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Noah Vonleh Reportedly Traded to Bulls from Blazers for Milovan Rakovic
February 8, 2018
Noah Vonleh hasn't lived up to expectations since he was the No. 9 overall pick in the 2014 draft, and the Portland Trail Blazers reportedly moved on from him Thursday.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Portland traded Vonleh and cash to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for the rights to Milovan Rakovic.
Wojnarowski noted the Trail Blazers are now under the luxury-tax threshold and received a $3.5 million traded player exception as well.
Vonleh enters restricted free agency this coming offseason, so the Bulls are not locked into him long term should they choose to move on in the future.
While he is only 22 years old and showed enough promise to be a top-10 draft pick coming out of Indiana, Vonleh has struggled to establish himself at the NBA level. He averaged 3.6 points a night in 33 games with the Trail Blazers this season and has never scored more than the 4.4 points per game he averaged last season.
He is a solid rebounder, tallying 5.1 per game thus far this season. He can help a Chicago squad that is a mere 20th in the league with a minus-1.2 rebounding differential, per ESPN.com.
Still, this is a Bulls team that is in full-on rebuild mode after trading Jimmy Butler during the past offseason. Chicago is 18-35 and likely has its attention more on the upcoming draft than the remainder of this season.
Vonleh is a young piece who now figures to have the opportunity to prove himself in a new city. If he starts to turn things around and lives up to the expectations that accommodate a top-10 pick, the Bulls may opt to sign him to an extension when the time comes.