“Just waking up in the morning gotta thank god
I don’t know but today seems kinda odd
No barkin’ from the dog, no smog
And momma cooked the breakfast with no hog”.
Talk about painting a perfect picture. Ice Cube’s description of a good day is a verbal illustration so vivid that he makes you feel as though you are leaning riding shotgun in his ’64.
Nostalgia.
A feeling that I hope we can have again with this week’s feature player who at one time was giving us all the feels and provided security that your frontcourt would be steady. These days, however, he has us wondering and pondering, is this the new version? Can we get back to the good old days when life was simple? You know, like when the Lakers beat the Supersonics.
Let’s hit the three-wheel motion…
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Nikola Vucevic
This year we are witnessing a resurgence in Chicago. The Bulls are 10-4 trailing only the 10-3 Wizards. I actually cannot believe I just wrote that and to take it a step further the Cavaliers are in the fifth spot surprisingly. No disrespect to the Cavs and Wiz but the Bulls are legit and the signings of Lonzo Ball and DeMar DeRozan have been a perfect marriage so far with superstar Zach LaVine.
Getting the short end of the stick in this scenario has been Nikola Vucevic, though, who has seen a steep drop in his shot attempts at five less per game resulting in a negative impact on his value. Big Vuc is also shooting less than 40% from the field (39.5%) and under 74% from the line (73.7%). Last season, Vucevic was 47.7% from the field and 84% from the line. Those numbers are still attainable and improvement in those categories would give a boost to his overall value. Currently, he sits at 61st overall on the season compared to his top 20 finish last season.
Now, to be clear, I do not see Vucevic returning top 20 value this season with how the Bulls loaded up the roster in the off-season. I can however see a path to the top 40 range if he can raise his field goal percentage up to 45% and his free throws up to 80%, numbers that are well within his scope.
Rebounds, assists, and steals remain within range from where they were a year ago which is encouraging. The scoring is ten points off from his 23.4 per game average last season. With improved shooting, Vuc should easily be able to bring his average up to 16-17 points per game up from the 13 points per game he is currently averaging. Vucevic is also averaging 1.1 three’s per game, down from the 2.5 he averaged last year. Even with reduced usage, today’s NBA lends itself quite nicely to big men who can shoot from three, meaning Vuc should be able to flirt with two threes per contest.
Adding to the buy-low appeal is the fact that Vuc has recently entered the league’s health and safety protocols and will miss the next seven days or so. This provides an opportunity to float some low offers in hopes that his current managers are in need of some production and do not have the patience to wait on a throw-back version of Vuc.
If you need a center with top 40 and possibly even top 30 upside then this is your target.
Sometimes you need to take a chance in this fantasy landscape and roll the dice on a player who has upside and is playing below perceived value.
“Shake em up, shake em’ up, shake em’ up, shake em’!
Hit me up down below and drop your comments and questions.
Good Luck,
Peace.
