{"id":580890,"date":"2026-02-04T02:17:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T02:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/580890\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T02:17:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T02:17:20","slug":"bulls-reportedly-sending-nikola-vucevic-to-celtics-for-anfernee-simons-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/580890\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulls reportedly sending Nikola Vu\u010devi\u0107 to Celtics for Anfernee Simons"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chicago Bulls are sending two-time All-Star center Nikola Vu\u010devi\u0107 and a second-round pick to the Boston Celtics for guard Anfernee Simons and a second-round pick, according to multiple<\/a> reports<\/a> Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach reported hours later<\/a> that the trade won’t be officially completed Tuesday night, noting that the Bulls and Celtics are open to potential minor tweaks to the deal.<\/p>\n

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With the expected move, Boston will be out of the first apron, as its tax bill drops from $39.5 million to $17 million, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks<\/a>, who also pointed out that the Celtics are poised to be eligible to sign a waived player who had a pre-existing salary of at least $14.1 million.<\/p>\n

The Celtics (31-18) are tied for the second-best record in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

Vu\u010devi\u0107, a 35-year-old double-double machine, will give the Celtics a boost in the frontcourt that’s featured Neemias Queta and Luka Garza, whereas Simons will join a Bulls backcourt that will now include 38-year-old Mike Conley Jr. and 2022 No. 5 overall pick Jaden Ivey after Chicago reportedly agreed to a three-team trade earlier Tuesday with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Detroit Pistons<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Vu\u010devi\u0107’s five-plus-season stay with the Bulls (24-26) has come to an end.<\/p>\n

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The Bulls traded for him midseason during the 2020-21 campaign<\/a>. At the time, the Orlando Magic were hitting the reset button, and Chicago was trying to make it back to the playoffs for the first time since the 2016-17 season. The drought continued that season, Vu\u010devi\u0107’s second as an All-Star, but he helped the Bulls return to the postseason the following year.<\/p>\n

They haven’t made another trip since their first-round exit in 2022, though. Once again hovering around .500, they’re changing things up.<\/p>\n

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While Vu\u010devi\u0107 is averaging less than a double-double \u2014 he’s currently posting 16.9 points and nine rebounds per game \u2014 for the first time since 2017-18, he still has 19 double-doubles to his name this season.<\/p>\n

Vu\u010devi\u0107 will slot into a Celtics rotation that’s headlined by wing Jaylen Brown, as well as guards Derrick White and Payton Pritchard, in the absence of star Jayson Tatum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old Simons was coming off the bench for Boston, which acquired him in a trade last summer that shipped Jrue Holiday off to the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a>. Simons averaged 14.2 points in his 49 games with the Celtics, shooting 44% from the floor while recording a 39.5% clip from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n

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He’s scored 20 or more points nine times this season, even going for 39 last month in a road win over the Miami Heat. Simons has also tallied five or more assists on five different occasions in 2025-26.<\/p>\n

Boston approached the deadline about $12.1 million over the luxury tax threshold, according to The Athletic<\/a>. The Celtics are in line to shed some salary now, considering Simons is on an expiring $27.7 million contract and Vu\u010devi\u0107 is on an expiring $21.5 million deal, per The Athletic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Bulls are sending two-time All-Star center Nikola Vu\u010devi\u0107 and a second-round pick to the Boston Celtics…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3724],"tags":[4329,7,2573,45,75,329,1243,188,1018,78,77,2038,17915,189,152,4986,3853,76,405,471],"class_list":["post-580890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-anfernee-simons","tag-basketball","tag-bobby-marks","tag-boston","tag-boston-celtics","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-derrick-white","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-jaden-ivey","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-jrue-holiday","tag-luka-garza","tag-miami-heat","tag-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-neemias-queta","tag-nikola-vucevic","tag-orlando-magic","tag-payton-pritchard","tag-portland-trail-blazers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116009962370819039","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}