Like it or not, the Chicago Bulls are going to be the subject of plenty of trade rumors in the upcoming months.
A quick look at the Bulls payroll shows a team somewhere between a rebuild and competing, which could change quickly with the right trades, something other teams around the league know.
Bleacher Report imagined the top-3 trade targets for every team in the NBA in a recent article and there were some interesting names attached to Bulls players who weren’t Zach LaVine or Nikola Vucevic, though LaVine was mentioned.
I would add teams to each of these players and add a couple of other players to the list of Bulls who could be trade targets of other teams this season.
Zach LaVine
-LA Clippers
-Unknown future desperation team
I recently broke the Zach LaVine trade market into tiers, including teams that could get desperate, and the Clippers were one of them.
But there are others, as LaVine is an elite scorer when healthy, so all he has to do is come back and prove that he is for a trade market to develop.
I could see a team like the Warriors or Heat being talked into LaVine as a way to push them further into the playoff discussion, same with the Nuggets or potentially the Lakers.
The Western Conference will be tough and teams with legacy players like the Warriors, Lakers and Clippers aren’t going to want to miss the playoffs. Someone will eventually bite on LaVine, but there will be other Bulls populating the trade rumors.
Torrey Craig
-Boston Celtics
-Denver Nuggets
-Any contending team that needs cheap bench depth
Bleacher Report mentioned the Celtics and Nuggets as possible suitors for Torrey Craig, which makes sense, as both could use cheap bench depth and have few ways to get it.
Craig can still knock down 3-point shots and defend, so he’d be helpful to any contending team that needed quality bench depth for cheap, as he will make just $2.8 million next season on an expiring contract.
Craig is not going to fetch the Bulls a huge return, but a second round pick or two isn’t out of the question, especially if a contender suffers some injuries and needs depth.
Will the Bulls repeat the mistake they made with Andre Drummond, holding onto a veteran for too long and getting nothing? We shall see.
Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu
-Any win-now team that needs impact talent for cheap
These two players weren’t specifically mentioned as trade targets, but if teams around the league get the sense they might be available, we will hear their names in rumors.
Both Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu are on cheap deals that would be easy to move and both guys would provide a ton of value to a good team that extends beyond next season, as both have two years left on their contracts.
You can argue whether the Bulls should cash in now or wait and see if these two become even more valuable this season, but there will be calls and rumors either way.
We are going to hear Zach LaVine rumors until the glorious day he’s finally traded (I have nothing against LaVine, but this drama needs to end) but he won’t be the only Bulls player in rumors next season, as Chicago is on the cusp of a real rebuild and may eventually have a fire sale to get there.
