Entering free agency, Nikola Vučević's earnings potential seemed uncertain. While he'd had a mostly productive two-plus-season stint in Chicago, it was unclear how the market would react to a 32-year-old center with fairly severe defensive limitations and a so-so outside shot.
Yet, the Bulls seemingly felt he was enough of a flight risk to prevent his free-agency venture altogether and instead hand him a three-year, $60 million extension before the market opened. Had he hit free agency, it's hard to imagine he would've done any better. It's possible he would've done worse, so that's a win in itself.
Beyond that, though, he picked up another win with the fact that Chicago otherwise left its center rotation untouched.
Andre Drummond picked up his player option, but he wasn't a major threat to Vučević's floor time this past season. In fact, the Montenegrin logged more minutes than he had at any point of his Bulls' tenure (33.5 per game). He has no obvious reason to expect to see a reduction this time around.
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