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After the upcoming season, Nikola Vucevic will enter the last year of his four-year/$100 Million contract and become a free agent. But Chicago has recently come out and is exploring the option of giving an extension offer to Nikola Vucevic. The Bulls and Nikola Vucevic must get a deal done before June 30, 2023, or else Vucevic will be a free agent. There are positives and negatives of Vucevic, but most fans are done with Vucevic after his first entire season in the Windy City. Last season, Vucevic averaged a double-double of 17.6 points, 11.0 rebounds, and 3.2 assists in 73 games. Here are the pros and cons of giving Nikola Vucevic a contract extension.

Pros

Available and not injury prone

Let’s start with the positives; first, you can count on Vucevic to play and be available and not be injury prone. The last time Vucevic got a significant injury was a fractured second metacarpal on his left hand that cost him 23 games during the 2017-18 season while he was playing for the Orlando Magic. During Vucevic’s Magic career, he was healthy for 84.4% of the 700 games. Last season, he missed six games due to being in the COVID Protocols, one game (Ankle), and another game because of knee soreness.

Any other good centers available in the market?

So far in Vucevic’s Bulls career, he has averaged a double-double of 18.7 points and 11.2 rebounds in 99 games. But how many centers will give a double-double every night? Not a lot of centers. Only 12 centers last season averaged a double-double. Vucevic is a reliable center, but can Chicago get an upgrade at the starting center position? They could, but If the Bulls want to improve their record each season, Vucevic must be on the team or a top 10 center in the NBA.

There aren’t many stars centers that will be free agents after the upcoming season. But the few players that will be free agents include Myles Turner, Al Horford, and Steven Adams. Though, these players might get an extension contract like Vucevic. Horford and Adams are veterans who know their job during the regular and, most importantly, during the postseason. Horford was a significant factor in the Celtics’ run to the 2022 NBA Finals but lost to the Golden State Warriors.

Cons

Offensive Rebounds and Defense

Every player will have positives but will also have negatives. Let’s see how Vucevic had many defensive breakdowns and didn’t have as many offensive rebounds as he hoped. Vucevic averaged 1.9 offensive rebounds per game, the third lowest in his NBA career. That didn’t, with Chicago averaging 11.1-second chance points per game, the third worst in the NBA behind the Dallas Mavericks (11.0) and the Los Angeles Clippers (10.9).

Once the Bulls got out to a hot start last season, many teams started noticing the biggest weakness of the Bulls, which was their pick-and-roll defense. Of course, you can’t point the fingers at certain players, but the most significant factor of their weakness was Vucevic. Early in the season, Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso fought around the screens, but the problem became apparent once both of those guys went out with injuries. When Vucevic didn’t step up on the pick-and-roll, typically, that allowed open shots or an easy layup for the opponent. When Vucevic was playing well, he would play excellent pick-and-roll defense. That was one of the reasons for Bulls fans started to question whether or not Vucevic should not receive the extension.

Three point shooting against contenders

Nikola Vucevic in 21 against the top 4 teams in each conference; he shot below 26% from three in those 14 games. When Vucevic got hot from three, Chicago won many games, which includes their only win in the 2022 postseason in the first round against the Milwaukee Bucks. In game 2, Vucevic shot 4-for-8 from three, which resulted in 24 points to help Chicago tie up the series at 1-1. But Vucevic won’t be able to shoot above 33% from three for the rest of the series, and Chicago lost the next three games.

Check out this article on the Chicago Bulls 2022-23 Schedule

After going over the positives and negatives of Vucevic, I believe Chicago should extend his contract for one more year after the 2022-23 season. Vucevic will most likely still earn $20-25M per season in his new contract. But he has not deserved a $30M per season type of contract. After the 2023-24 season, the Bulls front office will know who will be on the next good Bulls team and who they will move on. Note, after the 2023-24 season, a couple of players will become free agents, including star DeMar DeRozan.

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