The Bulls have set an asking price for Nikola Vucevic

The Chicago Bulls have reportedly set a price for one of their key trade chips.

According to The SteinlineArturas Karnisovas and Co. hopes to add draft compensation in deal for Nikola Vucevic. The big man is putting together one of the best seasons of his career, and he remains readily available ahead of the 2024-25 trade deadline.

“After failing to extract any draft compensation from Oklahoma City in its Alex Caruso-for-Josh Giddey trade in June, Chicago is said to be looking for a first-round pick to part with center Nikola Vucevic, who has had a tremendous season offensively. The two-time NBA All-Star is averaging 21.0 points and 9.8 rebounds per game. game while shooting a whopping 58.7% from the field and 47.4% on 3-pointers.“, wrote Marc Stein and Jake Fischer.

Considering Vucevic’s All-Star level production, this feels like a reasonable request. Rarely do you get a big man to put up those numbers for anything less than a first-rounder. Nevertheless, we already have reason to believe that the Bulls have been met with laughter.

What can the Bulls get for Nikola Vucevic?

Only six players this season are averaging at least 21.0 points and 9.0 rebounds on 50.0 percent shooting from the field. Nikola Vucevic is one of those players, joining superstar names like Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Karl-Anthony Towns, Domantas Sabonis and Anthony Davis, according to NBA Stats.

While there is a lot of basketball left in this season, these stats underscore the elite class Vucevic has found himself a part of this season. Add in the fact that he’s also shooting 47.4 percent from three (only Jokic shoots better among that group), and the veteran undoubtedly feels like the kind of contributor who could help a contender.

The Bulls shouldn’t be mocked for requesting a first-round pick in exchange for that level of production. I’m also assuming we’re talking about something like a Top 10 protected first rounder as opposed to a completely unprotected pick. Does his $21.0 million owed next season hurt his trade value a bit? Sure. Many winning teams will prefer to add an expiring contract. But it’s also not a ridiculous amount of money in today’s NBA, especially for someone doing what Vucevic is currently doing. Not to mention, a team could always look to use his mid-sized, expiring deal in their own trade next season.

Still, we haven’t been given any reason to believe that anyone will meet this first round offering price yet. An earlier report from this month had an executive putting Vucevic’s value at a pair of second-round picks. We’ve also heard recently that there remains little interest in Vucevic and Zach LaVine, and that Chicago’s price tag for both is too high. So while the Bulls might covet a first round pick ??? and that might sound reasonable??? it might not matter if the market stays as it is.

The hope for Chicago is that teams start to change their minds as more players come off the board and the reality of the trade deadline sets in. We certainly can’t rule this out, especially if Vucevic shows little sign of slowing down. But the fact that center is one of the deeper positions in the league and teams don’t like to spend heavily on big men, there is a world where teams stick together and keep Vucevic’s value pretty low.

If you’re the Bulls, though, you’re not necessarily in a hurry. While you want to stay in the mix for a potential Top 10 draft pick, you also want to maximize the value of your players. They still have just under two months before the trade deadline, so playing hardball is something they can afford.