“This trade sucks! What in the hell are the Bulls doing?”
When the trade was officially announced, this is basically what I said. Who in their right mind would make this trade?
More from Bulls History
- Revisiting the time Nate Robinson carried the Chicago Bulls in 2013
- Ranking Michael Jordan’s 11 most iconic commercials of all-time
- Ranking the 10 best sharpshooters in Chicago Bulls history
- 4 Historic NBA teams the Bulls have completely devastated
- Ranking the 13 Worst Bulls starters of the Derrick Rose era
Not only did you get back a point guard that looked awful last season, a guard that is coming off an ACL injury (which creates even more nightmare scenarios in fans’ heads all over again) and a pick not even inside the top five selections, you traded away a three-time All-Star, a Most Improved Player award recipient and one of the league’s best two-way players, which is a stupid term because everybody plays two ways, but you know what I mean.
Oh, and the Bulls gave up their own first-round pick with Butler in exchange for Dunn, LaVine and the No. 7 pick, which turned out to be Lauri Markkanen (more on him in a bit). The last thing the Bulls should be doing in a trade centering around Jimmy Butler is trading away picks.
Here’s the flip side to that: the Bulls minus Butler are an atrocious roster. That means losses. A lot of them. That could lead to Michael Porter, Jr. or Luka Doncic next summer, which would be a huge win for the Bulls and would get them their starting centerpiece for the rebuild in the post-Butler era.
LaVine is a good offensive talent, but his defensive numbers are eye-popping and not in a good away. Plus, there’s the whole “he may not play until November or December” thing because of the knee injury. Dunn was just flat-out bad in his rookie season. He’s only a second-year player next season, yes … but so was Denzel Valentine last season and he’s going to be 24 in November. Dunn is already 23 years old. It’s bad, but it’s good at the same time in a weird way.
Welcoming to rooting for a rebuilding NBA franchise!