LaVine traded to the Kings as part of 3 team deal (Huerter, Tre Jones to Bulls)

[Sinistar6]

Good luck, Zack! I’m a huge fan and I hope you and Damar kill it in Sacro.

Getting rid of contract and getting the unprotected pick (back), I hope Gives us a few percentage points back in the Cooper flag lottery?

[boozapalooza]

One thing to add that, given our very clearly incompetent FO, can’t be overlooked. Which is that they didn’t completely blow it and trade him for that Denver package or some other desperate package to try to stay in the “playoff picture.”

We dodged a bullet that AK is perfectly capable of firing. Thank god for that. When AK is your GM, “it could have been a lot worse” isn’t something to sneeze at. Because it really, really could have been.

Arturas Karsinovas: At least he’s not Nico Harrison.

I've mentioned it a few times, but I think the most overlooked part of this trade is that we didn't just guarantee our pick for this year but we've guaranteed that we'll have it (or have it available in trade) through 2027. I think there was a solid chance we would have retained it with Zach/Vuc on the roster (and most likely for sure with either one of them off of it), but we also don't have to worry about losing it later with the restrictions becoming lower. It's hard to compliment them for that because they got themselves into that mess, but I think push come to shove getting full control of the Spurs pick is probably more advantageous than getting like a random first-round pick in the 20s range.

If we traded say Zach, Vuc & Coby, I can't see any conceivable way that we would've given the Spurs that pick.

No matter who we draft, they aren't taking us out of the bottom 8 with a roster built around Ayo, Giddey, Pat, Smith & Matas. That's comfortably a bottom 5 team for the next two seasons. I get the 'safety' but to me we were always keeping the pick by trading the veterans.

Even if we kept the pick this year, still have the issue of it being top-8 protected next year and going to SA if we finish any better than bottom 8. This was about getting control of our draft capital back. Probably more valuable than getting back a FRP in the 20s.

Yes, its AK’s fault for putting us in the position to begin with. But we can’t change the past.

[burlydee]

One thing to add that, given our very clearly incompetent FO, can’t be overlooked. Which is that they didn’t completely blow it and trade him for that Denver package or some other desperate package to try to stay in the “playoff picture.”

We dodged a bullet that AK is perfectly capable of firing. Thank god for that. When AK is your GM, “it could have been a lot worse” isn’t something to sneeze at. Because it really, really could have been.

Arturas Karsinovas: At least he’s not Nico Harrison.

I've mentioned it a few times, but I think the most overlooked part of this trade is that we didn't just guarantee our pick for this year but we've guaranteed that we'll have it (or have it available in trade) through 2027. I think there was a solid chance we would have retained it with Zach/Vuc on the roster (and most likely for sure with either one of them off of it), but we also don't have to worry about losing it later with the restrictions becoming lower. It's hard to compliment them for that because they got themselves into that mess, but I think push come to shove getting full control of the Spurs pick is probably more advantageous than getting like a random first-round pick in the 20s range.

If we traded say Zach, Vuc & Coby, I can't see any conceivable way that we would've given the Spurs that pick.

No matter who we draft, they aren't taking us out of the bottom 8 with a roster built around Ayo, Giddey, Pat, Smith & Matas. That's comfortably a bottom 5 team for the next two seasons. I get the 'safety' but to me we were always keeping the pick by trading the veterans.

The Bulls have been shopping Zach for 2 years. Everyone knew he was on the block. If someone else wanted him, they had multiple chances to outbid the Kings. I think this is the best they could do.

I still think there is a chance the Bulls are basically a 10th seed without Zach and Vuc. If they trade both, you could see the defense really improving. The reality is until this year, neither had been consistently winning players for the Bulls. They've always been net neutral or negative. I think the Bulls probably looked at available options and wanted to save themselves from an unexpected run.

[ShouldaPaidBG]

$17m per year contracts are a nice sweet spot for matching salaries. 2 of those through the next 2 years plus Tre Jones expiring is basically as flexible as you can get. Huge improvment fro $48m disgrunlted injury risk. We have maximum salary flexibility now.

[punkmodafunk]

Jeez

We did not get any pick for Caruso, and I am reading people saying that maybe we could have received a 2nd for... Torrey Craig. Lmao.

Regarding the picks... here's an idea:

How bad can a FO be if in the past 20 years we couls only develop 2 players , Rose - who was an unicorn himself, would have exploded anywhere in the league - and Jimmy Buckets. All of the other picks were 0, or practically 0. Does anyone remember how many picks we gave for ....Doug McDermott? Did Bobby Portis ever played near what he's been doing for the Bucks on a limited time? Did Gafford ever made something while playing a very limited time for the Bulls?

It is really incredible how uncapable of developing talent this franchise has been over the past 2 decades.

This is an absolut terrible trade. We receive trash (which we already have a LOT) that will represent 35M for 2025/26. Kudos to AK

We will have 53M locked in PatWill, Huerter and Collins. Give me a break... I am done.


.

[Muzbar]

Wondering why they didn't try to move Craig for something back, but I wonder if they waived Craig and Duarte in order to make the trade official because you're not allowed to carry more than 15.

According to KC they did try to move both Craig and Duarte but couldn't so then yes they has to release them in order to complete the trade.

[FriedRise]

Read on Twitter

lol this is funny

[SfBull]

The trade is fine as a salary dump. I thought he has unfairly considered ‘unmovable’ over the past year. Zach is a good player, good to watch and a good guy. I wish him well.

I have no faith in the front office at the moment. I also do not have patience for another rebuild.

You're going to watch a long rebuilding

In fairness, we’ve never really seen a full rebuild from this regime. Granted, there is plenty of reason for skepticism. But technically, the tear down phase started last off season when we traded AC. DeMar was next. And now Levine. Vuc is likely on deck. A successful rebuild (if done right) in the NBA is generally a 3-4 year process.

Maybe with another FO ,with the current guys it's unlikely the Bulls will get a successful rebuilding.

[jordanwilliams6]

I've mentioned it a few times, but I think the most overlooked part of this trade is that we didn't just guarantee our pick for this year but we've guaranteed that we'll have it (or have it available in trade) through 2027. I think there was a solid chance we would have retained it with Zach/Vuc on the roster (and most likely for sure with either one of them off of it), but we also don't have to worry about losing it later with the restrictions becoming lower. It's hard to compliment them for that because they got themselves into that mess, but I think push come to shove getting full control of the Spurs pick is probably more advantageous than getting like a random first-round pick in the 20s range.

If we traded say Zach, Vuc & Coby, I can't see any conceivable way that we would've given the Spurs that pick.

No matter who we draft, they aren't taking us out of the bottom 8 with a roster built around Ayo, Giddey, Pat, Smith & Matas. That's comfortably a bottom 5 team for the next two seasons. I get the 'safety' but to me we were always keeping the pick by trading the veterans.

The Bulls have been shopping Zach for 2 years. Everyone knew he was on the block. If someone else wanted him, they had multiple chances to outbid the Kings. I think this is the best they could do.

I still think there is a chance the Bulls are basically a 10th seed without Zach and Vuc. If they trade both, you could see the defense really improving. The reality is until this year, neither had been consistently winning players for the Bulls. They've always been net neutral or negative. I think the Bulls probably looked at available options and wanted to save themselves from an unexpected run.

There's no way they are a 10th seed without Zach & Vuc. If you traded Coby (as your only capable scorer), it's beyond a doubt a terrible team.

There's plenty of solid rotation players but who are our scoring threats without Zach & Vuc? You think guys like Giddey, Ayo & Pat can consistently give us 20 points per game?

[ThisGuyFawkes]

Terry is finding his way as a bust, yesterday's game showed it up again.

Eh... I don't know if you can consider the 18th pick to be a bust. He's also only 22 and has shown enough flashes to make me think he has a chance of developing into a decent roleplayer.

He has played a lot of bad games lately

Has he?

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/t/terryda01.html#last5

His got a positive plus/minus in 2 of the last 5. Maybe his offensive stats aren't stellar but he contributes with his energy, defense, and passing.

He's averaging like 12 min/game and has 11 assists to 2 TO. Shooting decently. Obviously he doesn't touch the ball a lot, but I feel like he at least can make an impact in other areas.

[kodo]

I mean you can have lets say Jue Holiday and on the right team be impactful to winning, but if he is your best player you aren't going far.

Definitely. When Jrue Holiday had both prime healthy Anthony Davis & Julius Randle and he failed to lead the Pelicans to even make the playoffs.

Anthony Davis: 26 ppg 12 rpg 2.4 bpg
Randle: 21 ppg 9 rpg

By net rating, that Pelicans team was worse when Holiday played and he was the team's highest paid player. He's a great supporting player obviously, but he was a failure as a lead player.

I mean, Jrue Holiday is the current starting PG for the 3rd best team in the league. After he left the Pelicans he was the starting PG for the NBA champion Bucks. He's been a multiple time all star and has finished in the top 8 for DPOY in 5 of the last 7 years.

Exactly the point. He's obviously a positive contributor, I don't think anyone would disagree with that.

And he could not take his team to the playoffs with a MUCH better roster than anything Chicago put together, with prime Anthony Davis & Julius Randle. And with a vet coach who's been to the Finals.

Not being able to carry a team to the playoffs doens't mean a player is just a losing player no matter what role or situation.

[StephenAA]

*
The Bulls waiving Duarte was a given, for obvious reasons.
The Bulls waiving Craig was a favor to Craig...

AA

[step]

No matter who we draft, they aren't taking us out of the bottom 8 with a roster built around Ayo, Giddey, Pat, Smith & Matas. That's comfortably a bottom 5 team for the next two seasons. I get the 'safety' but to me we were always keeping the pick by trading the veterans.

This is how I feel too.

I get the appeal of owning the pick outright again... but I simply just don't agree it was really at risk.

What we're more at risk now is AK packaging it up in another desperate win-now move and repeating the same mistake again.

[SfBull]

Trade grades:

Clutch Points


SBNation


Sporting News


For The Win


Kevin O'Connor:


Collectively, nobody thought this was a good trade for Chicago.

That's it.Posters are trying to rationalize the trade but it was simply a very bad trade made again by a very bad FO.
Just it.

No, that’s not it. Half of these so called analysts don’t know what they are talking about beyond initial returns simply put, they’re wrong far more often than they are right. I had previously asked what you felt made this such a bad trade. But you never responded. Would you be willing to?

Traded Zach losing our best player and scorer in an obvious tanking move and I don't see a point in following a team looking for the next draft.
We got meh players at best in return for Zach.
The Bulls got back their 1st pick which should have never been traded.

[SfBull]

They should have been able to get a protected 2nd and no salary back for Craig… Oh well. Not that big a deal.

They get off Zach’s salary and the team gets worse, accelerating the rebuild. Should have blown it up much earlier - this was inevitable - but it is what it is. Absent some sort of miracle acquisition, 5-10 years as an NBA bottom feeder coming up.

Which are depressing news for a fan.

[step]

The Bulls got back their 1st pick which should have never been traded.

While I agree with the sentiment, it is not like we can change the past.

I think this ultimately is viewed on whichever side of the coin if the pick was truly ever at risk of being conveyed or not.

Basically, we've salary dumped Zach... which I am not totally against. It just confuses me to largely do that type of deal and then not take up Atlanta's offer for Vuc. Maybe/hopefully we will? Time will tell.

[drosestruts]

I'll be left thinking for a long time about missed opportunities to "have our cake and eat it too"

It's hard to get over the Kings landing Zach and 5-6 picks (two for sure 1st rounders and some 2nds).

I think we routinely see veteran players getting their value slammed for not being 1A guys or "young anymore". Trying to rebuild with only your own picks is dumb. I can't help but wonder what combination of player and picks we could have received if we were the ones taking in these veteran players, along with future picks.

Guys like:

Julius Randle - who I think could fit well upfront flanked by Jalen Smith and Matas/Williams

Mitchell Robinson or Robert Williams 3 - intriguing, athletic centers with notable injury histories

Bradley Beal

Khris Middleton

CJ McCollum

John Collins a year ago

Jerami Grant


These are still talented players, simply on overpaid contracts. Some of them even fit positions of need for us. Could we have had them plus picks?

[Betta Bulleavit]

That's it.Posters are trying to rationalize the trade but it was simply a very bad trade made again by a very bad FO.
Just it.

No, that’s not it. Half of these so called analysts don’t know what they are talking about beyond initial returns simply put, they’re wrong far more often than they are right. I had previously asked what you felt made this such a bad trade. But you never responded. Would you be willing to?

Traded Zach losing our best player and scorer in an obvious tanking move and I don't see a point in following a team looking for the next draft.
We got meh players at best in return for Zach.
The Bulls got back their 1st pick which should have never been traded.

I can respect this take. And you aren’t the only one that feels this way. But it really does feel (to me) that some people had a perception of Zach’s value that simply didn’t match reality. Even back when Woj was covering this thing, he talked about a cool market on Zach. Shams and Windhorst essentially confirmed it. Yes, Zach is a fine player. But when you look at the kind of teams that would be interested in Zach, none of them had the type of players or draft capital that were movable for him. The league wasn’t Zach’s market. It was narrowed down to a smaller group of team “types”. It is for this reason that getting anything more than what we did would have been hard to do.

In terms of the pick and getting back control of it, that kinda goes back to what I was saying to Duck earlier today. That was spilled milk that needed to be cleaned up. Would we have been better off had we not spilled that milk at all? Sure. But at least the kitchen’s clean now.

The truth is that this trade at least positions us into the lane that we need to be in. Should it make anyone comfortable that AK is driving? Probably not. But it’s nice to feel like we finally have a direction.

[WindyCityBorn]

Just watched the Bulls official tribute video and it made me much sadder than I expected. What makes it worse is he didn’t even get traded to winning situation. Like damn will he ever get to play for winner while he still in top form?

[Onibuh]

This only makes sense if they trade Vuc and another player like Coby or Lonzo.

Not a good way to start a rebuild with only 1 Pick. Could have just have that with Lavine on the roster.
I expect them to sign Giddy to a lenghty contract we won't like and have him with Pat starting.

All that to be no fun to watch, not really improving and not having enough picks for a proper rebuild.
You should be able to get a late 1st in the Vuc trade and you can get one for Lonzo/Coby while taking on somebodys bad contract.

If you can't get that there is no point in a rebuild instead of trying to get better with what you already had.

I can see them win more games than they expect it Vuc is still here and Giddy gets the ball to Huerter on a hot shoting game.