Former two-time All-Star center Nikola Vucevic has seen better days than his last two years with the Chicago Bulls.
The 6-foot-10 big man submitted underwhelming individual shooting seasons for a pair of non-playoff squads in 2022-23 and 2023-24, although he posted solid counting stats. Across an average of 79 regular season games for the past two years, he averaged 17.8 points on .501/.323/.829 shooting splits, 10.8 rebounds, and 3.3 assists.
Vucevic’s lackluster 3-point shooting, combined with his poor defense and demand for the ball (often to the detriment of his team’s offense) have made him far less effective than he was during his halcyon days with the Orlando Magic.
Chicago brass was remarkably stubborn in essentially doing very little to improve the team from its middling on-court results, despite the club fielding a fairly veteran-laden core of Vucevic, All-Star small forward DeMar DeRozan, shooting guard Zach LaVine, guard Alex Caruso, and young point guard Coby White.
DeMar DeRozan #11 of the Chicago Bulls tries to pass as Donte DiVincenzo #0 of the New York Knicks defends during the first half at Madison Square Garden on April 14, 2024 in New York City. DeRozan’s now-former teammate Nikola Vucevic reflected on how his departure will impact the team in 2024-25.
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The Bulls went 41-41 in 2022-23 and 39-43 in 2023-24, finishing as the Eastern Conference’s No. 9 seed in both instances. Without frontcourt depth or defense or enough volume 3-point shooting, Chicago couldn’t advance beyond the play-in tournament either year.
Finally, DeRozan had had enough.
After the Bulls traded 30-year-old Caruso, the Bulls’ best defender, to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for 21-year-old point guard Josh Giddey (but no draft equity), a poor defender, the writing was on the wall: Chicago was, reluctantly, rebuilding.
DeRozan departed as a free agent this summer, inking a three-year, $73.9 million agreement with the Sacramento Kings as part of a sign-and-trade.
Read more: Can DeMar DeRozan Finally Win a Championship After Signing with Kings?
During a new interview with hoops insider Marc Stein on his Substack, Vucevic unpacked how the team would adjust to the absence of DeRozan in 2024-25.
“It’ll definitely be a little bit of an adjustment just because obviously we all know what he brought to us on the court. But I think also just his presence in general. DeMar was really liked and obviously very well respected in the locker room … kind of the guy that everybody gravitated towards and was always the storyteller of all these veteran stories and all these things and the young guys really gravitated towards that.”
DeRozan and Vucevic both played alongside each other in college with the USC Trojans during the 2008-09 collegiate season. DeRozan declared for the 2009 NBA Draft. He was selected by the Toronto Raptors with the ninth pick.
Vucevic stayed in college until the 2011 NBA Draft. He was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers with the No. 16 pick. Vucevic, who had been acquired by the Bulls at the 2020-2021 trade deadline, had played a part in recruiting DeRozan to sign with the Bulls as a free agent in the summer of 2021.
“For me also, obviously, we had our relationship since college but it was interesting. We were kids then and both 18 at that time. DeMar actually might have been 19, but, anyways, no family then and now… we’re both grown-ups with families, with kids, with responsibilities,” Vucevic reflected. “So it was very special for me to play alongside him for those three years. I wish we had more team success together, but the thing that I definitely cherish is the relationship we were able to build and all the off-court stuff we were able to share together.”
Read more: Bulls All-Star Open to Finishing Career in EuroLeague
