Chicago Bulls: 4 biggest winners from the Nikola Vucevic trade

No. 2: Zach LaVine

Things sure look different for Zach LaVine now compared to last year’s NBA trade deadline. The Bulls were led by GarPax, their asleep-at-the-wheel executive duo, and a disaster of a head coach in Jim Boylen. Now, an EVP who knows what he’s doing in the form of Karnisovas and a head coach with plenty of playoff experience in Donovan helm the ship.

Vucevic wasn’t just a gift for LaVine, but he was mostly for LaVine. While the Bulls’ star has shown no desire to be traded elsewhere, one never knows when that inclination may present itself so staving that off before the urge begins is a big win for the organization. Now LaVine doesn’t need a trade to make the playoffs; he can do it at home with the Bulls.

No. 1: Nikola Vucevic

Ultimately, the biggest winner of all is the player who was freed from a no-win situation with the Orlando Magic. With Nikola Vucevic, the Magic were too good to really bottom out, at least until they were ravaged by injuries, but they weren’t good enough to make any kind of run. Two straight playoff appearances for the Magic are nice and all, but there’s no upside there.

This trade to the Bulls doesn’t represent any kind of championship upside at the moment, but it’s a new lease on life. It represents a fresh chance to compete for at the very least a higher seed than the back-to-back eight seeds the Magic got, and it frees him of what will be an arduous rebuild for his now-former team.