The Chicago Bulls have secured the No. 9 seed and will play the Miami Heat in the opening round of the 2025 Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament on Wednesday, April 16. Even though the team is playing dramatically different basketball compared to the last few seasons, the outcome remains the same: Another year, another Play-In spot (and another matchup with Miami).
This postseason has more promise. Since the All-Star break, Josh Giddey has sneakily turned into one of the most productive players in the NBA and certainly one of the best point guards. Coby White seems comfortable as a top offensive option, averaging 25.4 points since the break, 13th best in the league.
Rookie Matas Buzelis looks like the real deal as a 6-foot-10 combo forward with explosive athleticism and a budding skill set. He leads the Bulls in blocks by a wide margin and will end the year with 45/36/82 shooting splits.
But the 2024-25 campaign will be the third consecutive losing season for the Bulls. The last time the franchise made the playoffs was in 2022 when, after losing Lonzo Ball to injury, the team backed into the postseason with the No. 6 seed before losing to the Milwaukee Bucks in five games.
As promising as this year has been, few around the league would say the Bulls are trending toward exciting. There have been thrilling moments and massive improvements, but there's no star power; nothing that would get Bulls fans ecstatic for the future.
Perhaps this trade proposal would.
Bulls trade Josh Giddey to Hornets for LaMelo Ball in mock deal
A free agent entering this season, Giddey was reportedly looking for at least $30 million per year in a new deal. He's likely played his way into that range. This potential trade would hinge on the 22-year-old signing a massive extension in a sign-and-trade move.
The deal, brainstormed by Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report, could look something like this:
Bulls receive: LaMelo Ball
Hornets receive: Josh Giddey (sign-and-trade), Dalen Terry, 2025 first-round pick (top five protected), 2027 first-round pick (lottery protected)
The financial math on any trade would have to be finalized between the two organizations, as Giddey would need to put pen to paper on a new contract. That would affect some of the other pieces potentially going back and forth, but for the sake of this trade, the Hornets get one of Chicago's top young prospects in Terry and two first-round picks, including the Bulls' selection this year, unless it lands in the top five.
Ball is a unique player and popular among the younger generation of NBA fans, but his talent, basketball savvy and production have yet to translate to winning. Swapping him out for Giddey, a pass-first player who's comfortable taking a back seat in the scoring department but is a constant triple-double threat and shares some of Ball's physical traits, could help propel the Hornets forward as a more balanced team alongside Brandon Miller, Mark Williams and Miles Bridges.
Grading the Giddey-Ball mock trade for the Bulls
Sending out Giddey, who appears to be finally making good on the potential that made him a top-10 pick and has become arguably Chicago's best player, would be a curious move. But getting a young franchise cornerstone in Ball, a more offensively skilled and complete player, makes sense for the organization on multiple fronts.
It would immediately put Chicago back on the NBA map, locally and nationally. The Bulls would have a player with real star power for the first time since Derrick Rose.
Ball brings similar traits to the floor. Like Giddey, he has elite positional size at 6-foot-7 and, like Giddey, can fill the stat sheet in multiple categories. The 23-year-old has career averages of 21.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 7.4 assists and 1.5 steals with shooting splits of 42/37/84.
The knock on the 2021 Rookie of the Year is that he's a me-first scorer who posts gaudy numbers and highlight-reel plays but can't lead a winning team. Since Ball entered the league as the third overall pick in the 2020 draft, the Hornets have finished no higher than 10th in the Eastern Conference standings.
The five-year pro has also struggled with injuries, only once playing more than 51 games in a season. He's played a combined 69 games over the last two years. So why would the Bulls make this move?
Ball doesn't deserve all the blame for being part of a losing team. Charlotte was one of the worst-run franchises in the NBA long before he entered the league; the Hornets have only made the playoffs five times this century. Chicago isn't exactly the ideal of a well-run franchise, but Charlotte has been more pathetic for far longer.
Would Ball's stats feel so hollow if he had better teammates, a more stable organization and a stable head coach? Playing alongside White, Buzelis, and, potentially, veterans like Nikola Vucevic, Kevin Huerter and his brother Lonzo could help Ball transition from highlight-heavy star to true franchise point guard.
It's easy to forget he was an All-Star in his age-20 season when he played 75 games and averaged 20.1 points, 6.7 rebounds, 7.6 assists and 1.6 steals while hitting 38.9 percent of his 7.5 three-point attempts. The Hornets also won 43 games that year.
This following a rookie season that saw him score 15.7 points per game while grabbing 5.9 rebounds, dishing out 6.1 assists and nabbing 1.6 steals a night. Ball was on a true superstar trajectory before he turned 21.
The last three seasons he's struggled with injuries that have hampered his production, but the same potential that was there three years ago still exists. Running pick-and-rolls with Buzelis and getting to the rim or finding the 20-year-old for lobs; spraying passes out to White, Vucevic or Huerter; playing alongside a defense-first guard like Ayo Dosunmu; and leading the free-flowing, up-tempo offense now employed by head coach Billy Donovan could help unlock Ball's talent and allow his versatile skill set to shine.
With the Bulls still stuck in NBA purgatory, even with improved campaigns from Giddey and White, taking a flier on Ball would be a worthy risk for a franchise in need of a major jolt.
