Grade the Trade: Bulls land Damian Lillard in 3-team blockbuster pitch

The talk of the town for the NBA this week has been the trade request from All-NBA guard Damian Lillard. After the Portland Trail Blazers chose to keep the No. 3 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft and select point guard Scoot Henderson, Lillard made the decision that he didn’t want to live an NBA half-life, caught on a team not good enough to contend.

The Chicago Bulls and their fans can empathize, as a team caught between where it wants to be and where it needs to be. The path forward should be a rebuild, but this front office and ownership don’t seem to have the stomach for it. The current roster, however, is stuck in NBA purgatory.

Could Damian Lillard be the solution the Bulls need?

Can these two stories intersect to help to bring both teams out of the muck and mire? The Bulls need to make a major move to shake up their fate, and the Trail Blazers need to move on from Lillard to fully embrace their rebuild as Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe develop.

Trading for Damian Lillard could be that path forward for the Bulls, an out-of-this-world idea to break free of mediocrity and put an elite offense on the court. How could the Bulls pull it off? Let’s lay out the trade and see if it works for all sides.