The Chicago Bulls should try these 3 Nikola Vucevic trades

The Chicago Bulls could trade Nikola Vucevic to the Oklahoma City Thunder

One franchise that has never shied away from making deals in recent years is the Oklahoma City Thunder. Sam Presti has been a wizard of sorts, accumulating picks on top of picks for a few seasons now. If the Bulls want to try to take advantage of a trade-happy organization, this would be it.

Trading Vucevic to the Thunder would give them an expiring contract to open up even more space the following summer. But, it would require Oklahoma City to give back a player with a decent enough salary so that not all of their cap space is taken up from Vucevic’s last year.

In this situation, the Thunder would trade veteran big man Derrick Favors to Chicago. He was a guy who had been mentioned in trade rumors recently, too, so dealing Favors makes sense for the Thunder. Favors also gives the Bulls another depth piece in the front court. His presence would be far greater than that of a Tony Bradley or Tristan Thompson.

Favors’ contract expires after next season as well, and he’s due over $10 million for the 2022-2023 season — a reasonable salary.

The Bulls would deal Vucevic and a future second-round pick in exchange for Favors and the Thunder’s pick at no. 30 overall. Oklahoma City still has two picks inside the lottery which they could use to continue building their roster. And, who knows, maybe they decide to keep Vucevic for the long-term. Trading a late-first rounder in the deal would signal that he very well could be part of their future plans.