3 trades the Chicago Bulls made unnecessary gambles on

3. Investing too much stock into Cameron Payne

Back during the 2016-17 season, the Bulls made one of the more head scratching moves in recent memory to try and bolster their backcourt rotation. At the 2017 trade deadline, the Bulls pulled off a trade deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder that saw the likes of point guard Cameron Payne, shooting guard Anthony Morrow, and power forward Joffrey Lauvergne for a return of wing Doug McDermott and big man Taj Gibson.

The Bulls didn’t get a whole lot out of either Morrow or Lauvergne. The latter of those two only played in 20 games in a Bulls uniform before his time in the Windy City was over. And Morrow didn’t last all that long with the Bulls either. Payne was the most tenured of these three that arrived from the Thunder in the trade that sent Gibson and McDermott to OKC.

While the Bulls might have received more contributions out of at least keeping Gibson around, they get mostly net negative contributions on the floor out of the trio they received in return. At least for a little bit of time there, the Bulls tried to make Payne one of their mainstays in the backcourt rotation. He played in 67 games in a Bulls uniform, while starting in 26 of them.

Payne averaged 6.7 points per game, 2.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 0.7 steals, and 0.2 blocks. He shot 39.7 percent from the field, 33.7 percent from beyond the arc. That amounted to Payne registering a box plus/minus rating of -2.7, -0.2 value over replacement player rating, .025 win shares per 48 minutes, and a 48.4 true shooting percentage.

The Bulls had a rough run at trying to find who their next face of the franchise at the point guard position would be once D-Rose and Rajon Rondo were out of the mix in the Windy City at the beginning of this rebuild.