USC Men's Basketball: Ex-USC Star Discussed Role With NBA Club Before Extending
Former All-Pac-10 USC Trojans center Nikola Vucevic, who blossomed into a two-time All-Star while with the Orlando Magic, signed a surprisingly robust three-year, $60 million extension with his current club, the Chicago Bulls, over the summer.
The 32-year-old recently spoke with Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times about his decision to return to Chicago.
“Out of the three of us [Vucevic, DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine], I’m the one that has sacrificed the most from an individual [standpoint]. That’s why I feel like the people that have been critical of me really don’t understand how basketball works, what it takes for us to function as a group.
Before extending with the Bulls over the summer, the 6'10" vet spoke extensively with head coach Billy Donovan about how he would be integrated into the team's offense should he come back.
“Yeah, there was a lot of discussions about that,’’ Vucevic said. “That was a big thing for me. A lot of stuff we talked about was more with Billy because he’s the head coach and he’s the one that makes those decisions. But it was finding ways to utilize me more. Not so much only for me shooting the ball and scoring, but using my playmaking ability to help the team in different ways.’’
According to Cowley, Vucevic is hoping to be used more like a pair of (much-better) All-Star centers, Bam Adebayo and Nikola Jokic, who both faced off against each other in the NBA Finals just this past summer. Those players are employed much more as the focal points of their respective franchise's offenses than Vucevic is.
“I think we can see a lot more teams do it and do it at a high level,’’ Vucevic said of NBA teams letting big men handle the ball and facilitate. “I think we also have a team that can function that way, obviously with me and all the guards that we have who can play off the ball. It could make life a lot easier for a lot of our guys.’’
He played every regular season game with Chicago last season for the first time in his career, averaging 17.6 points on .520/.349/.835 shooting splits, 11.0 rebounds and 3.2 assists.
DeRozan, himself a former USC standout and teammate of Vucevic's, isn't particularly effective without the ball in his hands, and he is a far better player than Vucevic. This approach will not cure what ails Chicago, and sooner or later, this plan will fail.
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