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The Chicago Bulls Shouldn’t Go After Rudy Gay

By Jeremy Karll

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The Sacramento Kings have been part of trade rumors all offseason with DeMarcus Cousins reportedly on the trade block.

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The Chicago Bulls have been on the complete opposite side of the spectrum, as they are set to enter the 2015-16 season with the same core roster. Their only additions this offseason: Drafting rookie Bobby Portis 22nd overall in June and hiring new head coach Fred Hoiberg.

It’s a little confusing since the same team last season didn’t play as well as people had hoped and failed to meet expectations. The quiet offseason for the Bulls may come to an end however, as rumors have swirled this summer that the Kings may be looking to trade Rudy Gay, possibly somewhere like say, Chicago?

The Bulls are one of the deepest teams in the NBA and have one of the best starting lineups, so why go after Gay?

Mike Dunleavy, the current starting small forward for the Bulls, is 34 years old and doesn’t drop 20 points a night, but he still fits well with the rest of the Bulls starters, and I don’t think Gay would fit in as well.

Dunleavy is one of the most underrated small forwards in the league because he does a lot of the dirty work that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet.

According to Basketball-Reference, Dunleavy outplayed Gay on offense last season. Dunleavy had a better offensive rating (111-110), despite Gay averaging 21.1 points per game for the Kings. I would always welcome another 20-point scorer, but I think Dunleavy’s offensive rating shows how well he fits into the Bulls system and how even though Gay was a focal point of the Kings offense last season, he still didn’t play remarkable.

A possible trade scenario that’s swirling is sending Taj Gibson and Doug McDermott to the Kings in exchange for Gay. This would move Dunleavy to the bench and change his role to more of a spot-up shooter. Dunleavy is a good three-point shooter, but taking away his ability to score off the dribble would force him to be a poor man’s version of Kyle Korver.

My biggest concern if doing this trade would be losing Taj Gibson, the Bulls’ sixth man, and throwing the rookie Portis into the rotation right away. I think Portis will be a good player in the future for the Bulls, but part of that is because he’ll be able to learn from veterans and won’t feel pressure to produce right away.

Gay would give the Bulls another scorer and a younger option at the small forward position, but is he worth the money? He still has three years left on his contract and is owed $12 million this upcoming season. The Bulls would only be giving away approximately $10 million if they traded Gibson and McDermott, and after signing Jimmy Butler to a max deal, they shouldn’t be adding more money onto their payroll. They also re-signed Dunleavy this year and he still has a couple more years of being a solid starter for the Bulls.

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    • Gay is a talented player, but that doesn’t always mean he’ll make the Bulls better. He has never made a team a contender. Teams usually start to do better after trading him. Gay was drafted in 2006 by the Houston Rockets, but was traded a month later to the Memphis Grizzlies.

    The Grizzlies struggled for the first couple seasons of Gay’s career, before finally making the playoffs in the shortened 2011-12 season. They didn’t get over the hump and into the four or five seed until they traded Gay however.

    The same thing happened the next year when Gay was traded from the Toronto Raptors to the Sacramento Kings. The Raptors are now one of the top teams in the East. It’s not all Gay’s fault and it’s unfair to think that, but to never be on a contender and be as talented as Gay is, draws questions.

    It seems like the Bulls have been in the market for another scorer for years now. However, with the emergence of Jimmy Butler and the acquisition of Pau Gasol last summer, I think Chicago has filled that need. Gay has always been the first or second scoring option on a team, however, he would be the fourth option on the Bulls. That would make him more of a defensive player, which he is still good at, but that’s not worth $12 million a year. I wouldn’t want to limit Butler on offense, because he made huge strides last year.

    Rudy Gay reminds me a lot of former Bull Luol Deng, but with better a better offensive game. He’s not the defender Deng was, but he’s solid defensively. A year ago I would have loved the Bulls to go out and get a scoring forward that could help lock down the perimeter with Butler, but that was before Butler averaged 20 points per game.

    I don’t love the idea of Chicago having the same team from last season, but messing up the core of your roster isn’t what’s going to win you a championship. The biggest knock on the Bulls in previous years may have been that they need another scorer, however, I think those days are in the past and they have bigger holes they need to fill.

    Next: Putting Joakim Noah in a different role for the Bulls in 2015-16

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