The Los Angeles Lakers are hoping to have a competitive run in the 2025 NBA Playoffs, but this team is very much in transition. They just entered the Luka Doncic era with a midseason trade for the Slovenian superstar, but they’re yet to add the right pieces around Doncic and LeBron James to be realistic title contenders. The priority this summer will be to add a full-time center next to Doncic.
The team tried acquiring Mark Williams but the trade was rescinded after the Charlotte Hornets‘ center failed a medical. They weren’t linked to anyone else given the trade was rescinded after the trade deadline had ended, so they’ll have a whole host of new candidates to target in the summer.
Bleacher Report has suggested that the center the Lakers target this summer comes from the Chicago Bulls – former All-Star Nikola Vucevic.
Trade Details
Chicago Bulls Receive: F Rui Hachimura, G Shake Milton, 2025 second-round pick
Los Angeles Lakers Receive: C Nikola Vucevic
This trade is interesting but will be one that many Lakers fans will find hard to swallow. Hachimura has thrived since Anthony Davis was traded away until an untimely injury. In addition, Vucevic might not be the right mold of the center needed next to a player like Luka Doncic or LeBron James.
Lakers Need To Look At Better-Fitting Options
In a vacuum, there really might be no better available center on the trade market than Nikola Vucevic. He’s averaging 18.8 points and 10.2 rebounds for the Chicago Bulls this season while shooting 38.6% from three. He has revitalized his career by becoming a legitimate stretch five, who could make a huge impact on the right contender with his aggressive rebounding and scoring touch.
Vucevic’s skill set is exactly what the Lakers don’t need right now. They have plenty of offensive talents on their roster and don’t need another one at center. They need a role player who’ll do the little things to maximize the winning margins for the franchise. Vucevic will be a huge help on the glass, but won’t be an elite rim protector and be a weakness on the perimeter.
Doncic excels with pick-and-roll specialists, as explosive centers who can catch lobs always succeed alongside Luka. Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II proved this fact last season, and Jaxson Hayes is playing the best stretch of basketball in his career after the acquisition of Doncic.
Given we know the Lakers are willing to pay a high price for a franchise center, exploring an option like Nic Claxton might be better than the 34-year-old Vucevic. Losing Hachimura as a perimeter option will also be a major blow and might unsustainably increase the workload of both LeBron James and Dorian Finney-Smith.
If they’re making a trade for a center taking over $20 million in salary cap space, doing it with a proven pick-and-roller who’s an elite rim protector will be a much better option than the slow-footed and offensively skilled Vucevic.
The Bulls Have Little Incentive To Make This Deal
If the Bulls decide to move on from Nikola Vucevic, it will likely be for a collection of future assets. When they acquired Josh Giddey instead of picks for Alex Caruso, many could argue that it was a bet on the then-21-year-old Giddey. Hachimura is turning 27 years old and has proven his worth as a rotational NBA forward, but not as a potential future star.
He’s averaging 13.3 points and 5.2 rebounds this season. The Bulls really don’t have to populate their books with a player like Hachimura, especially when they already have players like Patrick Williams on their roster.
It’s not a win-now play nor does it make them better for the future, so it’s very much a deal for the sake of making a deal. They could easily get something more valuable if they publicly shopped Vucevic on the market.
There are many teams in the NBA who would value a center like Vucevic for a win-now project. The Lakers could use him as well because of their absolute lack of center play, but they aren’t the best-suited destination for the center. As a result, we do think this trade could be realistic but one that fans would turn on instantly.
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