Landing a big time trade target that is still alive heading into the conference finals could be a good move for the Chicago Bulls this offseason.
With the beginning of the conference finals on tap around the NBA on the evening of Sep. 15, the Chicago Bulls and their fan base have more intriguing basketball action to watch this week. The Bulls haven’t played in a single game since mid-March. In what would be their last game of the 2019-20 regular season, prior to the pause induced by the novel coronavirus pandemic, the Bulls knocked off the Cleveland Cavaliers at home at the United Center.
That would push the Bulls to finish up their run in the 2019-20 season with a record of 22-43, good for 11th place in the final Eastern Conference standings. The record the Bulls posted prior to the pause was not near good enough to get them into the NBA’s 22-team restart in the bubble in Disney World.
But even if the Bulls were one of the teams in the NBA’s restart, they likely would not have a shot to make any noise that impacted the playoff picture. At this point, teams like the Washington Wizards that were in that sort of insignificant role in the East are very much an afterthought.
At least there is one notable former Bulls star that is still trying to make headway in the playoffs. In the Eastern Conference Finals, former Bulls star wing Jimmy Butler is trying to push the Miami Heat past the three-seed Boston Celtics to get onto the NBA Finals. But even former Bulls star center Joakim Noah is left technically in play on Sep. 15, as the Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets try to duke it out to figure out who faces the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers in the Eastern Conference Finals.
With all of that in mind, here’s a look into three possible trade target for the Bulls to watch in the conference finals starting this week.