Bulls are shopping Thad Young not Zach LaVine

[dougthonus]

https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/bulls/why-its-too-early-speculate-about-zach-lavines-future-bulls

In fact, according to executives from two other teams, Thad Young, not LaVine, is the player considered most readily available. That’s largely based on Young’s displeasure with his role and usage last season, his team-friendly deal that carries only a partial guarantee in 2021-22 and his dependability and professionalism.

Thought this was a pretty good set of sources, since its based on other team executives and what they're hearing from the Bulls in trade offers. I'm all for trading Thad, even if we only get an expiring deal back, just to remove his 21-22 cap hit.

[MikeDC]

KC with the sales pitch! “Team-friendly deal” that current team doesn’t want with dead money attached to dependable and professional player unhappy with his role and usage.

I agree it would be about the best case scenario to get out from under the dead money. They might be better off keeping him though, and trading Lauri.

[mack2354]

Makes sense. He's not happy and we weren't happy with his production. If we get an expiring then everybody is happy.

[dougthonus]

KC with the sales pitch! “Team-friendly deal” that current team doesn’t want with dead money attached to dependable and professional player unhappy with his role and usage.

I agree it would be about the best case scenario to get out from under the dead money. They might be better off keeping him though, and trading Lauri.

The lack of total guaranteed money to Thad might make him pretty attractive to a veteran team looking to make an impact in 20/21 that could use him and has some dead salary on the books.

Thad for Iguodala makes sense for both sides. Saves the Heat a little money this year, gives them a much better player at a position of need, and cleans the Bulls cap for 2022. Spurs could consider the same thing for Rudy Gay, though not sure that Young is enough of an upgrade or that they would care based on their position.

Maybe Thad to Memphis for Justice Winslow whom didn't suit up for htem this year due to a hip injury or for Dieng whom barely played. Dieng would save them 3M this year which would offset the option cost next year to a large degree if they went that route.

To Minnesota for James Johnson? Minny may not care enough about the upgrade to do the trade if they're looking to rebuild, but it's relatively low cost and would help them for a season.

Those were the best options I was able to find. The Iguodala trade to Miami feels like a no brainer for the Heat.

[Evil_Headband]

He clearly had a bad year. I guess some team might think it was due to the situation instead of his advancing age. And they might be right.

[FriedRise]

We tried to turn him into a stretch 4 so the coaching staff didn't have to come up with a different gameplan than what they had established with Lauri. We also banned the midrange game. Yeah, of course he wasn't gonna look good here. I would've asked for a trade also.

I think he can still contribute well on a contending team who knows how to use him correctly, but unfortunately for Chicago I think it'll be a sell-low situation because he had a down year.

[nitetrain8603]

It clearly points to me even louder that they are going to keep Boylen. Thad is a good rotation player and a good vet.

IMO, Bulls should blow it up minus LaVine (he's young enough). If you're looking at dealing Thad, there's no reason why you shouldn't be trying to trade Otto Porter.

[jc23]

He played as if he was 40 this year.

[kodo]

Not that different from the trade deadline. Other teams want Lavine. The Bulls want to trade Thad.
And this is why nothing big will happen with either.

We might unload Thad but I don't see anything interesting coming back. Thad wasn't highly sought as a FA even by his former team, he's an undersized PF who cant play the 5 and can't play the 3. $13M isn't really a team friendly deal for someone who doesn't fit the modern nba trend. For $6M more you get Zach Lavine, it's no wonder teams want to deal for him.

[dougthonus]

It clearly points to me even louder that they are going to keep Boylen. Thad is a good rotation player and a good vet.

IMO, Bulls should blow it up minus LaVine (he's young enough). If you're looking at dealing Thad, there's no reason why you shouldn't be trying to trade Otto Porter.

There probably isn't a trade for Porter out there that makes sense for the Bulls. The only thing you could do is trade him for long term salary that is likely to be bad salary or reclamation project type which the Bulls probably don't want to do. Maybe you could trade him for Andrew Wiggins or Kevin Love or someone like that, but I'm not sure either of those teams would take those deals either.

[Andi Obst]

This just screams deadline deal to me. Playoff team that maybe has some injuries needs vet big man and gives us a small asset back, everybody wins. Don't think that something happens before next season starts.

[ChettheJet]

That should be the first move. If they believe in Lauri long term there's no point to having Young behind him for 1 or 2 years. He's a much better fit for a sure playoff team, the veteran who comes in cold, or can start for a week due to injury, does his job and doesn't make mistakes. It's also the smart move if they at least want to take a look at Carter at the PF, there aren't that many minutes behind Lauri, there's Kornet hanging around to come in when the situation calls for it.

The question is who can they get for him that doesn't cost them similar year two cap space or young guys that can find a way to get minutes off the bench at another position. If they could get a SF and by some chance Porter stays healthy he could get backup PF minutes.

Work the phones and see if including Hutchison, Felicio, Dunn or Valentine makes for a better deal. I'm just glad there are some Bulls rumors circulating

[nomorezorro]

remember when we signed this guy the minute free agency began last summer lol

[Jvaughn]

I wonder if we can get anything positive in return for Thad. I know it won't be a FRP, but I wonder if a contender would be willing to shed a young promising player without a role in exchange for an established vet.

[MikeDC]

KC with the sales pitch! “Team-friendly deal” that current team doesn’t want with dead money attached to dependable and professional player unhappy with his role and usage.

I agree it would be about the best case scenario to get out from under the dead money. They might be better off keeping him though, and trading Lauri.

The lack of total guaranteed money to Thad might make him pretty attractive to a veteran team looking to make an impact in 20/21 that could use him and has some dead salary on the books.

Thad for Iguodala makes sense for both sides. Saves the Heat a little money this year, gives them a much better player at a position of need, and cleans the Bulls cap for 2022. Spurs could consider the same thing for Rudy Gay, though not sure that Young is enough of an upgrade or that they would care based on their position.

Maybe Thad to Memphis for Justice Winslow whom didn't suit up for htem this year due to a hip injury or for Dieng whom barely played. Dieng would save them 3M this year which would offset the option cost next year to a large degree if they went that route.

To Minnesota for James Johnson? Minny may not care enough about the upgrade to do the trade if they're looking to rebuild, but it's relatively low cost and would help them for a season.

Those were the best options I was able to find. The Iguodala trade to Miami feels like a no brainer for the Heat.

I doubt the Heat would think so, they just went through the effort of trading and extending Iggy a couple months ago.

If they thought Thad was a more valuable player they would have just traded for him then.

Basically I think the smart Play is to trade Lauri now. He will actually bring a useful return. And if we do, then we are light up front, so a meaningful role for Thad is available. If things go well, he’ll be more movable at the next deadline than he is now.

That sort of scenario is a win win for the Bulls. Keeping Lauri and trading Thad now is selling low on both players. The closer we get to Lauri’s next deal the more his trade value falls and obviously we’d lose the freedom to trade him for a pick and thus a player of our choosing.

With Thad, the opposite is the case. Rather longer we wait the less a team has to pay for Thad and the closer a team will be to “needing” a vet like him for the playoff push.he will become relatively more attractive (especially if we trade Lauri away and Thad gets more minutes under a more sensible offense that will bring his numbers up).

[PaKii94]

As it should be. Thad has no role on this team

[dougthonus]

I doubt the Heat would think so, they just went through the effort of trading and extending Iggy a couple months ago.

If they thought Thad was a more valuable player they would have just traded for him then.

Maybe, but Iguodala has been pretty awful and played relatively few minutes. Could easily see them wanting to pivot.

Basically I think the smart Play is to trade Lauri now. He will actually bring a useful return. And if we do, then we are light up front, so a meaningful role for Thad is available. If things go well, he’ll be more movable at the next deadline than he is now.

What do you think you would get for Lauri? I mean, I'm fine trading him, but I don't think he will command much.

That sort of scenario is a win win for the Bulls. Keeping Lauri and trading Thad now is selling low on both players. The closer we get to Lauri’s next deal the more his trade value falls and obviously we’d lose the freedom to trade him for a pick and thus a player of our choosing.

With Thad, the opposite is the case. Rather longer we wait the less a team has to pay for Thad and the closer a team will be to “needing” a vet like him for the playoff push.he will become relatively more attractive (especially if we trade Lauri away and Thad gets more minutes under a more sensible offense that will bring his numbers up).

You won't get any value for Thad, the best you will ever do is get out of his 3rd year partial guarantee, to which you'd need to trade him this year to do that (no team is going to give up cap room to take on Thad for no salary). So Thad's value won't go up for the Bulls IMO, because he's simply not going to be a good enough player to give up an asset for and after this season removing money from the books won't be possible. Granted, you could wait for the deadline to move Thad, but that's the last time you're likely to shed his salary and that's the best I think you could do for Thad.

Lauri's trade value will likely go down, because after this year, you'd have to move him in a S&T which automatically puts pretty big limitations on what type of value you will get back or you sign him and basically can't deal him for a season. If you trade him now, you probably won't get that much, so you would trade him because you've seen enough to say that you just don't want him at all. In that case, the value you get now will be better than the future trade value, but maybe much less than the on court value of keeping him. Of course, that value is based on the contract as well, so who knows where you are at there.

[transplant]

Young was one of those trades that made all kinds of sense in theory, but fell apart when some of the underlying assumptions weren't realized. It's hard to imagine many here who would adamantly oppose him being traded for anything that might be remotely useful.

[sco]

Gotta say Thad was a bit of a disappointment, best case someone takes him for nothing.

[MrFortune3]

Young was signed for a role he was not suited to play. He is a tough vet that gives you good production as a 6th man or better. He's a mid range, tough, energy guy not a bench and mentor guy.