This is a larger topic (drink! it’s a phrase I write a lot), but it’s important everyone remembers that a big motivation for the Bulls trading for Nikola Vucevic two trade deadlines ago was his contract. Vuc, an Eastern Conference All-Star (!), was signed for the rest of that season and the following two, at a sub-All-Star number of $28M that de-escalated to $22M this year.
(insert Vince McMahon going progressively horny/crazy meme but with Jerry Reinsdorf)
In the time since, the Bulls mostly got what they paid for. While not an abject disaster on the court - please, Wendell Carter’s 43 games a season would not be better by itself - Vucevic played at about that contract number, certainly didn’t add value over it.