After using up most of their financial flexibility in 2021, this summer’s free agency was a relatively quiet one for the Chicago Bulls. Although they didn’t make any splashy new signings, Chicago did manage to retain their star guard Zach LaVine and is in a position where they can continue improving via trades.
The Bulls were heavily rumored to be in pursuit of big man Rudy Gobert earlier this offseason, but Minnesota ultimately won the sweepstakes for the French big man. The window hasn’t closed to make a deal with the Utah Jazz, however, as they still have plenty of assets worth peddling now that they’ve committed to a full-on rebuild.
With Cleveland coming in to swoop Donovan Mitchell away from Utah (and the similarly interested New York Knicks), the Jazz have now an incredible stockpile of future draft capital. As they bottom out in pursuit of highly-coveted draft prospect Victor Wembanyama, the Jazz will likely look to trade away any player that would win them games and hurt their draft lottery odds.
Now that the Utah Jazz have clearly signaled an intention to rebuild, the Chicago Bulls would be wise to pursue these 3 players.
Fortunately for the Bulls, the Jazz still have quite an impressive selection of players to choose from. This should come as no surprise as the Jazz have the NBA’s third-best winning percentage over the last six seasons, only a mere five wins behind the first-place Milwaukee Bucks.
That being said, not every good player on their roster necessarily makes sense to pursue in a trade. For starters, talented veterans like Mike Conley and Jordan Clarkson could be good acquisitions for other teams, but their skill sets would be redundant for the Bulls and their cost puts them out of Chicago’s desired price range.
For that reason, we’ll focus in on the three Jazz players I could realistically see the Chicago Bulls pursuing on the trade market.