Chicago Bulls: Re-ranking players who should be traded first at deadline

Dumping off pieces of the Chicago Bulls current young core and starting all over might be a hand that is forced for this front office before too long.

Heading into the 2020 trade deadline, the Chicago Bulls have a big decision to make as to what the mission will be by season’s end. John Paxson and Gar Forman will have to decide whether the Bulls will be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline. That decision will play into what the future of GarPax will be in the Windy City.

The Bulls fan base has patience that is running thin with the front office, and deservedly so. This team isn’t going very far in the third year of this rebuild.

All this trouble for the Bulls this season dates back to the end of that pivotal 2016-17 season. After that season where the Bulls ended their run with a first round playoff loss at the hands of the Boston Celtics, GarPax decided to dish out star small forward Jimmy Butler during the 2017 offseason for a return that would include power forward Lauri Markkanen, point guard Kris Dunn, and shooting guard Zach LaVine.

If LaVine becomes an All-Star this season, then GarPax gets exhonerated a bit for trading a player in “Jimmy G. Buckets” who could be one of the leading contenders for the MVP honors at this point. Neither LaVine nor Markkanen turned into the star the Bulls were hoping for so far.

But the Bulls set a goal at the outset of the 2019-20 regular season that this would be a year where they would make the playoffs. That goal looks to be pretty far from realistic by now. Do the Bulls try and make a move to deal out one of the core franchise cornerstones to get on the right side of the win column more often.

Here’s a look into the re-ranking of the first players that should be traded from the Chicago Bulls come the 2020 trade deadline.