3. Chicago Bulls get two young players from New York
In this trade with the New York Knicks, the Chicago Bulls can receive two young players with a ton of potential in RJ Barrett and Obi Toppin. The two are just 22 and 25 years old, respectively, and have a ton of room to develop in the right situations.
Thus far, RJ Barrett has been a center of attention for the Knicks as he has gotten a large share of scoring opportunities through his first four years in the league. This has led to the Duke product scoring 19.1 PPG over the last three years, albeit on somewhat low efficiency. The guard is shooting 43.7% from the field and 34.7% from deep over this time, which definitely needs to improve if he wants to become an elite scorer in the NBA.
Despite this, he has shown that he is able to score the basketball extremely well, including against the Bulls. On December 23, Barrett exploded for 44 points on 14-20 shooting (6-6 from three) in a game where DeMar DeRozan had to hit a jumper with less than a second remaining on the clock for a Bulls 118-117 win.
Games like these are ones that make Barrett such an interesting prospect, and this coupled with his excellent defensive ability makes for an extremely interesting placement on the Bulls. A coupling of RJ Barrett and Zach LaVine could bring a two-headed monster that leads Chicago to the playoffs in the future.
In addition to Barrett, the Bulls could add PF Obi Toppin to the roster. Toppin has had his growth severely stunted with Julius Randle in the lineup, as he has gotten inconsistent minutes and has not had the chance to truly develop. However, in the times that Toppin has gotten chances, he has made the most of them. Obi started 5 games towards the end of this regular season, where he averaged 21.8 PPG on 58.3/44.4/90 shooting splits. This included two 30+ point games, which shows the forward’s raw scoring ability. He has had some struggles on the defensive end, but his raw ability at 6-foot-9 with a 7-foot-2 wingspan and a 44-inch vertical indicates that he could be a solid defender if given more reps.
Additionally, this trade can help Patrick Williams develop as well. With Toppin sliding in at the power forward, Williams can move to the small forward, where he is much better suited. Williams has shown to be adept at defending wings, and while he is undersized at PF at 6-foot-7, he is in a better physical position at SF. With this trade, the Chicago Bulls can receive two young players with potential while giving up two years of DeMar, whose talents would likely be wasted on the current Bulls roster.