Chicago Bulls: Grading the Lonzo Ball sign-and-trade deal
What the Chicago Bulls had to give up to get Lonzo Ball?
First and foremost, I want to say that what the Bulls had to give up to get Lonzo was not all that bad. An idea started to emerge on the morning of Aug. 2 that the Bulls could give up something like this to get Lonzo from the Pelicans. But most of the offseason thus far gave the idea that fourth-year power forward Lauri Markkanen would be the piece that Karnisovas and the Bulls would use in a sign-and-trade deal with the Pelicans.
The first piece that the Bulls gave up in this trade was the 35-year-old former Brooklyn Nets guard Temple. It wasn’t all that bad that the Bulls had to give up Temple in this sign-and-trade deal since he was an impending unrestricted free agent anyway. The Pelicans wound up signing Temple to a three-year contract subsequently, with the first two years guaranteed.
With all of this in mind, it’s not bad that the Bulls had to give up Temple, especially considering all of this cap space that is now gone with the signing of Ball.
The more pressing of the matter of the pieces that the Bulls gave up to get Lonzo to the Windy CIty is Sato. A key contributor to the Bulls over the past two seasons, Sato could’ve still been a key piece to this backcourt unit for head coach Billy Donovan heading into next season.
But Sato likely was not going to be back with the Bulls beyond next season. You also have this consideration once again that the Bulls had to shed Sato’s salary to be able to make room for some of the bigger signings that Karnisovas and Eversley had in mind for this summer.
The main drawback here is that the Bulls had to continue to give up some future draft capital to land Lonzo, but that is a small price to pay to get that elusive point guard of the future.