As a 15-year NBA veteran who’s played his entire career in the Eastern Conference, Nikola Vucevic is well acquainted with the atmosphere at TD Garden.

The 35-year-old center has played 25 games in Boston since breaking into the league in 2011. Those rarely resulted in wins for his team (overall record: 5-20), but he always enjoyed his trips to the city and appreciated its passion.

Celtics fans, Vucevic said, seemed to appreciate him, too.

“I was in a lot of rumors connected to Boston over the years,” Vucevic said Friday. “Whenever we played here, honestly, if I’d go walk in the streets or whatever, go to a restaurant, there would be people that would come up to me and be like, ‘We need you in Boston. Come to Boston.’ I guess some of those wishes came true.”

Indeed.

Boston acquired Vucevic from the Bulls ahead of Thursday’s NBA trade deadline, shipping productive third guard Anfernee Simons to Chicago in return. The Celtics expect him to provide depth, size and offensive upside to their frontcourt as they push toward the playoffs.

“(I’m) very excited for the opportunity,” Vucevic said in his introductory news conference. “Obviously, (the Celtics are) a team that’s aiming for the top, trying to win it all, third in the East right now. And it’s a very unique opportunity for me. I didn’t expect it to happen. There wasn’t a lot of talks going on around me that I’d heard of. But very excited. … I’m very happy, and I’m just going to try to do the best I can to help the team.”

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Vucevic is an accomplished scorer and defensive rebounder with floor-stretching capability, averaging 17.2 points and 10.4 boards per game in his career and shooting 39.1% from 3-point range over the last two seasons. He was a two-time All-Star with the Orlando Magic (2019 and ’21) and a steady starter for the perennially mediocre Bulls, playing in more than 85% of Chicago’s games over the last five seasons.

Though he expects an adjustment period as he adapts to Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla’s system, which operates at a much slower pace than the Bulls’, Vucevic believes his skill set will fit in well in Boston. He’ll initially come off the bench, he said, and could shuffle in and out of the starting lineup moving forward.

It’s not yet clear how Mazzulla plans to split minutes between Vucevic, Neemias Queta and Luka Garza, who have enjoyed career years as the C’s starting center and top backup, respectively. Double-big lineups featuring two of the three — a staple of previous Celtics teams — also could become more prevalent.

“Talking to (Mazzulla), he does like to be flexible with different lineups, different rotations,” said Vucevic, who will wear Simons’ old No. 4. “That’s something we talked about. I told him I was totally open to that. I totally understand that my role will be different than what it was for most of my career in Chicago and Orlando before. I was fine with that. That might take some time to adjust to. Like (Friday night), coming off the bench and maybe playing different minutes and things like that.

“It’s all part of the process of getting acclimated to a new system and a new role. Like I said, I’m here to really help in any way I can for this team to be the best we can and hopefully get a deep playoff run. So whatever that will require me to do, I’ll try to do it.”

A deep playoff run is something Vucevic has never experienced in his decade-and-a-half in the NBA. He was a rookie backup on a Philadelphia 76ers squad that took the Celtics to seven games in the 2012 conference semifinals (“They still had Rondo, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, KG and all of them”), but since then, his teams have won just three total postseason games and zero series.

The Bulls have been in the play-in tournament in each of the last three seasons. They sat four games below .500 on trade deadline day, closer to the draft lottery than postseason relevance.

With Boston, Vucevic will have a chance to be a key piece on a legitimate contender. The Celtics carried a 33-18 record into Friday’s matchup with the Miami Heat, tied for second-best in the East and fifth-best in the NBA. Their net rating and point differential both ranked second in the league behind defending champion Oklahoma City.

“I am 35, but I still feel like I have a lot left in the tank and can still play at a high level,” Vucevic said. “So having an opportunity to play in the playoffs and play for something big, I think it’s extra motivation for everybody. I’m just excited to have the opportunity. I never really had it in my career. It’s something I do wish happened sooner, but it happens now, and so I’m going to try to make the best of it and be the best version I can of myself and help the team.”