only seen him in the 2 or 3 games against Chicago where he admittedly did play well. However, even in his worst career season this year, anchoring the frontcourt alone, Nikola Vucevic is outplaying Wendell Carter. Wendell is averaging 15 and 10 and shooting 1 percent better from three. Not to mention, he’s playing on a team with zero expectations.

If anyone’s saying that Vucevic’s stats are empty calories, what do they make of Wendell Carter’s numbers? At least the Bulls are winning. Sometimes players need fresh starts to jump-start their development again, and I think in Carter’s case this was definitely the case. Arturas, Marc, and Billy gave him 18 months to become that guy here and by the end, it was clear that his development timeline was different than the one the Bulls saw themselves on.

Secondly, remember the Otto Porter contract everyone had loathed? The Magic took that on too. Why? Because they’re a rebuilding team with no expectations to win now. With all the talent they have now out of fleecing the Bulls, a 21 season and finishing last in the Eastern Conference sure seems like a nice reward.

Lastly, and most importantly. Vucevic helped us get DeMar! Outside of their obvious connection from USC, it was the fact that DeMar publically said it was Vucevic who had got on the phone with him to pitch Chicago as a destination. Additionally, who was one of the pieces that got sent to San Antonio with Thaddeus Young for DeMar? That would be Al-Farouq Aminu, i.e., the second piece that came back to the Bulls in the Vucevic trade.

In general, it’s easy to look at these moves in a vacuum and cherry-pick a couple of good games from our former players to create a narrative that the Bulls were fleeced and lost the trade, but in this case that ignores the reality that not only has Vucevic (in his worst season since becoming an all-star) outplayed everyone the Magic got in return but that the trade itself kicked start an entire offseason of moves that saw the Chicago Bulls land back in the playoffs for the first time in five years.