The Chicago Bulls just lost to the New Orleans Pelicans, but they also watched Trey Murphy III, giving them a perfect trade target to chase at the deadline. If the Pelicans sell, Murphy should be firmly in the Bulls’ sights, and their game on Friday night was a great trade audition.
Murphy is one of the better young wings in the NBA. He’s an elite scorer, a great shooter, and holds up very well on the defensive end. For a Bulls team that has shown some promise this season, adding a guy like Murphy could be the perfect deadline swing to take if they want to make the next leap forward.
The 25-year-old forward would be great for Chicago.
Bulls should consider a Trey Murphy III trade
The Pelicans have been one of the worst teams in the league this season. They’ve been sitting at the bottom of the Western Conference for the entire year, unable to gain any traction.
Yet on Monday night, they took down the Bulls, who were one of the hottest teams in the league at the beginning of the year. Since then, however, Chicago has cooled off in a major way.
In fact, the team that was once sitting toward the top of the East is now completely out of the playoff picture. It’s been a pretty brutal stretch for Bulls basketball.
However, adding a guy like Murphy could help give them new life, especially if they pair him alongside the likes of Josh Giddey, Matas Buzelis, and Coby White (who just returned to the lineup).
Murphy’s trade audition went pretty well on Monday night, and it could give the Bulls something to think about as trade season begins to kick off in the next few weeks.
In the Pelicans’ win over the Bulls in New Orleans, Murphy finished the night with 20 points, four rebounds, four assists, and two steals while shooting 7-of-16 from the field and 4-of-10 from beyond the three-point arc.
Chicago has contracts like Patrick Williams’ and Zach Collins’ to throw in a potential deal for Murphy, and they could potentially add some draft capital to sweeten the deal for the Pelicans, too.
They could potentially throw out a lineup of Giddey, White, Murphy, Buzelis, and Nikola Vucevic moving forward, while still having guys like Tre Jones and Ayo Dosunmu coming off the pine.
With how wide open the Eastern Conference is, teams should be looking to add as much young talent as possible, and Murphy’s performance on Monday night could have been the perfect trade audition for the Bulls.