Chicago Bulls: 3 reasons to stay away from an Andre Drummond trade

Chicago Bulls(Photo by Brian Sevald/NBAE via Getty Images)
Chicago Bulls(Photo by Brian Sevald/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Chris Schwegler/NBAE via Getty Images)
(Photo by Chris Schwegler/NBAE via Getty Images) /

2. The Pistons might want too much in return

At this point of his NBA career, Drummond is about topping out in his production. Landing in a more beneficial system to opening up the frontcourt for him to dominate is about the only way that he would continue to improve his numbers. The Chicago Bulls wouldn’t be able to give Drummond that framework he would need to take his production to the next level, though.

But without fellow star big man Blake Griffin in the Motor City for most of the 2019-20 regular season, Drummond has become about as much of a stat-sheet filler as he could possibly be. Drummond is averaging 17.4 points per game, 15.7 rebounds, and 2.6 assists, while shooting 52.6 percent from the field and slightly better than 61 percent from the free-throw line.

Drummond is also posting a player efficiency rating of about 22.0 and 3.3 win shares on the season so far. Those number would lead one to believe that the Pistons are going to want a sizable return in a potential Drummond trade package. The Bulls would have to go a long way to match salaries for Drummond, and that might involve dishing out OPJ.

If the Pistons wanted more in return for Drummond than even OPJ, then the Bulls would really have to dig deep for a player that is going to want a large contract this offseason and take up the bulk of their cap space. OPJ is also the player that fills the Bulls biggest positional need at the moment. Trading him here doesn’t make much sense for GarPax.