3 trades Chicago Bulls can make without giving up Williams or White: Robert Covington
With his contract set to expire and hit unrestricted free agency this offseason, Robert Covington should certainly be a player the Chicago Bulls have their eyes set on. The Portland Trail Blazers originally gave up multiple first-round draft picks to acquire Covington in hopes of helping Damian Lillard win a championship, so they’d likely wish to reclaim a few assets before he likely leaves this summer.
Covington is one of the very few players that address practically every need the Bulls have. He can defend the perimeter well. He isn’t a pushover when it comes to rebounding off the glass. He is a quality three-point shooter and can stretch the floor as a frontcourt partner next to Vucevic. Best of all, he’s had a slow start to the season which should hopefully pull his trade value down just a bit for the Bulls to swoop in and buy low.
Slow start notwithstanding, Covington has gotten things back on track as of late. Over his last 12 games, he’s posted averages of 10.7 points and 7.3 rebounds, coupled with an absolutely ridiculous 3.6 stocks (steals and blocks) per game. He has also shot 42.6 percent from beyond the arc over this stretch, on a fairly big sample size of 5.1 attempts per contest.
Covington has long been one of the most impactful players in the NBA without the ball in his hands, which is exactly what a star-saturated Chicago Bulls team needs. Given how former Trail Blazer Derrick Jones Jr. has excelled as a role player with this team, it’s no stretch to believe Covington could also enjoy a similar boost in performance in the Windy City.
The tricky part of this deal is offering a package the Trail Blazers are interested in. The Bulls do not have enough draft capital to send end of the rotation players and picks to make this deal work, nor do the salaries match up to make that sort of deal happen anyways. Chicago’s best salary-matching asset is Derrick Jones Jr., but considering Portland just dealt him to Chicago, it’s unlikely they would value him highly in a trade for Covington.
Instead, the Bulls’ best option would be to get a third team involved. For instance, a team like Sacramento has a few disgruntled players of their own and is also looking to be an active seller on the trade market.
This offer would not only give Portland the opportunity to recoup their 2022 lottery-protected first-round pick but also allow the Trail Blazers to send future draft picks in other trades if they decide to continue committing resources to build a team around Lillard.