5 Bulls most likely to be placed on trade block if Chicago blows it up

Ten games into the 2023-24 campaign and things have… not been going great for the Chicago Bulls. The team has stumbled to a 4-6 record despite a relatively weak early schedule while Chicago’s trio of former All-Stars have each statistically regressed from their season averages last year.

As a result, other teams have already begun lining up for the chance to steal away the Bulls’ best talent for pennies on the dime. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst shed some light on the whispers he’s heard around the NBA, “In talking to some people around the league, the scouts are jamming themselves into Bulls games because they realize that at some point, the Bulls may break this team up. And they’re all gathering intelligence like, ‘What’s gonna happen with the Bulls?'”

What a great question indeed. What is going to happen with the Bulls? Although I can’t escape the feeling Chicago’s front office is willing to sink with the ship at this point, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that the Bulls do have the assets necessary to kick off an interesting rebuild if they choose to go that route. Let’s dive in and look at the five players most likely to be on the move if the Bulls blow it up.

These five players could be on the move before the season ends if the Bulls blow the roster up and begin a rebuild.

5. Nikola Vucevic

Undoubtedly the third-best player on this Bulls roster, Nikola Vucevic has done a great deal to put to rest concerns over how he got off on the wrong foot in Chicago. After earning an All-Star selection in 2021, Vucevic regressed hard in his first full season with the Bulls in 2022, before finally getting things back on track in 2023.

This inspired enough confidence in the front office to justify dolling out a three-year, $60 million contract to the big man. Although I would have preferred for Chicago to consider getting younger and more athletic on the low block, it’s hard to be mad about this deal in retrospect, considering much more money was forked out to several inferior players in free agency.

I’m not sure just how much Vooch would fetch if the Bulls were to trade him, but he certainly has value. That being said, although he is the third-best player in Chicago, he is certainly not the third-most likely to be traded in a rebuild. In fact, I wouldn’t even be surprised to see Vucevic still on a barebones pre-rebuild Bulls roster a year from now.