Offseason Trade Ideas for Chicago Bulls to Round out Their Roster

In terms of roster movement, the Chicago Bulls experienced what is best described as a stable offseason. Other than the addition of Bobby Portis, the No. 22 pick in the draft, they have the same players they did last year. Could they do more?

They kept Jimmy Butler, their rising star and winner of the NBA’s Most Improved Player award, by giving him a max contract. They re-signed Mike Dunleavy Jr. to a friendly three-year, $14.4 million contract. They retained backup point guard Aaron Brooks using a portion of the taxpayer mid-level exception.

They replaced head coach Tom Thibodeau with the rising star of the coaching world, Fred Hoiberg, and that is significant. But is it enough?

Caleb Nordgren wrote for Hardwood Paroxysm:

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Think about what Gar Forman and John Paxson (or GarPax, as we Bulls fans have come to call them) are signaling by bringing back literally the same roster plus Portis, but with Hoiberg in charge: That there was exactly one problem with the 2014-15 team, and it sure wasn’t the roster GarPax assembled. Apparently, with Thibs exiled, everything will be sunshine and rainbows in 2015-16.

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To be fair, in free agency, the Bulls’ options were extremely limited, which Nordgren acknowledges.

The Bulls were close enough to the apron (the area $4 million over the tax threshold) that the same limitations imposed on a team over it restricted them. That’s because the rules apply to the team’s salary after the move. So, for example, even though the Bulls are below the apron, if they used the full mid-level exception, they would go over it. Ergo they only get the taxpayer version.

You can argue they could have done better with the taxpayer mid-level exception than Brooks, but how much better? Mo Williams wasn’t going to choose Chicago over the Cleveland Cavaliers for the same amount of money. He has a relationship with both the Cavs and LeBron James already. There’s Jeremy Lin, but how much difference is he going to make?

Regardless, the Bulls were never going to hit a home run in free agency because they were hitting with a whiffle-ball bat. That doesn’t mean they can’t still do something, though.

The Bulls are stacked in the frontcourt with Taj Gibson, Nikola Mirotic, Joakim Noah and Pau Gasol, all starting-caliber players. Add in Portis and sophomore Cameron Bairstow, and you have plenty of room to work a trade.

Chicago could move Gibson, Noah and Gasol, in particular, for a starter or a key rotation player. But bear in mind that each has his distinct set of baggage lowering his trade value.

Gibson is coming off an ankle surgery performed on June 16. According to the official press release, his recovery time should be “approximately four months.” That should have him back around the start of training camp. That’s also enough for teams to hesitate on pulling the trigger for a trade.

Gasol was productive last year, averaging 18.5 points, 11.8 boards and 1.9 blocks. According to Basketball-Reference.com, the only other two players in the same area code (more than 18, 10 and 1.5) were DeMarcus Cousins (24.1, 12.6, 6.0) and Anthony Davis (24.4, 10.2, 2.9). It was enough to land Gasol a spot on the All-NBA Second Team. But his defense was a huge liability.

Noah, who was All-NBA First Team and Defensive Player of the Year just two seasons ago, struggled with coming back from knee surgery all year and has many Bulls fans wondering if he’ll ever be the same.

That doesn’t mean they’re untradable; it just means the Bulls aren’t likely to get back “full value” on any of the three. Here, though, is one idea for moving each of them.

I asked Twitter for its trade ideas, and here are the best suggestions. I considered the responses as a general manager might.

Don’t Undervalue Your Assets

When I was a kid—before I learned about money—my older brother came to me one day holding three nickels. “I’ll give you three big ones for two little ones,” he offered. Happily I gave him my two dimes. Rule No. 1 of trades: Never undervalue your assets.

Tony Dejak/Associated Press

This trade would have to sit until January to be legal, but I don’t like it. I include it, though, for the “realistic” sort of fan.

Some are giving up on Doug McDermott far too quickly. He played limited minutes on a bum wheel before he had knee surgery last year. After the surgery, he got even fewer minutes.

During Las Vegas Summer League, McDermott showed a lot, particularly how well he can get to the rim. He was awful from deep, but he also hit 39-of-68 from two, with most of those coming while attacking the lane. In Hoiberg’s offense, with the court opened up, McDermott was able to use subtle shifts in speed and outstanding body control to get good shots off within five feet.

Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press

He showed he’s a lot more than a three-point shooter and could have a better sophomore year.

And the other side of Gibson’s surgery is that if it takes, he has a chance of returning to his 2012-13 level of play. And if he can get his springiness back, he should thrive in Hoiberg’s offense even though he’s not a stretch 4.

Hoiberg likes to park his bigs in their “room,” which is the area just outside the lane along the baseline. He can use them to swoop in for alley-oops or crash the board hard for offensive rebounds. They can also post up for little turnaround mid-range jumpers. Gibson excels at all those things.

Both Gibson and McDermott could see an increase in value under Hoiberg. Giving them up for players who are no better and with little room to prove they can be something more is not enough return.

Don’t Overvalue Your Assets

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@KellyScaletta Taj Gibson, Doug mcdermott, Kirk hinrich, to the cavs for Mo Buckets, and iman shumpert.

— Julian (@JulianVincents1) July 23, 2015"

To save you the click, the Bulls get Aaron Gordon and Victor Oladipo. The Orlando Magic get Gibson and Kirk Hinrich. 

I love this idea. Anyone who has even a moderate amount of good sense and Bulls fandom would love this trade. However, the Orlando Magic and anyone who is a fan of theirs would detest it with the passion of a thousand hot and fiery suns.  

Here’s another:

And another:

Generally speaking, rebuilding teams aren’t in the business of trading their nice, young assets for aging players.

Even if everything else is even, the trade might not be because it doesn’t fit with the long-term plan of what the other front office is doing. Type or player, role and contract length are all things that get tied in.

In “fan trades” we get caught up in, we think, “It would be nice to get that guy” and come up with what we believe is fair return. But if you like that guy, there’s a good chance his team and other teams do too. So you have to find a trade that not only matches value, but also persuades the GM you’re dealing with and beats those you’re contending with.

A fair offer on a player with a high ceiling is probably not enough. 

If a team isn’t looking to trade a player and the player isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, a team that wants him has to come in with an offer that’s ridiculously high.

So any idea that involves an All-Star-caliber player, one not being shopped or on his rookie contract, is not likely to get any traction.

All that said, if you can do this, you have to go for it:

The Valuation Is Right

There were a few trades where the approximate value of the players in question was fairly even. The first was the home run swing:

Throw in picks and others or whatever. This is one where adding a great player might not be a great idea. The Bulls are banking on Hoiberg’s newer, analytical, uptempo offense to galvanize them. Their future is in the fleet Jimmy Butler and Derrick Rose.

Adding Carmelo “Isolation” Anthony whose best ball-stopping comes when his team has it might not facilitate the new regime. He has another $101 million due him over the next four years. That’s a lot of financial commitment to a player who doesn’t fit your direction.

Avery Bradley is a solid player and even value for Gibson. The Boston Celtics have plenty of bigs, but they are offensively oriented. Gibson gives them a defensive anchor.

Bradley is a scrappy defender and a three-point shooter (35.2 percent last season), but at 6’2” he’s undersized for a 2 and struggled when he got the chance to run the point. According to 82games.com, his player efficiency rating as the quarterback was just 9.1.

It’s hard to figure where he’d fit. If he’s the backup shooting guard, the entire backcourt is diminutive, as Brooks is 6’0” (if he’s standing on the Yellow Pages).

The other problem is that Bradley has four years left on his contract. It’s not a particularly terrible one, especially with the expected inflation coming when the new TV deal kicks in next year. But it’s a little shy of $9 million per year, and that could be the difference between being able to afford a max player in free agency in the summer of 2017, as both Rose’s and Gibson’s contracts expire then.

And this is the underlying problem Forman and Paxson might be having. Making a good trade implies that there is a good one out there. Just because you need to do something doesn’t mean there’s something you can do.

Next year, though, Noah’s contract expires, and the cap is expected to jump. Say, just for fun, that Tony Snell and McDermott take the next step forward under Hoiberg, Rose bounces back in his second year back from injury and Mirotic breaks out.

The Bulls are spending about $74 million in salaries next year, per Spotrac.com. That would give them $15 million to play with—more if they can find a taker for Gibson’s salary or Gasol opts out of his contract. They could realistically carve out space for a max contract.

There’s an argument for letting this season play out, see what the kids can bring to Hoiball and maintain flexibility for next year. That’s why this might be the best suggestion of all.