Chicago Bulls: Grading the Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot trade

The Chicago Bulls have acquired Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and cash from the Oklahoma City Thunder. Was this a good move for the Bulls?

The Chicago Bulls decided to get in on the 2019 trade madness. No, they didn’t trade for a franchise cornerstone like Kristaps Porzingis or Anthony Davis, but they still made a trade nonetheless. Let’s dive into this trade and figure out what it means for the Bulls going forward.

Here’s what each team walked away with.

To many fans, this is an insignificant trade. A protected second-round pick two drafts away, cash, and a player that not many people have heard of – who cares?

If you dig a little deeper, though, you’ll see that this was a nice low-risk, high-reward move for the Bulls to make.

Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 24th overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft. He’s a 6’6″ athletic wing that can play the two or the three, which are both positions the Bulls could use some help at.

Luwawu-Cabarrot has had a rocky start to his NBA career, but at only 23 years old, he still has a ton of untapped potential.

For his young career, Luwawu-Cabarrot is averaging 5.5 points per game on a rough 38.5 percent shooting from the field and 31.7 percent shooting from 3-point range. Perhaps some of his shooting struggles are due to a lack of consistency in his playing time. Chicago might not be the best place to find consistency, but for a young guy that just needs some minutes, the Bulls might be the perfect team for him.

Luwawu-Cabarrot’s inefficiency from deep is worrisome in today’s NBA. If you’re going to be an effective wing, you have to at least be a threat from beyond the arc. His shooting form is solid, though, so maybe improvement from deep is on the horizon.

If Bulls fans are looking for a reason to be optimistic, “TLC” actually had a really solid end to his rookie campaign. In April of 2017, he averaged 18.3 points per game on 44.9 percent shooting from the field and 35.9 percent shooting from 3-point range in 33.7 minutes of action per contest. He also shot 96.3 percent from the free-throw line in 4.5 attempts per game.

Sure, the 76ers were 0-6 during that stretch, but it’s not like the Bulls are going to be winning games any time soon. If Luwawu-Cabarrot can reach anything close to the level of production he had to close his rookie season, this trade will be a massive win for the Bulls.

At the end of the day, the fans saying this trade is insignificant might be right, but it was definitely a good move for the Bulls to make. Any time a team that’s 12-40 has a chance to get a 23-year-old former first-round pick, they have to do it. The Bulls don’t have the luxury of being picky with young talent. Plus, trades don’t have to be a home run for them to be beneficial. A single still puts your team in position to succeed.

Grade: B