Orlando Magic center Nikola Vucevic has been traded to the Chicago Bulls for Wendell Carter Jr., Otto Porter and two-first round picks, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The Magic also send Al Farouq Aminu to Chicago in the deal.
The Magic, who are currently the No. 14 seed in the Eastern Conference, also could seek to trade away Aaron Gordon before Thursday’s NBA Trade Deadline buzzer sounds at 3:00 p.m. ET. On the other hand, the Bulls, who now pair All-Star center Vucevic with Zach LaVine, are better primed to make a dash to the NBA’s play-in tournament for the top 10 teams in each conference.
Nikola Vucevic Trade: Fantasy Basketball Outlook
Vucevic’s role will likely remain the same with the Chicago Bulls, who will likely pair him with starting power forward Lauri Markkanen in the frontcourt. Vucevic will be projected to start over Thaddeus Young.
Carter and Porter are headed to a worse team in Orlando and could see a production increase as a result of that. Carter, who was the No. 7 overall selection in 2018, never materialized in Chicago, averaging under 11 points per game in his young NBA career.
Chicago Bulls & Orlando Magic: NBA Betting Outlook
The Orlando Magic certainly did not get any better in this deal. Carter and Porter are fine roleplayers, but those two alone are not going to win too many games. For Orlando, this was about those two first-round draft picks that they could use to reload and build towards the future, something the franchise has been doing since the days of Dwight Howard and Hedo Turkoglu.
On the flip side, it seems as if the brass in Chicago is tired of mediocrity. They have a solid star in LaVine, and now pair him with Vucevic to create their own magic in a weaker Eastern Conference. The Bulls are +15000 via PointsBet to win the NBA Championship, which is very unlikely regardless of landing Vucevic.
Wait and see if oddsmakers provide bets for teams to make the playoffs, as that’s the more likely outcome for Chicago in 2021.
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