The Chicago Bulls are doing everything they can to convince team president Arturas Karnisovas that he needs to sell on his expiring contracts and not buy veteran help to “win” as the Feb. 5 trade deadline nears. On Thursday night, Chicago fell to the Miami Heat by a single possession, 116-113, despite a spirited Ayo Dosunmu rally.
One of the big pieces the Bulls should finally ditch is former two-time All-Star center Nikola Vucevic. The 6-foot-9 USC product, 35, remains an obnoxious ball hog late in games whose lack of defensive acuity costs Chicago wins — even this middling, 23-25 version of Chicago.
Let’s get into it.
Ed Szczepanski-Imagn Images As K.C. Johnson of Chicago Sports Network observes, Vucevic “demonstratively showed teammates how open he has been in the post” by pointing out slots on a greaseboard where he wanted other Bulls to pass to him during a timeout. Vucevic did notch a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double while logging a +9 plus-minus, but he had an abysmal shooting night, going 6-of-18 from the field (1-of-5 from distance). Head coach Billy Donovan played him a team-high 37 minutes — in part because, by the second half, both Jalen Smith and Zach Collins were hurt. Vucevic should still have trade value somewhere, as a jump-shooting big who can pass and rebound. Rival clubs are likely not watching the Bulls too closely, and don’t appreciate how poor a defender or obnoxious a teammate a disengaged Vucevic can be. It’s time for Karnisovas to move on. Although Chicago initially wanted Josh Giddey to suit up for both of its back-to-back games on Wednesday and Thursday, the $100 million point guard felt some tightness in his left hamstring on Wednesday — and ultimately sat out on Thursday, per Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. He had previously missed 11 straight bouts with the same injury in December and earlier this month.“Because of the past injury they want to make sure they can clear the tightness up because I think they worry about it going from one thing to the next,” Donovan said. “I don’t know when he’ll return. There was no strain or a setback, anything like that. It’s just a matter of how long it will take them to remove the tightness where he could just play without it.”
Coby White has addressed the rampant trade chatter surrounding him as the deadline approaches this season, in a conversation with The Chicago Tribune‘s Julia Poe.“You’ve got to always look at it like — it’s good to be wanted, you know?” White said. “But I don’t really know what’s going to happen. I don’t have any clue… I just want to see everybody succeed. Whatever direction they decide to go in or they’re deciding to go in, I want all these guys to succeed. I got drafted here, so I want the organization to succeed. I hope it works out for them, whatever they decide.”
Two-way Bulls point guard Yuki Kawamura was cut by the team during the preseason due to a blood clot. After the Heat game (the first of three Miami battles in four nights for Chicago), Kawamura explained his long, hard road to recovery, per K.C. Johnson.“Honestly, rehab wasn’t easy. It was a long way. I found out I had blood clot before the season started,” Kawamura said. “I felt really bad because I was super excited to play in Chicago. But I’m so happy to be here and super happy to be back on the court.”
Injured 10-time All-Star Milwaukee Bucks power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo is headed to Chicago! Sort of. The two-time league MVP’s family firm, Ante, has invested $21 million in a Windy City apartment building, per Charlie Lankston of Realtor.com. Fans really shouldn’t read anything into this, as the 6-foot-11 “Greek Freak” also procured an apartment building in Brooklyn and some other properties in Wisconsin across the last few months. Buying real estate in Chicago should not be seen as an indicator Antetokounmpo wants to be traded to the Bulls — although, you have to admit he’d look cool in the red and white. He’s on the sidelines for the next four-to-six weeks with a calf strain. Potential Bulls lottery target Jayden Quaintance, a sophomore Kentucky big man, has sat out the Wildcats’ last six games after swelling was discovered in his right knee. That’s the same knee in which he tore his ACL last February, when he was still a freshman at Arizona State. Kentucky head coach Mark Pope provided a fairly ominous status update on the 6-foot-9 prospect, per The Field of 68. Quaintance was actually mocked to the Bulls with the eighth pick in a recent draft exercise from ESPN’s Jeremy Woo. In just four healthy games this season, the former 2025 Big 12 All-Defensive Teamer has been averaging 5.0 points on 57.1 percent field goal shooting and 30.8 percent free throw shooting, plus 5.0 rebounds.“Right now, he’s in full-shutdown mode in terms of his on-court work. We’re doing everything we can,” Pope said. “It’s a little bit of a complicated thing.”
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