Vučević discussion thread. I don't want to but what the heck.

[ThisGuyFawkes]

Yep, Vucevic has been good offensively, but it really hasn't translated to the win column (which I'm personally fine with).

Playing with an actual PG has probably helped his numbers a bit too.

Yeah, I agree with the legit PG comment. But even beyond that, the offense has been much more fluid with passing and cutting. Vuc has been a big beneficiary of that.

[WindyCityBorn]

There are several centers that I would rather have but that's mainly that Vucevic is paid too much for a one dimensional (offensive) game and at his age he's not going to be part of the future even next year's future.They've got to move on from him someday so do it now

Don't bother telling me none of these guys aren't any good, Mr. Perfect Center isn't available. I'd rather have Ayton, Mo Bamba, Jared Allen, Clint Capela, or a few others even if it meant having a 3 headed monster by committee that included Jalen Smith. I don't need the big man to dominate the lane, just a more mobile guy for all the switches the Bulls do.

But the reality is they either get a starter or at least a 24 minute backup for Smith, people who propose trades where the Bulls don't get a center from somewhere are being childish, an imaginary backup 5 isn't around.

Capella and Bamba both hard no.

[WindyCityBorn]

DeRozan was holding Vuc back. Paint is clear now.

[nomorezorro]

derozan used to glower at vucevic and made him shoot 30% on wide-open three point attempts

[GoBlue72391]

DeRozan was holding Vuc back. Paint is clear now.

Ah, so that's why he's suddenly making the same wide open 3s he missed last year and why he's no longer blowing 3 bunnies per game.

[Stratmaster]

DeRozan was holding Vuc back. Paint is clear now.

Ah, so that's why he's suddenly making the same wide open 3s he missed last year and why he's no longer blowing 3 bunnies per game.

No. And yes.

[WindyCityBorn]

DeRozan was holding Vuc back. Paint is clear now.

Ah, so that's why he's suddenly making the same wide open 3s he missed last year and why he's no longer blowing 3 bunnies per game.

It’s more that DeRozan just in the way period. Now Vuc plays inside out instead of being strictly a stretch big. Also the we offense system is just much better. Which is also possible because we don’t have to accommodate DeRozan’s slow style anymore. Zach is giving the same production without the outdated skill set.

[NecessaryEvil]

DeRozan was holding Vuc back. Paint is clear now.

This part

[GuardianEnzo]

On his contract, Vucevic suddenly looks like almost a bargain. For a contender that isn't so undersized and guard-heavy he could really help - I would expect a decent asset (non-lottery first or a viable young big) if we deal him. Which we absolutely should ASAP, because not doing so is a lose-lose. Either he keeps playing great and hurts the tank, or goes into the tank and tanks his value.

[DASMACKDOWN]

Just goes to show you hot fickle the NBA experience is.

Just last year everyone was blasting the front office for giving Vooch that deal. Now it looks like a steal.

I think people need to realize that it isnt easy being a 3rd wheel in an offense and play at a really high level. You are going to look less than. Ask Chris Bosh and Kevin Love. As soon as one of the main cogs left, they returned to their dominant selves.

With that said, the person we really need to move if we are trying to keep our pick, is Vooch.

Losing Vooch would singlehandedly cripple everything about the Bulls and their offense. Far more than Zach.

If you lose Zach, we have plenty of guards to replace someone like him. Even if its not quite as lethal. We have guys that can.

We would be completely decimated without Vooch though. As we would have a Smith, Sanogo lineup. That kills us on how we score, reb etc. As of right now, only Vooch gets us easy baskets consistently.

So props to Vooch as he has played to a level of an allstar so far this season.

[dougthonus]

Just last year everyone was blasting the front office for giving Vooch that deal. Now it looks like a steal.

FWIW, I think it was still a terrible move. It was short sighed and likely to not work well. Last year it was an utter disaster, this year, while we're hoping to keep our pick, it's irrelevant (even though he's playing better). Odds are very high he regresses to the mean given his performance relative to his career.

I think people need to realize that it isnt easy being a 3rd wheel in an offense and play at a really high level. You are going to look less than. Ask Chris Bosh and Kevin Love. As soon as one of the main cogs left, they returned to their dominant selves.

Certainly agree, but Vuc has always been a bad defender and always been inefficient, and he was the #1 option for a long time, and those teams never went anywhere, so it's also really hard being the #1 option. The problem with Vuc is he is a poor defender, high volume, low efficiency player (career wise), and that guy always looks like in the right situation he might work out but never really does work out.

This year, he's a high efficiency high volume guy, but in 14 years, he's beaten the league average only 3 times, so it's just hard to hang your hat on "this is who Vuc is" vs "Vuc is on a heater".

So props to Vooch as he has played to a level of an allstar so far this season.

Certainly great that he's playing well this year, I think we'll have a chance to get him off the roster if he maintains something close to this. That said, I doubt many teams would have him in their top 75 players even at his current level of play.

[League Circles]

Vooch is finally playing up to his skill level ability on offense, but he's still an absolutely atrocious defender which like I always say is half the game. And frankly for a center it's more than half the game. I would say at the moment he's kind of earning his contract maybe I guess but I still want to move him if we can for expirings.

[GoBlue72391]

Just goes to show you hot fickle the NBA experience is.

Just last year everyone was blasting the front office for giving Vooch that deal. Now it looks like a steal.

I think people need to realize that it isnt easy being a 3rd wheel in an offense and play at a really high level. You are going to look less than. Ask Chris Bosh and Kevin Love. As soon as one of the main cogs left, they returned to their dominant selves.

With that said, the person we really need to move if we are trying to keep our pick, is Vooch.

Losing Vooch would singlehandedly cripple everything about the Bulls and their offense. Far more than Zach.

If you lose Zach, we have plenty of guards to replace someone like him. Even if its not quite as lethal. We have guys that can.

We would be completely decimated without Vooch though. As we would have a Smith, Sanogo lineup. That kills us on how we score, reb etc. As of right now, only Vooch gets us easy baskets consistently.

So props to Vooch as he has played to a level of an allstar so far this season.

There's still like 65 games left in the season and it's likely Vuc's current level of play is unsustainable and he'll eventually come back down to earth.

Not to say that he can't or won't still have a good season, he's just not going to shoot nearly 50% from 3 forever.

Re-signing him was still an awful decision.

[sco]

It seems like a confidence thing. I see that he now has confidence in his 3 ball and it seems affect his movement, where before he would hesistate early in the shot, it seems to be more free flowing. Inside, those millions of escaped bunnies he missed seemed to go away. Before, I noticed, especially against shot blockers, he would rush shots at the rim and be off target, he doesn't seem to rush those shots as much. Goes to show that the game is more mental that I think it is. I'd love to know what he did differently this offseason to have such a big impact on his game.

[2weekswithpay]

DeRozan was holding Vuc back. Paint is clear now.

Ah, so that's why he's suddenly making the same wide open 3s he missed last year and why he's no longer blowing 3 bunnies per game.

It’s more that DeRozan just in the way period. Now Vuc plays inside out instead of being strictly a stretch big. Also the we offense system is just much better. Which is also possible because we don’t have to accommodate DeRozan’s slow style anymore. Zach is giving the same production without the outdated skill set.

Vuc's 3-point rate is .302 which would be tied for the second-highest of his career if it sustains. There isn't any significant difference in Vuc's shot distribution per game. Shot distribution for this season vs last season. If you look at the on-off stats, Vuc was slightly more efficient without Derozan in the last 3 seasons. 54.9% TS vs 57.5% TS.

He's taking the same shots he normally took. He just happens to be making them at a Jokic-like efficiency.

[Chi town]

Just goes to show you hot fickle the NBA experience is.

Just last year everyone was blasting the front office for giving Vooch that deal. Now it looks like a steal.

I think people need to realize that it isnt easy being a 3rd wheel in an offense and play at a really high level. You are going to look less than. Ask Chris Bosh and Kevin Love. As soon as one of the main cogs left, they returned to their dominant selves.

With that said, the person we really need to move if we are trying to keep our pick, is Vooch.

Losing Vooch would singlehandedly cripple everything about the Bulls and their offense. Far more than Zach.

If you lose Zach, we have plenty of guards to replace someone like him. Even if its not quite as lethal. We have guys that can.

We would be completely decimated without Vooch though. As we would have a Smith, Sanogo lineup. That kills us on how we score, reb etc. As of right now, only Vooch gets us easy baskets consistently.

So props to Vooch as he has played to a level of an allstar so far this season.

Tend to agree but if we get any defense coming back it would counteract the loss of offense quite a bit. We still have Coby and Zach who are regularly taking over games with their 3 ball.

Vuc would really help the Magic who are by far the worst shooting team in the league. They have their 1st and DEN’s 1st this year.

[FriedRise]

Vooch seems to excel with the faster pace style of play compared to the slow it down. Maybe it's the focus on getting up 3s and quick shots/passes, but I rarely ever see him post up anymore. When he does, it's usually a couple quick dribbles and a hook. And this is with him having more space without DeMar and his defender crowding him in a 5-out offense.

Yes, we all wish his defense would be better (if he would just raise his arms when a shot goes up...), but I don't know if we can fully blame it on him when you've got leaks coming in from all over the place with Coby, Giddey, and Zach hilariously trying to contain the perimeter. We are better at defending 3s now with improvements in both percentage (-3%) and volume (-4.5%), but the flip side is everyone's attacking us at the rim and we can't stop them.

[RSP83]

I was wrong about him. I called out that he's going on a hopeless sharp decline after mediocre showing in the pre-season. Maybe he's no longer playing under pressure this year. I hope we still have a chance to sell high on him before the deadline. Not sure anybody would give up FRP for him though.

[Stratmaster]

It seems like a confidence thing. I see that he now has confidence in his 3 ball and it seems affect his movement, where before he would hesistate early in the shot, it seems to be more free flowing. Inside, those millions of escaped bunnies he missed seemed to go away. Before, I noticed, especially against shot blockers, he would rush shots at the rim and be off target, he doesn't seem to rush those shots as much. Goes to show that the game is more mental that I think it is. I'd love to know what he did differently this offseason to have such a big impact on his game.

When the paint is clogged you feel like you have to rush your shot. Vuc has much more space right now to work 1 on 1 and make a move to get the shot he wants instead of having to shoot before the other 2 defenders crowding the lane come with the help.

[MrSparkle]

The only teams that I can think of that make any tangible trade sense for Vuc are:

- Nuggets: Jokic super sub. We'd have to add a very injury-prone player with bad defense to the building. MPJ for Vuc/Lonzo/Craig. Basically salary relief for DEN, which they need. Younger, high-volume 3P shooting for CHI. Lonzo could be a nice fit in that limited role, if he heals and stays rested up.

- Hornets: the talented Nick Richards seems perpetually injured, so they play forwards at C. Obviously Vuc isn't a guaranteed playoff boost, based on his Bulls impact... but he can excel with LaMelo. But you'd have to get weird with the pick. They owe SAS their 25 lotto-protected pick (or else 26/27 2nds), so Bulls could ask for a 10-14 stipulation (otherwise a 2027 top-10 protected pick). Either way, I just don't see the assets or desire for CHA to give up something good. They can just as easily tank and be in a better place next year.

I'm liking that DEN idea. Might as well become the worst defensive team of all-time, but put up even more 3Ps and pace!