Best Potential 2016-17 NBA Trade Deadline Deals for the Chicago Bulls

Having flipped the calendar to the new year, we’re getting clear on where the Chicago Bulls are headed.

Head coach Fred Hoiberg demonstrated as much by taking former starter Rajon Rondo out of the rotation and inserting third-year point guard Michael Carter-Williams as the starter. While that move works better for the present, it also bodes better for the future, in that it suggests the front office is finally thinking of one.

There are, however, problems with a fundamentally flawed roster. The Bulls still don’t have a point guard with range, and to build for tomorrow, they need to do so around Jimmy Butler. As Kevin Ferrigan of NBACouchside.com points out, that means surrounding Butler with guys who can shoot:

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When Butler has played with space, he’s been even more remarkable. In 187 minutes he’s shared with (Nikola) Mirotic and Doug McDermott, this team’s two best shooters for their positions, Butler is scoring 50.8 points per 100 possessions on 62.8% true shooting, which is obviously freaking nuts.

More importantly, the Bulls offense is blitzing the league at 123.2 points scored per 100 possessions, which would be the league’s best offense by a huge margin, while only surrendering 103.7 points per 100, which would be tied with the Warriors for the best defense in the league.

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Sadly, the only two Bulls with passable range are McDermott and Mirotic. Fortunately, the trade deadline is a long way off, and the Bulls can still make some moves.

Bear in mind, none of these are rumors, but they are reasonable speculations for both sides and are listed in order of impact they would have on the Bulls.

Out of Reach

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Paul Millsap

The Atlanta Hawks are shopping Paul Millsap, according to Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Millsap can play both ways and score inside and out, and he'd be a nice addition if the Bulls were in win-now mode. But adding him won’t make them a team who can win now, and the Bulls don’t really have the pieces to get him anyway.

*Jae Crowder

Jae Crowder was no fan of fans cheering for Gordon Hayward, and understandably so. It’s his job at stake if the Boston Celtics were to go that way. However, I don’t see the Celtics putting arguably a top-10 small forward up for trade when they’re pushing for playoff seeding before the trade deadline.

Crowder would be a nice addition to the Bulls, but he’s not realistically getting moved unless the Celtics get a better player out of it—and the Bulls only have one player who is better, Butler. (*More on that later.)

Jusuf Nurkic

Jusuf Nurkic of the Denver Nuggets is on the trading block, according to the Sporting News, but it is unrealistic on the Gar Forman and John Paxson ego front. The Bulls’ front office dealt the rights for Nurkic and Garry Harris for the rights to Doug McDermott in a 2014 draft-day trade.

The duo has never demonstrated the ability to admit when it’s wrong, and it's not likely that will start now.

Buy Low: Nerlens Noel or Jahlil Okafor for Rajon Rondo and Parts

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There are a couple of candidates playing for the Philadelphia 76ers who are young, obtainable and cheap.

But all that is true because they come with a high risk.

Jahlil Okafor has the potential to be a great low-post player, but he’s porous defensively. He’s also been ineffective offensively playing alongside Joel Embiid this year. His minus-3.77 Real Plus-Minus at ESPN.com is the worst of any center in the NBA.

Nerlens Noel is a quality rim protector and defender but has little range. He also is a restricted free agent next year, which could force the Bulls into overpaying to keep him or letting him leave for nothing.

Both players can still turn into high-caliber starters, even All-Stars, given the right development and opportunity. But any investment in them would come with a big risk.

The 76ers need a legitimate point guard and have for a while. A package involving Rondo and Bobby Portis along with a protected pick should be enough to acquire one or the other—particularly with the rest of the league seeming cool to trading for either.

Noel is the better player right now, but Okafor is from the Windy City, so he might be Chicago's preferred target. 

Brandon Knight for Rajon Rondo

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The Phoenix Suns are giving up on the Brandon Knight experiment just as the Bulls realize that Rondo isn't working. Both teams should come to a little “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” epiphany.

For the Bulls, the incentive is hoping that Knight can make a comeback to the All-Star level he was at in Milwaukee two seasons ago before being traded to the Suns and their overcrowded backcourt situation.

Knight shoots 35.9 percent from deep for his career and is currently hitting 36.7 percent from deep on catch-and-shoots, per NBA.com. His DRPM is second-worst among all NBA point guards, though, and that could be problematic.

Even while he was in Milwaukee, his defense wasn’t great. And Kevin Zimmerman of ArizonaSports.com, reports Suns head coach Earl Watson says that’s the reason Knight has dropped out of the rotation:

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Ball pressure is most important at that position. We feel like Tyler Ulis gives us that every time we put him on the court. It’s not scoring points, it’s not — you have 20 points and be efficient or offensively — it’s can you create a presence defensively.

When you talk about building a culture, you go through your first season and you identify the players who are going to commit to the mindset or the physical sacrifice of defensively building that culture.”

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The Suns’ incentive in this trade is not Rajon Rondo; it’s shedding a contract with three years and $42 million left after this season.

The Bulls might have to include an extra enticement—say Bobby Portis or a second-round pick—but the risk of keeping him around is real, and the benefit to the Suns is significant. So this “trash-for-trash” trade is more even than it might appear at first brush.

Tyus Jones and Shabazz Muhammad for Taj Gibson

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The Minnesota Timberwolves are very close to being a winning team. In fact, you can argue that they are good enough right now but just need to learn how.

One of the big problems they’ve had is the defense, even with the addition of defensive guru Tom Thibodeau. Due the fact the Western Conference is a disaster after the first seven teams, Minnesota still has a realistic shot at the postseason. For a franchise that hasn’t sold playoff tickets since 2004, that would be huge.

Taj Gibson would be a huge boon for the ‘Wolves. He’s enjoying the best year of his career, averaging 12.0 points on 53.2 percent shooting while adding 6.9 rebounds per game. He’s also a polished defender who can play the 4 or the 5. Best of all, he’s intimately familiar with Coach Thibodeau’s system.

Tyus Jones, the No. 24 pick in the 2015 draft, is not a significant part of Minnesota’s rotation, playing just 219 total minutes this season. He is shooting 44 percent on 11-of-25 shooting behind the arc. Last season, he also spent six games with the Idaho Stampede in the D-League and shot 42.6 percent, so that’s not an aberration.

Shabazz Muhammad is in his fourth season, averaging 7.7 points and 2.7 rebounds in 17.7 minutes per game. His career highs came during 2014-15 when he averaged 13.5 points in 23.8 minutes. He’s fairly one-dimensional and doesn’t offer much more than streaky scoring. He has been erratic over his career, jumping from percentages in the high 20s to high 30s and then falling back the next season. In essence, he can shoot…sometimes. This year, he’s at 37.0 percent.

His defense is most graciously described as “not awful.” According to SynergySportsTech.com, he gives up .924 points per possessions when he is the primary defender on the play, which ranks as “average.” His DRPM is minus-0.83, which is only 63rd out of 79, but is better than Doug McDermott’s minus-1.53.

Jones and Muhammed would give the Bulls a pair of players with potential but without having to make any great investments.

Trading Gibson would all but assure Chicago of missing the playoffs, but that sort of “GM tanking” might be the best thing for the future, as the better draft slot matters more than a first-round exit. It might not seem like the Bulls are getting much back, but Gibson's in the last year of his contract and will probably be somewhere else next year regardless.

"Not much" is better than nothing. 

Hit the Reset: Jimmy Butler for Everything

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The last option might be just deciding to blow up everything and starting completely over.

Jimmy Butler has an incredibly high-value contract. Not only has he emerged as a top-10 player (currently ranking third in win shares), his contract is arguably the NBA's best right now.

Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher reports that the Bulls are shopping interest in Butler. The return for him would have to be a haul, though.

According to The Ringer's Kevin O'Connor, the Bulls and Celtics were negotiating a Butler trade on draft night. They could return to the negotiating table. A deal involving Butler for a package of young players (for example, some combination of Avery Bradley, Jaylen Brown, Jae Crowder and Kelly Olynyk) and the Brooklyn Nets’ first-round pick could make sense for both teams.

The Celtics would have "big three," and though it might not be quite on the same level as the Cleveland Cavaliers', a Jimmy Butler-Al Horford-Isaiah Thomas trio might be close enough that the Celtics' depth advantage could make a difference.

It would certainly vault them from “pretender” to “contender” status.

Other teams who have the young assets for a Butler deal include the Denver Nuggets, Timberwolves and 76ers. Any of those would have to send a similarly intriguing package, though, and the best thing for Chicago would be a bidding war.

The Bulls would plummet in the standings and miss the postseason for sure. But they’d have as many as three first-round picks next year, a ton of money to spend—especially if Dwyane Wade opts out of his contract, which he probably would if the Bulls are rebuilding—and role players to work with.

There’s also the consideration that, even if they keep Butler, it will be hard to find the pieces to assemble around him in time while he’s still in his prime. As painful a departure as it might be for Bulls fans, trading Butler might be the best course of action.