Chicago Bulls: 3 speculative trades with OKC for Shai-Gilgeous Alexander
Chicago Bulls speculative trades with OKC for Shai-Gilgeous Alexander
By far the diciest deal that the Bulls could make would involve dishing out LaVine to the Thunder. That might be a hard sell for a lot of Bulls fans, and I get that. But this is certainly something that would bring a lot of intrigue to the table for multiple reasons. Obviously, the Bulls fill their point guard need through multiple avenues.
The question that the Bulls would really have to ask themselves is who will turn out better in the end; LaVine or SGA?
For the time being, SGA clearly has the more team-friendly deal. He will still have two years remaining on the life of his rookie contract heading into next season. He will not be paid more than $5.5 million annually until the final year of his rookie contract too.
I mentioned at the beginning of this article that SGA would be a tremendous addition for the Bulls due to the fact that he could round out the starting five of the future alongside LaVine. While trading LaVine wouldn’t accomplish that goal, it could still help to elevate this team to a new level when it’s all said and done.
Moreover, at this point of his career, the former Boston Celtics and Charlotte Hornets point guard Kemba Walker has one of the most expensive contracts around the NBA landscape. He seems to have the type of anchor contract that it would take a team a lot to want to take on heading into next season. And while the Thunder just traded the Celtics to take on Walker for more future draft capital, this deal might be too risky for them.
The Thunder do seem very open to a Kemba trade already, though.
The other pieces on the move from the Bulls in this particular hypothetical trade deal are veteran forward Thaddeus Young and White. The Bulls also get an unprotected first-round draft pick in 2023 (which would likely be a very good one) to get Walker and SGA from the Thunder.
Once again, this deal is likely going to sound far-fetched to Thunder fans. But getting off the Kemba contract won’t be easy and the Thunder have plenty of future draft picks to work with.