The Chicago Bulls need to get worse, and they need to do it soon.
The NBA season is only two months away, and Chicago still has two All-Stars on its roster, a criminal offense for a team trying to rebuild.
With both Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucević still on the depth chart, the Bulls are projected to reach the play-in next season, which would be catastrophic. If that happened, Chicago would forfeit their top-10 protected pick in the loaded 2025 draft.
Moving LaVine remains nearly impossible, but Vucević’s $ 20M per year rate over two years is an easier sell.
The Bulls should give the Los Angeles Clippers a call and offer Vucević on a silver platter.
Vucević would be a great fit for the Clippers. They don’t have any proven centers on the roster other than Ivica Zubac, unless you think Mo Bamba is that guy.
Zubac and Vucević would complement each other nicely, considering they are sort of polar opposites. Vucević would give Los Angeles a certain versatility at the big position that they haven’t had in forever. A breath of fresh air.
Vucević for P.J. Tucker and Terance Mann would make the money work. Tucker and Mann are both on expiring deals, which is excellent for Chicago’s rebuilding needs. Tucker would provide valuable veteran leadership and toughness to a young Bulls locker room, and Mann would improve Chicago’s defense markedly without markedly moving their win needle.
Would Los Angeles so willingly part with Mann? They’d hesitate, but trading him has become much more possible now that they’ve added Kevin Porter Jr. to the fold, who is already expected to compete with Mann for a spot in the starting lineup.
The Clippers would get much better offensively with this trade, and the Bulls would improve their rebuild by moving off one of their two seemingly immovable assets.
It’s difficult to imagine a player in the NBA who is more out of place on their team than Vucević on the current Bulls. Chicago’s executive Artūras Karnišovas along with GM Marc Eversley need to get a deal done for Vucević to make the Bulls palatable this season.
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