Chicago Bulls: 4 players who were traded too early

Since the turn of the century, there were a lot of moves that the Chicago Bulls front office made that most fans would clearly disagree with.

In the franchise history of the Chicago Bulls, there’s a number of players that could be considered given up on too early. The Bulls do have a weird history of trades. It’s not all bad, but it’s definitely not all good.

This list was constructed based off of players traded since the turn of the century. Going back further than that could open up all sorts of rabbit holes, especially in the bulk of the years under former general manager Jerry Krause. He had a weird and rough end to his tenure as the Bulls general manager.

And while Krause gave way to an initially successful stint under former vice president of basketball operations John Paxson, that didn’t last forever either. The Bulls just saw off Paxson and fellow former general manager Gar Forman earlier this year, which was a move that should’ve happened at least three years ago.

Entering the 2020 offseason, in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic and a paused regular season/playoff structure, the Bulls made the move to hire former Denver Nuggets general manager Arturas Karnisovas. He will be taking over in Paxson’s role as the lead voice in the front office. And former Philadelphia 76ers vice president of player personnel Marc Eversley will be taking over for Forman as the next general manager.

Maybe this is the necessary front office change that the Bulls need to reignite the rebuild heading into its fourth year. It could be a good way to look forward with a rough recent history now officially put into the rear view mirror.

Nonetheless, the new look front office regime does have to learn from the past to make sure the same mistakes aren’t repeated. Here’s a look back at four players that the Bulls traded too early, before they were really able to flourish in the Windy City.