Nikola Vučević is used to trade rumors.
In the Chicago Bulls center’s experience, they have a nagging habit of cropping up whenever he starts playing well. Maybe it’s a compliment. Maybe it’s a reminder not to get too comfortable in success. Either way, it doesn’t matter — to Vučević, rumors are meant to be ignored.
Still, it doesn’t surprise him that his renaissance season with the Bulls has elicited a wave of trade proposals and debates among fans eager to see the team’s front office make its first midseason move since trading for Vučević back in 2021. And with a month left before the Feb. 6 trade deadline, Vučević knows this chatter won’t quiet down anytime soon.
“This time of year, it’s part of it,” Vučević told the Tribune. “You can’t get caught up into that stuff. I’ve heard rumors ever since I was in Orlando. Everybody knows it and that’s just how it goes. Everybody online is going to have their opinions.”
Vučević doesn’t shy away from sharing his own opinions. From the start of last season, he was vocal that the Bulls were at the end of their rope. It was the third — and ultimately final — season of an experiment anchored around Vučević, Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan. And from the jump, Vučević expected the front office to shake things up unless the Bulls accomplished a borderline miraculous turnaround.
Although that change ultimately was delayed until the offseason, it didn’t surprise Vučević when the Bulls parted ways with DeRozan and defensive star Alex Caruso over the summer.
“We didn’t succeed with the team we had,” Vučević said. “We didn’t achieve our goals. So we expected change to happen.”
But for Vučević, the aftermath of those decisions felt strange. Although DeRozan and LaVine garnered the most attention, Vučević was the first player the Bulls front office took a swing on back in 2021, uprooting him from a decade in Orlando in an attempt to build a better future for the Bulls.
After the dust settled last summer, it would have been hard not to feel left behind. The Bulls weren’t completely rudderless, but they didn’t have much of a concrete plan for this season.
For a player in Vučević’s position, another season of uncertainty weighed heavily. At 34, he no longer can take a season for granted. And for four years now, he has treaded water with a team that hasn’t moved up or down in the Eastern Conference.
But even in this uneven landscape, Vučević didn’t want to check out. He still felt the roster had enough talent to be competitive, which was motivation enough to fuel him through another season.
And something else shifted in Vučević before the season.
In early September, he came back to Chicago to prepare his son for the start of the school year. That gave him three weeks to reconnect with teammates before training camp. And in that time — during weightlifting sessions, pickup games, lunches and dinners — Vučević found something new to invest in.
Where a veteran player might have seen disorganization in the precariousness of the upcoming season, the youngest players saw opportunity. Deep rotational players such as Dalen Terry and Julian Phillips were hungry to earn more playing time. Rookie Matas Buzelis was eager to show he could become a franchise cornerstone. And Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu were ready to shoulder the mantle of team leadership.
With each day he spent with the younger players, Vučević began to see a new role for himself as an anchor for a group still trying to make its mark on the league.
“When you see something like that, those guys motivated me to help the team along the way,” Vučević said. “I didn’t want to be the guy pouting. That’s not who I want to be. So I just embraced it.”
The shift in tone has been a factor in Vučević’s success in every corner of the court this season. He’s an emotional player. He squabbles with referees, scolds himself in Serbian after misses and shows every ounce of frustration in tough games.
But this season Vučević isn’t allowing those frustrations to seep into his play. He’s a little gentler with himself on the court, a little quicker to forget a mistake. LaVine has mirrored this levity, both veterans finding a new peace in their roles with the Bulls.
Part of this calm confidence is rooted in the offense’s new playing style, which prevents Vučević from feeling stuck on an island — a common theme of prior seasons in Chicago.
“The way we play, the ball is finding me more naturally,” Vučević said. “And it’s not just me. We’re trying to include everyone in the offense this year and trying to make sure we all get the ball, we all get touches. The best games we’ve played are the ones where we had multiple guys scoring in the 20s.”
Vučević can’t say whether that mentality is the cause of his revitalized shooting this season — but it’s certainly bolstering his ability to keep hot streaks alive.
Vučević ranks 16th in the league in 3-point percentage at 43.6% on 163 attempts entering Monday night’s game against the San Antonio Spurs at the United Center. He closely trails LaVine, who is fifth in the NBA at 44.6% on 222 attempts.
And Vučević isn’t slowing down. He cooled off slightly since the start of December, shooting 38.5% behind the arc over the last 13 games. But even that reduced accuracy is better than any of his prior seasons with the Bulls — and would register as his highest 3-point percentage since his All-Star 2020-21 season.
This has, of course, resulted in renewed scouting by opponents as the season winds on. Teams want to take away the pocket — the sweet spot around the elbows where Vučević can thrive as a passer. Defenders are switching earlier, closing out to Vučević harder behind the arc and attempting to force him back into the low post.
But for Vučević, none of this is new. He has been an efficient shooter before and anticipates the adjustments when his 3-point shot is falling with regularity. And that familiarity strengthens the confident composure that is carrying him through the best shooting season of his career.
“It’s all stuff I’ve seen before,” Vučević said. “I just try to make the adjustment, figure out ways to still be efficient on my shot. The big difference this season is that I can actually do it. My team trusts me, I trust myself and we go from there.”
