Possible Jimmy Butler Trade: Bulls Can Draft Bigs for Hoiball
The Bulls will likely have 14th or 17th with their own first-round pick in this year’s NBA draft. There are rumors the Bulls are being wooed by other teams for a possible Jimmy Butler trade for either top rookies (Lakers) or multiple first round picks (Celtics).
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With four games to go and things being the way they are, Jimmy Butler might be playing for a different team after the summer. The four-game losing streak the team endured was too much an eye-opener for anyone to see what’s wrong with the Bulls. Any All-Star who plays 38 minutes, but doesn’t share the ball with teammates will never work for Hoiball. A Jimmy Butler trade is exactly what the doctor ordered.
If by some miracle the Chicago Bulls do make this year’s playoffs and Butler proves critics wrong by carrying the team past the first round against either Cleveland or Toronto, playing differently from the way he has, then everyone will have something to be thankful for in keeping the All-Star.
Otherwise, give Fred Hoiberg the pieces he needs for his pace-and-space game and see if he can deliver as promised.
If the Bulls chose the best offer: the Boston Celtics supposedly offered two first-round picks and a choice of bench players and GarPax allowed Gasol and Noah to walk because Derrick Rose might be the only player whom they can keep who fits Hoiball anyway, the most immediate need would be the hole in the middle. Versatile big men who would fit Hoiball.
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A Butler trade looks amazing from this point of view.
If the other players on the team can compensate for the loss of Gasol and Noah, what kind of big would be the best fit for the Bulls? One who plays good defense in the paint and one who can create offense like Pau Gasol to keep offenses from stretching out and shutting down the Bulls’ main strength; the shooting of Doug McDermott and Nikola Mirotic.
The Bulls have been torched all season long by Gasol’s weak defensive presence in the paint that any gains from Hoiball offense are immediately negated when the opposing team just goes for a lay-up on the return play.
Taj Gibson has gotten hurt from overextending himself on defense and for playing too many minutes in a faster game. The toll has worn him down over the course of this year. The Bulls need bigs to fill out gaping holes on defense, especially in the paint.
Let’s check the top prospects, considering that GarPax accepts the offered two extra first-rounders from Boston for a Jimmy Butler trade.
If the Bulls won the lottery, they’d pick Duke’s Brandon Ingram (best player in the draft) so we’ll look at the other prospects at power forward and center.
Dragan Bender
If the Bulls draft fourth overall with the Boston pick (via the Brooklyn Nets) as the first of two for Butler, they should probably pick Dragan Bender (if Toni Kukoc had any say in the process). The Bulls probably already know the young Croatian is all upside and may even be a future Pau Gasol, but with a nose for solid defense in the paint.
Bender has been playing professional basketball in the EuroLeague since age 14 and has slowly developed into a hybrid point forward-center who can possibly fill the Joakim Noah role of running the Bulls point-center offense or push the fast break like Kukoc. The kid has a non-stop motor on defense with active hands poking at the ball and swiping passing lanes, averaging 2.9 blocks per 40 minutes. He guards the perimeter like a pesky wing, and stops opposing face-up Bigs with his length and agility.
For an 18-year-old professional player who can guard the pick-and-roll and provide offense, Bender offers better value than keeping Pau Gasol. He is only 18, yet stands seven feet tall and 218 lbs with a standing reach of 9’3″.
As a project starting center, he provides the Bulls with all sorts of threat dimensions if paired with Cristiano Felicio as his power forward buddy in the paint. The Bulls will need all the inside-outside threats at all positions for Hoiball and Bender rocks as a high-risk, high-reward draft pick. Mirotic was also considered such when the Bulls stashed him for two years. And going back further, so was Toni Kukoc.
If the Bulls bite into Danny Ainge‘s rumored offer, the future still looks good for the team even if they don’t get Brandon Ingram.
Stephen Zimmerman
Waive or trade Mike Dunleavy if the Bulls pick this young and talented doppelganger with their own 14th pick or 17th overall pick. Zimmerman is an unusually athletic player from UNLV, who might slip lower in the draft because he reportedly has a gimpy right arm that does not extend all the way out from a previous injury, which may even be corrected if the Bulls to help him get his arm repaired.
Zimmerman stands at 6’10”, 241.2 lbs with a 7’2.75″ wingspan and 9’1″ standing reach. Projected as a back-up center in the NBA, this tall and long greyhound athlete can shoot from range and attack the hoop in fast break sets. His handles are awesome for his height and he can even bring the ball up court or go from rebound to rim attack just like Bobby Portis. He is an active shot-blocker and sometimes allows his man to beat him so he can close in from the blind side and swat an attempt from behind.
He definitely fills a role in a pace-and-space unit and can provide the Bulls second unit what aging wing, Dunleavy used to give the team before his back gave out.
A.J. Hammons
The second pick of the Celtics offered to the Bulls (Dallas) lands in the 22-24 range as of now. If you notice, the two earlier prospects can essentially play point forward for the Bulls, allowing them to get a pure shooting guard among the veteran free agents or slide Tony Snell to that spot because the new passing bigs will look for him when he cuts to the basket as replacement for Butler on offense (if the Bulls are wise to keep Snell and get rid of Butler).
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The Bulls can draft another big with the third first-rounder and look for defense and rebounding role player. A.J. Hammons from Purdue might be the best bet. Hammons averaged five blocks per 40 minutes in college at 7′, 280 pounds. Hammons is a center with a 7’3″ wingspan and can anchor the Bulls defense to spell Taj Gibson on defense because a pace-and-space game should have fresh bodies inside all the time.
He also averaged 7.9 defensive rebounds out of his 12.1 rebounds for Purdue, so Portis can hoard the offensive putbacks while A.J. defends the rim with Cristiano Felicio. The Bulls have a penchant for getting picks from the same schools where they already got good players. E’Twaun Moore is among the elite scorers ever from Purdue and pairing alumni might provide good chemistry too for the team.
To make it even more interesting with the Bulls’ the second-round pick, another 7-footer, Zou Qi from China, is a strong and deceptive stretch forward with another 9’3″ reach. That is four bigs at 6’10” and 7′ with three of them with nine-foot standing reaches. One legit center and three point-forward/stretch fours.
No more lay-ups. The shooters for the Bulls can confidently chuck those threes up all night long.
All the players mentioned already have Draft Express profiles established for them as of this writing and it would be interesting what surprises these big men put up at the NBA Draft Combine in May.
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Just the idea of Hoiball working like a hot rod with explosive players like Dragan Bender and even Stephen Zimmerman as Mike Dunleavy’s doppelgange,r makes a Bulls fan lick his or her lips for next season’s avalanche of scoring and upgraded defense.
It was nice knowing you Jimmy Butler. Time to move on.