In recent NBA news, the Chicago Bulls should be very interested in the Houston Rockets’ decision to hire Ime Udoka. Udoka comes to the Rockets by way of the Boston Celtics, the team he coached to the NBA Finals last season. He certainly has a relationship with most of his former players, but one player, in particular, thrived under Udoka: Jaylen Brown, the All-Star wing who just so happens to be a free agent in 2024.
The Rockets make perfect sense as a candidate to try and trade for Brown; he has a great shot at re-signing to be the top guy in Houston, he has the relationship with Udoka, and the Rockets want to take a big step forward next season. The Celtics certainly want to keep Brown, but with the new CBA on the horizon, it will be extremely difficult for the Celtics to pay both Jayson Tatum and Brown supermax contracts and field a team around them.
If the Celtics do field offers for Brown, then, Houston will be on the phone. The problem for them is their assets to trade; they have essentially stripped their team of veteran players making any sort of substantial money. They have young players aplenty, but the Celtics are a contender; they don’t just want future picks and developmental projects.
Can the Chicago Bulls help Jaylen Brown get to Houston?
That’s where the Bulls come in. We aren’t going to litigate here whether they should tear things down and rebuild; let’s just assume for the moment that they will. They see the writing on the wall after a disappointing season saw them miss the playoffs entirely, and want to recoup assets for their current stars. If so, jumping into a three-team trade like this one could be the ticket.
Let’s look at how a trade with the Rockets, Celtics, and Bulls could look, and why facilitating Jaylen Brown to the Rockets could help the Bulls kickstart their rebuild.