Chicago Bulls: 3 complex trades with the Sixers for Ben Simmons

Complex Chicago Bulls trades with the Sixers for Ben Simmons

Given the expense that the Bulls have on the books moving forward, and validly so, between the star duo of center Nikola Vucevic and shooting guard Zach LaVine, they don’t have much cap room to work with. That’s what makes finding a trade to get Simmons from the Sixers so difficult for this Bulls front office.

For the Bulls to make any moves like this happen, they will have to shed contracts from players like veteran forward Thaddeus Young, combo guard Tomas Satoransky, and second-year point guard Coby White. But this deal also sees them throw fourth-year power forward Lauri Markkanen into the discussion as part of a sign-and-trade player swap.

What this trade deal doesn’t have involved, and surprisingly so in this hypothetical world, is any picks getting exchanged.

The Bulls ship four players off to Philly to get the return of Simmons, veteran point guard George Hill, and young and developing forward Paul Reed. The point of trading for Reed is just to get some forward depth and numbers to the rotation back after having dealt forwards/big men like Markkanen and Young. Landing Hill and Simmons obviously take care of any point guard need after dealing out White.

And the Bulls manage to match salaries here somehow by taking on the contract of Hill, which is worth just shy of $10 million in the final year of his current deal. There’s no player or team option for the final year of Hill’s contract either. This would just be one that the Bulls are stuck with, granted it might be worth it to trade for Simmons.