Will the Chicago Bulls’ extended Nikola Vucevic experiment finally, perhaps mercifully, be over after this season?

One key insider believes that both sides could be headed for a separation.

After a stellar 5-1 season start had Chicago fans salivating about the team possibly finishing with its first playoff appearance in four seasons (and only its second since trading Jimmy Butler away eight years ago), the Bulls have fallen back down to earth. Injuries to key starters like Coby White and Isaac Okoro, plus top reserves Jalen Smith, Tre Jones and Kevin Huerter, can be partly to blame — but the team’s red-hot first two weeks are looking more and more like a fleeting mirage with each passing loss.

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Chicago has gone just 4-13 following its first six contests, and is currently mired in a seven-game losing streak that includes defeats to the 5-18 Indiana Pacers (twice), the 3-21 New Orleans Pelicans, the 7-17 Charlotte Hornets and the 6-17 Brooklyn Nets. At 9-14, the Bulls currently occupy the Eastern Conference’s No. 11 seed — meaning they would miss even the play-in tournament were the postseason to start now.

Vucevic has been a steadying on-court presence in some ways — he’s a good long range shooter, a solid passer, a consistent rebounder, and he rarely misses games even in his NBA dotage. But his weaknesses have also stood out. He’s a poor defender who lacks much mobility or athleticism, and his speed issues run counter to how head coach Billy Donovan likes to run his offenses.

The veteran big man also needs the ball in his hands to be effective, perhaps more than is ideal for a plodding big man. Vucevic has been a prolific scorer both at the rim and beyond the arc, plus a double-double machine, averaging 15.9 points on .479/.380/.789 shooting splits, 9.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists.

During a new reader mailbag, The Chicago Tribune’s Julia Poe was effectively asked if Vucevic will remain the club’s starting center by the 2026-27 season. The 6-foot-9 USC product, 35, is on an expiring $20 million deal and will be an unrestricted free agent next summer — provided he doesn’t agree to yet another contract extension before the official end of this season in June.

“The center has been open with his desire to move to a team that better fits the timeline of his career,” Poe writes. “At 36 [next season], Vucevic will still be able to offer valuable minutes off the bench, but that type of impact wouldn’t make sense in Chicago given the team’s youth.”

Priorities for Bulls, Vucevic Seemingly At Odds

Vucevic has also previously expressed an interest in playing for a club more focused on winning than Chicago ever has under its current front office regime of president Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley.

“I’m getting closer to the end of my career,” Vucevic told Poe ahead of last year’s trade deadline. “I would like to be somewhere that’s in win-now mode.”

Injury-prone reserve big man Zach Collins, a better defender, has been floated as a long-term Vucevic replacement. His ceiling is pretty clearly defined, and his health issues are so bad that he seems like a fairly unreliable option.

Poe notes that the generally trade-averse Bulls could also look into a blockbuster deal to acquire Chicago-born aging superstar Anthony Davis, a great defender with major health question marks whose preferred pace also would not mesh with Donovan’s preferred style. Alternately, the Bulls could consider drafting their big man of the future in the 2026 NBA Draft, during which Chicago could have two first-round draft picks at their disposal — depending on what happens to the selection they’re owed from a prior trade with the Portland Trail Blazers.

Chicago also could have just drafted highly touted Maryland center Derrick Queen, an NBA-ready big who was selected with the No. 13 pick and was promptly acquired in a draft-night trade by the New Orleans Pelicans. Instead, the Bulls took a flier on raw 18-year-old forward Noa Essengue, a long-term developmental project who’s already done for the year due to a season-ending shoulder surgery.

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