Vuc vs. Collins vs. Smith who should start?

[sco]

Zach Collins missed about 3 entire seasons in his early career (19-22), and he’s only 27yo, so there’s an intriguing angle to maybe catching the best stretch of his career on a cheaper extension. Still the fact is that spending high on Cs (whether it’s lotto or FA or costly trades) is often the worst value. Getting them as freebies is the ticket (J. Allen, Gafford, C’s with Porzingis and Horford rd. 2, Bucks Lopez, etc.). Collins is not on that level though.

Maybe AK is playing the long game with Collins trying to give him the Coby contract treatment on his next deal by having the league see him as a bench guy and try to sign him for Smith money.

[HomoSapien]

He’ll play because we have almost no bigs and we still want to trade him.

I would argue that we have two centers on this roster that are better than him.

[League Circles]

Collins could still be here after next season. Vuc definitely won’t be here after next season.

Which is probably greater reason to invest in Collins over Vuc which would be my desired state anyway (not saying you're disagreeing in this assessment).

Yeah, at least certainly next season if Vuc is still here. I'm semi-OK with one last hurrah for Vuc for the rest of this season if needed as a way to maybe harness his short term shooting upside and maaaaybe elevate his trade value, but starting in the fall we should be all about the future core IMO.

[HomoSapien]

This is a tangent, but during the Lakers game (and obviously through the course of the last few seasons) it was clear to me that this team would look really good with an athletic, defensive-minded big. Although Vuc had a nice block on James and that big three in the 4th, there were far too many possessions where he was caught on an island trying to defend James or Reeves one-on-one. Assuming we draft towards the end of the lottery, I'd be very tempted to offer our pick to Utah for Walker Kessler. I think he'd fit beautifully here and would give our defense a huge boost.

[meekrab]

This is a tangent, but during the Lakers game (and obviously through the course of the last few seasons) it was clear to me that this team would look really good with an athletic, defensive-minded big. Although Vuc had a nice block on James and that big three in the 4th, there were far too many possessions where he was caught on an island trying to defend James or Reeves one-on-one. Assuming we draft towards the end of the lottery, I'd be very tempted to offer our pick to Utah for Walker Kessler. I think he'd fit beautifully here and would give our defense a huge boost.

The only reason the first Lakers game was ever close was that Luka torched Vucevic on switches in the first half, at least 3 of his 3 pointers were directly in Vuc's face. If Collins or Smith was in for those minutes it could've been Bronny hours in the 3rd quarter.

[kodo]

If they target Vuc repeatedly like LA was doing, you got to pull him out.

No you have to stop switching.

We didn't switch for most of the game. They couldn't guard the PNR, and switching was a last resort.

Yep. We started out with Vuc doing a normal hedge or drop, and LA started the game with Jaxson Hayes dunking on every possession. 19 points on 9-11 shooting and would have had a lot more if the Bulls didn't change how they played the P&R.

Switching the center and forcing a Luka/Reaves iso was bad but it was still preferable to Hayes scoring at 82%.

The real answer is you just need a better defender out there on the P&R. Or you live with getting lit up but your center is Joker level good on the other end.

[WindyCityBorn]

Collins. He puts up Vuc stats when he gets the minutes while being a much better fit for our new style of play. And he isn’t a turnstile on defense.