The Chicago Bulls had a harsh fall in the standings to finish the regular season. They only won six games after the All-Star break and fell from the one seed to the sixth. While their play in the post-season can salvage the current doubt, as it stands, there will likely be roster changes in the offseason.
There are plenty of options the Bulls can explore, especially with Zach LaVine entering the offseason as an unrestricted free agent. One option that is risky is bringing in the hometown hero, Anthony Davis. NBA Analysis writer, Kenneth Teape, believes that the trade would work out and proposed dealing Coby White, Patrick Williams, Nikola Vucevic, and a 2022 first-round pick.
Anthony Davis is an extraordinary talent. He is a member of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team who can play inside and out at the height of 6-foot-11. His skillset would instantly boost the Bulls’ roster and he would be their best player.
That is not up for debate.
What makes this proposal, and anything involving Davis, problematic is the fact that Davis has a thick injury history. He missed 42 games this season after declaring that his new workout regime had helped his durability.
He has never played an entire season in his NBA career and has cost the Lakers their future while being sidelined during their final stretches two of his three years with LA.
Is Anthony Davis the most injury-prone star in the league?
— Lake Show Life (@TheLakeShowLife) October 27, 2021
With the young core the Bulls have built (as well as their success thus far), does a trade for Davis really make sense?
The answer is a shaky no overall but a hard pass in this scenario.
White and Williams are both former lottery picks who have shown flashes of being key contributors. White shot over 52% on catch and shoot opportunities for most of the season while Williams has the natural tools to be an elite three-and-D specialist. Both have also gone through tough stretches that contributed to the team’s recent struggles. As young players, they need time to work through those ups and downs.
Either way, the two have the ability to be key pieces in Chicago’s future beyond DeMar DeRozan and Vucevic. Trading them for a player whose history says he will not be available for key stretches in the season isn’t a good move.
Trading Vucevic for Davis isn’t a bad option, however. The Bulls’ late season slip showed that they need interior defense and Vucevic doesn’t provide that. His scoring is nice but not nice enough to cover up his defensive deficiencies. If Vucevic had the value to be traded for AD straight up, the deal would be a no-brainer. But that is not the case.
Instead, the package would include two or more of their key role players.
The Bulls have the aspiration to win a championship. Health is a key role in making runs in the playoffs. The only time Davis was healthy for the entirety of the playoffs was in 2020. That season, the league was paused for nearly four months. Those four months gave him the break he needed to stay healthy.
Unfortunately, there aren’t four-month mid-season breaks in a typical NBA season. The NBA Bubble allowed for a lot of unrealistic things to play out — the biggest turning out to be Davis’ health.
To get Davis is to mortgage the future, as proposed in NBA Analysis Net’s trade package. With his injury history, especially down the stretch, that cost is way too high for a Bulls team that finally seems to be building something special.