NBA insider: Chicago Bulls 2025 draft marks the end of Nikola Vucevic

“Current starter Nikola Vucevic will turn 35 at the beginning of the season and is entering the final year of his contract at a reasonable $21.4 million. He’d be a good fit on a center-needy contender in need of floor-spacing, rebounding and passing,” Swartz wrote. A trade is not necessarily imminent, but it certainly makes a lot of sense.

But regardless, the future does not include the veteran center, so Chicago must make a choice with that in mind. “If the Bulls trade Vucevic (or even hold on to him one more year), they will need a young center to replace him. Picking at No. 12 overall, Chicago could hope Duke’s Khaman Maluach will fall to them or may eye Maryland’s Derik Queen,” he concluded. 

Chicago is perhaps still not quite good enough to prioritize position over talent, but picking Maluach 12th would almost certainly be taking the best player available, and Queen would be safe in that range as well. Others might not be, so there’s certainly a chance the Bulls don’t pick Nikola Vucevic’s replacement.

However, this is a very safe prediction. The Bulls need a center because they aren’t going to extend Vucevic. They might not even make it to the trade deadline with him on the roster, which would probably be wise for a team stuck in the play-in region of the Eastern Conference.