{"id":587216,"date":"2026-02-06T23:58:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T23:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/587216\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T23:58:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T23:58:30","slug":"nikola-vucevics-trade-to-celtics-was-long-time-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/587216\/","title":{"rendered":"Nikola Vucevic’s trade to Celtics was long time coming"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a 15-year NBA veteran who\u2019s played his entire career in the Eastern Conference, Nikola Vucevic is well acquainted with the atmosphere at TD Garden.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old center has played 25 games in Boston since breaking into the league in 2011. Those rarely resulted in wins for his team (overall record: 5-20), but he always enjoyed his trips to the city and appreciated its passion.<\/p>\n

Celtics fans, Vucevic said, seemed to appreciate him, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in a lot of rumors connected to Boston over the years,\u201d Vucevic said Friday. \u201cWhenever we played here, honestly, if I\u2019d go walk in the streets or whatever, go to a restaurant, there would be people that would come up to me and be like, \u2018We need you in Boston. Come to Boston.\u2019 I guess some of those wishes came true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed.<\/p>\n

Boston acquired Vucevic from the Bulls<\/a> ahead of Thursday\u2019s NBA trade deadline, shipping productive third guard Anfernee Simons to Chicago in return. The Celtics expect him to provide depth, size and offensive upside<\/a> to their frontcourt as they push toward the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201c(I\u2019m) very excited for the opportunity,\u201d Vucevic said in his introductory news conference. \u201cObviously, (the Celtics are) a team that\u2019s aiming for the top, trying to win it all, third in the East right now. And it\u2019s a very unique opportunity for me. I didn\u2019t expect it to happen. There wasn\u2019t a lot of talks going on around me that I\u2019d heard of. But very excited. \u2026 I\u2019m very happy, and I\u2019m just going to try to do the best I can to help the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vucevic is an accomplished scorer and defensive rebounder with floor-stretching capability, averaging 17.2 points and 10.4 boards per game in his career and shooting 39.1% from 3-point range over the last two seasons. He was a two-time All-Star with the Orlando Magic (2019 and \u201921) and a steady starter for the perennially mediocre Bulls, playing in more than 85% of Chicago\u2019s games over the last five seasons.<\/p>\n

Though he expects an adjustment period as he adapts to Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla\u2019s system, which operates at a much slower pace than the Bulls\u2019, Vucevic believes his skill set will fit in well in Boston. He\u2019ll initially come off the bench, he said, and could shuffle in and out of the starting lineup moving forward.<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoChicago Bulls center Nikola Vucevic (9) shoots against Milwaukee Bucks center Jericho Sims (00) during the second half of an NBA game in Chicago, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo\/Nam Y. Huh)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not yet clear how Mazzulla plans to split minutes between Vucevic, Neemias Queta and Luka Garza, who have enjoyed career years as the C\u2019s starting center and top backup, respectively. Double-big lineups featuring two of the three \u2014 a staple of previous Celtics teams \u2014 also could become more prevalent.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalking to (Mazzulla), he does like to be flexible with different lineups, different rotations,\u201d said Vucevic, who will wear Simons\u2019 old No. 4. \u201cThat\u2019s something we talked about. I told him I was totally open to that. I totally understand that my role will be different than what it was for most of my career in Chicago and Orlando before. I was fine with that. That might take some time to adjust to. Like (Friday night), coming off the bench and maybe playing different minutes and things like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all part of the process of getting acclimated to a new system and a new role. Like I said, I\u2019m here to really help in any way I can for this team to be the best we can and hopefully get a deep playoff run. So whatever that will require me to do, I\u2019ll try to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A deep playoff run is something Vucevic has never experienced in his decade-and-a-half in the NBA. He was a rookie backup on a Philadelphia 76ers squad that took the Celtics to seven games in the 2012 conference semifinals (\u201cThey still had Rondo, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, KG and all of them\u201d), but since then, his teams have won just three total postseason games and zero series.<\/p>\n

The Bulls have been in the play-in tournament in each of the last three seasons. They sat four games below .500 on trade deadline day, closer to the draft lottery than postseason relevance.<\/p>\n

With Boston, Vucevic will have a chance to be a key piece on a legitimate contender. The Celtics carried a 33-18 record into Friday\u2019s matchup with the Miami Heat, tied for second-best in the East and fifth-best in the NBA. Their net rating and point differential both ranked second in the league behind defending champion Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am 35, but I still feel like I have a lot left in the tank and can still play at a high level,\u201d Vucevic said. \u201cSo having an opportunity to play in the playoffs and play for something big, I think it\u2019s extra motivation for everybody. I\u2019m just excited to have the opportunity. I never really had it in my career. It\u2019s something I do wish happened sooner, but it happens now, and so I\u2019m going to try to make the best of it and be the best version I can of myself and help the team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a 15-year NBA veteran who\u2019s played his entire career in the Eastern Conference, Nikola Vucevic is well…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,75,3164,920,46,14815,68906,919,329,3824,6,2828,3853,78931,78501],"class_list":["post-587216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-bulls","tag-basketball","tag-boston-celtics","tag-brad-stevens","tag-bulls","tag-celtics","tag-celtics-trade","tag-celtics-trade-deadline","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-chicagobulls","tag-nba","tag-nba-trade-deadline","tag-nikola-vucevic","tag-nikola-vucevic-celtics","tag-nikola-vucevic-stats"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116026402439212793","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587216","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=587216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}