Should Chicago Bulls Make a Move at NBA Trade Deadline?
As the February 19 trade deadline approaches, many teams will be making moves they hope will put them over the top in the playoff race. More than likely, the Chicago Bulls will not be one of those teams.
“We’re happy with the players we do have,” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said after practice Monday, and that’s a sentiment that’s held throughout the year, even through the revolving door of injuries that plagued the team early in the season.
Making a major move during the season would be out of character for a front office that has historically made its big moves in the offseason, if at all. Not once in Gar Forman’s six-year tenure as general manager has he made a trade in-season to add a significant piece. The biggest deal he’s made during the season was last January’s trade of Luol Deng to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and that move was a pure salary dump.
The Bulls don't need to dump salary—they made the Deng trade under very different circumstances. Last year, Derrick Rose’s season-ending knee surgery took them out of title contention, and after talks broke down between the team and Deng on an extension, they wanted to better position themselves to make a run at Carmelo Anthony in free agency.
Now, despite their recent struggles, the Bulls see themselves as contenders in the Eastern Conference, and nobody who plays major minutes is expendable.
Limited Needs, Limited Assets
The Bulls’ pool of assets is limited at best. All of their core players—a group that includes Rose, Jimmy Butler, Joakim Noah, Pau Gasol and Taj Gibson—are both too expensive and too valuable to move. And if they were reluctant to include Nikola Mirotic in an offer to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Kevin Love this summer, he won’t be available for anyone they could get before the deadline—and nor should he be.
Doug McDermott is their only young player who might have value, but he’s coming off knee surgery and he struggled before his December injury. He’s still such an unknown that the Bulls aren’t ready to give up on him, despite Thibodeau’s reluctance to give him minutes even with the dearth of wings available on the roster.
Outside of the core players, there isn’t much that would be of interest to other teams. Their most palatable contracts are Kirk Hinrich’s $2.7 million and Tony Snell’s $1.4 million, but they have little value outside of salary filler, and the Bulls don’t have any sweeteners that would entice another team to give up a player that moves the needle.
Early on in the season, it appeared the Bulls could get the Sacramento Kings’ top 10-protected pick they acquired from Cleveland in the Deng trade. But since the Kings fired head coach Mike Malone in December, they’ve gone 6-17. There’s no doubt that they’ll finish with one of the 10 worst records in the league, thus more than likely keeping the pick.
The Bulls have the right to swap picks with Cleveland in the 2015 draft as well, but they’re only half a game up on the Cavs in the standings. Assuming they continue to battle neck and neck for the Central Division, that swap will only make a difference of a spot or two in the draft.
If the Bulls have a positional weakness, it’s on the wing, especially while Mike Dunleavy continues to sit out with an ankle injury. Without Dunleavy, their floor spacing is severely limited. There are teams with rotation-caliber small forwards who could be available. The Denver Nuggets have no long-term use for Wilson Chandler or Arron Afflalo, and the Orlando Magic will more than likely part ways with Tobias Harris when he hits restricted free agency this summer.
Potential Scenarios
There are options, and one of those players would help the Bulls, but it’s tough to come up with a combination of players and picks that would work in a deal. Let's say they wanted to go after Chandler, whose contract is partially guaranteed for next season.
It would take Hinrich, Snell and McDermott to make the salaries work, and Denver probably doesn't do the trade without at least one of those picks. At that point, the Bulls are giving up a lot of depth, including this year's lottery pick, and a pick for one player who, while certainly helpful, isn't a game-changer.
Phoenix Suns guard Gerald Green is another good fit who could potentially be available, and his $3.5 million salary is easier to match. Suns GM Ryan McDonough loves to collect first-round picks, and Snell and McDermott are both young wings who could be of interest.
But those players are under team control for the next several seasons, whereas Green is a free agent this summer. Even if Snell and McDermott don't play much, it would be hard to justify sacrificing depth and youth at the Bulls' weakest position for a short-term fix.
If the Bulls want help on the wing, it’s more likely that they would look to the D-League or the free-agent market before making a trade. There’s plenty of talent in the D-League, and the recently waived Chris Douglas-Roberts, a college teammate of Rose, could be a viable option to fill the open spot on the roster. But so far, they’ve shown no signs that they intend to make a move of any kind, barring a catastrophic injury to one of their core players, and none of the minor injuries to Rose, Noah or Gibson so far this season qualifies as that.
For better or worse, the Bulls team you see now is the one you will see come playoffs. They don’t have a reasonable move in them with their roster makeup, and they might not need one. With everyone healthy, they’re one of the league’s most talented teams. They just have to hope they get the best out of everybody.
Sean Highkin covers the Chicago Bulls for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @highkin
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
