O.J. Mayo: Will the Trade Deadline Miss Cost the Chicago Bulls in the Playoffs?

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O.J. Mayo, the Chicago Bulls, and the trade that wasn’t.

Amidst all the activity that swirled around the trade deadline, perhaps one of the most consequential moves was one that didn’t go through. Because Thursday came, and Thursday went, and the Chicago Bulls did nothing. Though it wasn’t for lack of effort.

According to the Sacramento Bee (literally; this is their exact headline), the Bulls made a strong pitch to land O.J. Mayo at the trade deadline.

Per the Bee:

“According to multiple league sources, the Bulls aggressively pursued Grizzlies shooting guard O.J. Mayo, offering Ronnie Brewer, two first-round picks and one second-round pick.”

That’s too bad. The Bulls are one of the league’s fastest rising teams on account of Derrick Rose and their stellar defensive play, but they are seriously lacking at the two spot and will be hard pressed to outscore people in the playoffs without a substantial upgrade. I speculated last week that Courtney Lee could have been a nice addition as a perimeter shooter athletic enough to defend at Tom Thibodeau’s standard, but O.J. Mayo would’ve been even better. The first and third picks respectively in the 2008 draft, Rose and Mayo would seem to play the kind of complementary games that would thrive together.

With Mayo's contract up after the 2011-12 season, perhaps this is something to Grizzlies would be willing to explore again in the summer.

(Check out this article on why Mayo’s departure might have benefited the Grizzlies as well.)

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