Chicago Bulls: Would O.J. Mayo Have Helped or Hurt the Team?

While contenders and pretenders made moves before the trade deadline, the Chicago Bulls basically stood still. 

They dumped James Johnson and acquired a first-round pick, but made no personnel moves.

Before last month’s trade deadline there was speculation that the Bulls would try to acquire O.J. Mayo, but the Bulls stood still. Since then, the Bulls have been the hottest team in the NBA.

They did not make a move, and now they are in first in the East. They have won 12 of their last 13 games and it is clear that the Bulls are fine without O.J. Mayo.

While Mayo possesses an athletic ability the Bulls lack at shooting guard, their platoon of Keith Bogans, Ronnie Brewer and Kyle Korver are equally as effective as Mayo, without the locker room drama Mayo brings.

Of the Bulls’ three shooting guards, only Bogans has a lower field goal percentage than Mayo. Brewer brings a defensive dimension Mayo cannot match and Korver is a much better three-point shooter.

The reason the Bulls did not make a move is because they liked their current roster. They could have gotten Mayo, but did they really want to give up Asik or Gibson? 

At the end of the day, the Bulls’ management decided they did not want to, and the Bulls are a better team because of it.

The Bulls will have several first-round picks the next few years, which they can use to draft a shooting guard. It is not easy to draft well, but teams that win championships have too. 

Last year, the Knicks drafted a largely unheralded Landry Fields. Landry has had a great season and will likely be remembered as the steal of the 2010 draft.

With the roster the Bulls have, if they can get a draft steal like Landry Fields, there will be nothing stopping them from being a dynasty. 

Great news for Bulls fans, but terrible news for the rest of the NBA.