Report: Warriors have ‘checked in’ on Bulls C Nikola Vučević

Per Evan Sidery, the Warriors ‘have recently checked in’ with the Bulls about a Nikola Vučević trade.

The Golden State Warriors clearly need more offensive firepower. With no one between Jonathan Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski, Buddy Hield, and Andrew Wiggins emerging as a clear number two scorer to Steph Curry, the Dubs turned to the trade market and added Dennis Schröder to potentially right the ship. However, it’s hard to imagine Schröder will be enough to turn Golden State into a legitimate title contender. So, with general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. likely keeping his eye out for another big move, Forbes’ Evan Sidery reported last week the the Warriors “have recently checked in” about a potential trade for Chicago Bills center Nikola Vučević.

A 14-year NBA veteran and two-time All-Star, Vučević has long been one of the most consistent double-double machines in the league and an excellent scoring big man. This season, despite turning 34 in October, Vučević has averaged 20.7 points and 9.8 rebounds per game while shooting an incredibly efficient 63.8% from two-point range, 45.2% from three-point range (on 135 attempts), and 85.3% from the free-throw line.

However, there are some key limitations to Vučević’s game. Even in his younger years, Vučević was never an excellent rim protector, and with a more throwback game, there are reasonable concerns his plodding athleticism could lead him to get forced off the court in certain postseason matchups. Then again, the Warriors should probably be more focused on securing a postseason position than worrying about any hypothetical semifinals matchup.

The Warriors current hard cap (due to their offseason decision to turn Klay Thompson’s departure into a sign-and-trade), would be another hurdle to a trade. However, Vučević is in the second year of a reasonable three-year, $60 million contract. With a salary of exactly $20 million this season, the Dubs could potentially package a couple veteran role players, like Kyle Anderson and Gary Payton II with picks and Lindy Waters to match salary (although they would have to make a separate salary-dump move to fill the rest of their roster under the hard cap).

It would be easier to make the money side of a trade work if the Warriors were willing to part with Kuminga or Podziemski, but barring the Bulls adding some valuable draft capital of their own, it seems impossible to envision that happening.