BR proposes hefty Rudy Gobert trade to the Chicago Bulls

A bold trade proposal in a recent Bleacher Report piece had the Chicago Bulls mortgaging their future to get Rudy Gobert from the Jazz.

The trade market is going to be an unpredictable place for the Chicago Bulls to do their work this offseason, thanks to all of the necessary front office turnover that was enacted starting back in spring of this year. The Bulls need to make sure the direction of this rebuild heading into its fourth year is in the right place.

Sparking the next phase of the rebuild was the Reinsdorfs demoting former vice president of basketball operations John Paxson to more of a senior advisor role and letting go of general manager Gar Forman entirely. GarPax is now out of power as the lead voices in the Bulls front office.

And GarPax is to be replaced by the likes of former Denver Nuggets general manager Arturas Karnisovas as the lead voice, and former Philadelphia 76ers vice president of player personnel Marc Eversley as the next general manager. The official title for Karnisovas with the Bulls will be executive vice president of basketball operations.

Moreover, Karnisovas was adept to building a contender out in the Western Conference with what he showed he could do with the Nuggets. He built the core surrounding superstar big man Nikola Jokic and offensive standout guard Jamal Murray in the Mile High City.

What moves could Karnisovas make to ignite a more promising outlook for the Bulls rebuild starting this offseason?

Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report had one proposal for the Bulls to find more immediate success by hitting the trade market. In a piece released on July 16 by Hughes and BR, he mentioned where the Bulls could look to ignite the rebuild this offseason.

He proposed that the Bulls take a big risk on sending a huge set of assets to the Utah Jazz for a return of just the reigning Defensive Player of the Year and star center Rudy Gobert. The return for Gobert from the Bulls included rookie point guard Coby White, second-year center Wendell Carter Jr., veteran forward Thaddeus Young, and their 2020 first round draft pick unprotected.

What the Bulls would be getting in Gobert is a one-time NBA All-Star selection, two-time All-NBA Team selection, two-time Defensive Player of the Year, 2016-17 blocks champion, and three-time All-Defensive Team honoree. But they would have to give up their last two first round draft picks in White and Carter and their 2020 first round pick no matter what. That is a huge amount to give up for a player in Gobert that is in the final year of his current contract.

Here’s more on what Hughes had to say on the reasoning for this trade package in this BR piece.

"This is a ton for the Chicago Bulls to surrender, but Rudy Gobert is a truly rare game-changing big who’ll instantly give them a defensive identity—with the added bonus of forcing head coach Jim Boylen (or whoever takes over if new management moves on) to abandon an overly aggressive trapping scheme.It’ll be straight drop coverage with perimeter defenders funneling everything to the NBA’s top rim-protector.The Bulls’ point guard situation is unsettled, but if Gobert’s arrival signals a full-on commitment to defense, Kris Dunn might be worth retaining. Zach LaVine’s constant space-outs would hurt less with Gobert on the back line. Same goes for Lauri Markkanen, who could actually survive at the 4 with an ace shot-blocker cleaning up his mistakes."

While the Bulls could use an immediate injection of star power into their rebuild, mortgaging the future for a player that could hit the free agent market in the very near future doesn’t seem like a great move. But the scope of this group of trade proposals was getting the bottom 10 teams in the NBA a boost of talent that would get them into the playoffs as soon as next season.

Getting the “Stifle Tower” into the mix likely could get the Bulls further into playoff contention right away, so this trade would at least accomplish that feat. This is still something that Karnisovas shouldn’t model his 2020 offseason plan after in any regard.