The Chicago Bulls have been the NBA’s biggest surprise in 2025. After a 15-5 finish to the 2024-25 season and a loss in the NBA’s Play-In Tournament a year ago, many assumed the Bulls would be a lottery team headed into this campaign. Through seven games, it’s been the opposite. After a 6-1 start with wins against three of the Eastern Conference’s top teams —the Knicks, 76ers, and Pistons —the Bulls are starting to prove themselves a legitimate contender. Nikola Vucevic has been a crucial element of their success, posting career numbers at the age of 35. He’s averaging 19.3 points, his highest in four years, a career-best 12.0 rebounds, and the best shooting percentages of his 15-year NBA career at 58.4% from the floor and 48.4% from three-point land. Most of all, one incredible figure leads the entire league, resulting in several crunch-time victories for the Chicago Bulls.
NBA Leader In Clutch-Time Field Goal Percentage
Similar to DeMar DeRozan’s tenure with the Bulls, Vucevic has channeled his clutch gene. The most defining trait of DeRozan’s time in Chicago was his ability to take and make buckets down the stretch. If the game was tight and time was winding down, DeRozan was given the rock, and everyone else cleared out. More often than not, he converted and led the Bulls to several miraculous victories. While Vucevic may be doing it differently, mainly from an extra pass or an offensive rebound, he’s putting the ball in the basket at an unbelievable rate in the clutchest of moments.
Best To Worst FG% In The Clutch For The 2025-26 NBA Regular Season (Min. 10 Clutch FGA) :
1. Nikola Vucevic — 70.0%
2. Zion Williamson — 46.2%
3. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — 44.1%
4. Cade Cunningham — 43.8%
5. Devin Booker… https://t.co/K5UqNGoTXJ pic.twitter.com/zSgyv7CWEA— Stat Defender (@statdefender) November 6, 2025
Not only is Vucevic stacking up career-best numbers, but he’s also converting in the most crucial times. His fourth-quarter performances, paired with Josh Giddey’s stability throughout each game, have carried Chicago to a 6-1 standing.
All-Star Campaign Starting Early
The 6’10” center’s last All-Star nod came in 2021, but this year he may be finding himself on the verge of his third career nomination. At 19 points and 12 rebounds, while shooting scorching numbers from the field and three-point land, he’s one of the league’s top big men in the early going. He’s currently sixth in the entire NBA in rebounds per game, but only trails one Eastern Conference center. Karl-Anthony Towns grabs 12.8 boards per night and drops a slightly higher 19.8 points, but is only shooting 41.2% from the field and 34.1% from deep. Vucevic’s significantly better efficiency, despite marginally lower overall numbers, would give him the edge over Towns.
Nikola Vučević this season:
19.3 PPG
12.0 RPG
3.7 APG
58.4% FG
48.4% 3P
84.2% FT
32.0 MPG pic.twitter.com/qDjoTB2yxu— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) November 5, 2025
Nikola Vucevic hasn't gotten enough credit for his clutch shotmaking.
The big man is 19-37 (51.7%) from 3 in the 4th quarter. Bulls have done a good job finding him in his spots and putting the ball right in his shooting pocket.
Bulls don't win some of these games w/out him. pic.twitter.com/K3H1kdXtcb
— Elias Schuster (@Schuster_Elias) January 10, 2023
If Vucevic can sustain, or remain near, his current numbers, he will join Josh Giddey on the All-Star ballot, and Chicago would have two representatives for the first time in five years. Can they continue to put this young group on their backs and shock the NBA world?
