After sending Lonzo Ball to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Chicago Bulls’ next move couldn’t be more obvious: Trade Nikola Vucevic and officially end a much-maligned era of basketball in The Windy City.
When the Bulls sent Wendell Carter Jr., Otto Porter Jr. and a first-round pick (which became Franz Wagner) to the Orlando Magic for Vucevic and Al-Farouq Aminu in March 2021, it signaled to the NBA that the franchise was ready to begin a title push.
Vucevic was the second piece of a veteran foursome that VP Basketball Operations Arturas Karnisovas assembled in Chicago.
LaVine was already with the franchise. Ball arrived five months after Vucevic in a deal with the New Orleans Pelicans, which came three days after the Bulls acquired DeRozan in a trade with the San Antonio Spurs.
LaVine and DeRozan are now members of the Sacramento Kings, and Ball will continue his injury-riddled career in Cleveland. Three down, one to go.
Chicago Bulls only have Nikola Vucevic left to trade after Lonzo Ball deal
It was more than eight years ago that the Bulls traded Jimmy Butler and Justin Patton to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Lauri Markkanen, LaVine and Kris Dunn. Butler was forcing his way out of Chicago (the beginning of a relatively painful chapter of the future Hall of Famer’s legacy), and LaVine and Markkanen were a solid return.
But the Bulls never had an inkling of success with LaVine as their centerpiece. The team won 27, 22, 22 and 31 games, respectively, between the 2017-18 and 2020-21 seasons. With the Core Four (and Alex Caruso) together the following year, Chicago briefly held the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, won 46 games and made the playoffs for the first time since 2016-17.
The end of that season, however, was marred by Ball’s major knee injury, which sent the team on a tailspin until it backed into the playoffs and lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round. Three consecutive seasons of Play-In mediocrity followed. DeRozan and LaVine went to Sacramento, Caruso went to Oklahoma City for Josh Giddey and now Ball is in Cleveland.
Karnisovas has admitted defeat on his veteran experiment. The only remaining piece is Vucevic, who, ironically, has been involved in more trade rumors than any other member of the group.
The veteran big man will turn 35 during next season, is on an expiring contract and no longer fits the team’s vision of a versatile lineup filled with long athletes who can run opposing teams to death in transition. In fact, it’s surprising that Ball made his exit from Chicago before Vucevic.
The next step—and in many ways, the final step—of the Bulls’ roster deconstruction is unmistakably clear: send Vucevic to greener pastures.
