BOSTON — On the morning of Feb. 3, hours before being traded, Nikola Vučević spoke like a man at peace.
He ambled down the Fiserv Forum sideline in Milwaukee, winding down from an early shootaround, and beckoned for ice once he sat on the bench. He agreed to field a line of questions he could predict given the looming trade deadline, a time when his name felt most prominent in recent years.
But this deadline, Vučević hardly heard a peep. He did not know a trade to the Boston Celtics was imminent; Artūras Karnišovas called him roughly 30 minutes before the news broke. Rumors almost ceased entirely, with the 35-year-old in the final year of a deal that paid him $21.4 million this season, a steep price for a man who could ramble as much these days about his weaknesses as he could his strengths.
“I was kind of bored not having to respond to everyone’s questions about it,” Vučević joked with reporters Wednesday night in the back hallways of TD Garden.
He didn’t speak of boredom, or even frustration, at that shootaround, though. The worst of those feelings subsided days earlier, when the fierce competitor that lives inside the aging center vocalized his disappointment with Chicago’s inability to escape the middle — or the Miami Heat after an unspeakable 43-point loss in South Beach. Instead, Vučević found solace in adjusting his expectations when his next opportunity came, whether in Chicago or elsewhere.
He decided he’d come off the bench and conform to a role that could better hide his deficiencies. Those thoughts didn’t sound new, either.
When he shuffled across half court before Boston’s 124-105 walloping of the Bulls in his new green get-up on Wednesday, it deserved a double-take. His new seat is warm before he steps onto the floor minutes into the first quarter. The Celtics’ lead over the freshly scrambled Bulls was as large as 23 points midway through the second quarter — the kind of cushion he never felt in Chicago.
And yet it didn’t feel that strange. For some time, Vučević manifested an opportunity to aid a contender. He joins a team sitting second in the Eastern Conference standings with superstar Jayson Tatum leaving the door ajar for a return. Chicago’s longtime, grounded starting center, whose ambitions outgrew his athletic abilities and the Bulls’ infrastructure, found himself at wit’s end at different points this season.
Boston’s newest reserve, though, is where he desired.
“It’s definitely an adjustment,” Vučević said. “I think especially when it happens overnight, you don’t have much time to process it, but it’s something I did have on my mind as a possibility. It’s something I did think about a lot, and (I) figured that if you end up going to a team that has those championship aspirations, my role might change. So, in the back of my mind, I was ready for it.
“Again, when it does happen, it’s an adjustment. From simple things, like when the starting fives get announced, you’re not on the bench; you’re standing, waiting. And then you come off the bench to play, even from a feel (standpoint), it’s a little different, especially when I’ve been starting for 14 years now.”
Of course, Vučević’s third game as a Celtic was perhaps his best. All have displayed the ease of his fit and the versatility he provides in a center rotation with Neemias Quieta, who excels at Vooch’s deficiencies. But Vučević tallied 19 points and 11 boards in 26 minutes on Wednesday, shooting 4-for-5 from deep.
Nikola Vučević (4) drives on Chicago Bulls center Nick Richards during the first quarter at TD Garden. (Winslow Townson / Imagn Images)
This was where he was meant to be slotted. As a 3-point threat for a team that craved one in the middle. In a place that allowed occasional post-ups, not for Vučević to make a living off them. Next to rangy wing defenders and thirsty point-of-attack players who’d put up resistance before the assignment ever reached Vooch. A lower-pressure, lower-minute living.
Meanwhile, Chicago hopes to ingratiate a shuffled roster with seven new faces. The offensive production in the short term is abysmal. Before the deadline, when Vučević often acted as a playmaking hub, the Bulls averaged 29.5 assists, third-best in the NBA. Since then, they have averaged 23.3, which ranks 23rd in the league. While Vučević’s limitations proved glaring as a member of the Bulls, his strengths are far more prominent with Chicago’s new rebuild-ready cast.
In Chicago, his ground-bound tendencies and aging frame didn’t always allow him to fill the needs for a Bulls roster asking so much of so many. Those attributes certainly never greenlit any of his shot-blocking aspirations.
On Wednesday, against a sputtering Bulls offense, Vučević blocked two shots in the same minute.
Something about these parts leaves Vučević looking rejuvenated. Not just that he and the Bulls rightfully parted ways after years of rumored separation. It’s what he feels inside his new building. That these Celtics aim to forge new memories of championships, not just live on those of the past.
“They have players that have been a part of (a championship team),” Vučević said. “But I think, also, because of how well they’ve played as of late, they really feel like they have another chance at it. You can really feel it. It just comes with the culture of having done it so much and having done it recently, having the players that’ve done it, the coaching staff, the front office, everything. They’re really focused on winning now and trying to go deep in the postseason, and you can tell.
“I think it was different in Chicago because they were a younger team, trying to figure out the next move and the pieces, everything like that. Different situations. Here, you definitely feel that. It’s a good opportunity for me, and I hope I can make the best out of it, help this team achieve its goals.”
On that morning in Milwaukee, I asked him why he seemed bothered by preseason questions underscoring his age. He reiterated that he didn’t feel himself slowing down and that he thought he was capable of playing good basketball.
Maybe that’s why seeing him in Celtics green, waving to the Bulls bench in jest and talking shop with All-Star Jaylen Brown felt strange. Vučević long knew who he needed to be at this stage. It took years of trade rumors and Play-In Tournament berths to materialize — yet mere days for this to appear like it was always the right path.