The trade rumor mill is beginning to spin faster for the Chicago Bulls.
A Nikola Vucevic deal could be in the works.
Lonzo Ball, Torrey Craig and Jevon Carter may be on the move before the Feb. 6 trade deadline.
There's even finally movement on a potential Zach LaVine deal as the Denver Nuggets become more and more desperate to put another scorer and creator alongside Nikola Jokic.
Bulls fans and, for the most part, the NBA as a whole are focused on what Chicago could do with its veterans over the next six weeks.
And that's probably a good thing because looking back on a move the team made last summer that was questionable at the time is only going to cause more pain.
Bulls set themselves back years with Alex Caruso-Josh Giddey swap
Last summer's Caruso for Giddey trade seemed like a bad return for Chicago. In exchange for a valuable role player on a wildly team-friendly contract, the Bulls received a point guard with an admittedly high upside but several concerns that caused the Thunder to bench him entirely for two games during their playoff run.
Giddey has never been a good shooter, which limits his team's spacing considerably. He's nothing more than an average athlete and is an awful defender. And he hasn't seemed to fix any of those flaws since joining the Bulls, which has led coach Billy Donovan to bench him during critical moments at the end of games, just as the Thunder did.
The fact that Chicago couldn't talk OKC into parting with any of its massive slew of draft picks makes the deal even more confusing and frustrating. But after Jake Fischer released some more details about the move on The Stein Line substack, it looks way, way, way worse.
According to Fischer, the Bulls rebuffed all offers for Caruso to the point that teams around the league didn't think Chicago had any interest in moving him right up until the Giddey deal went through.
The Bulls front office passed on trading Caruso to the Golden State Warriors for multiple first-round picks and/or Moses Moody at last season's trade deadline, per Fischer.
The Sacramento Kings offered the No. 13 pick in the 2024 draft. The Memphis Grizzlies were willing to part with multiple first-rounders, to which the Bulls said no before Memphis pivoted to acquiring Marcus Smart from the Boston Celtics.
The Philadelphia 76ers and Houston Rockets "loved" Caruso, Fischer added.
So rather than land an instant lottery pick, multiple first-round selections from several teams or a 22-year-old wing in Moody, the Bulls held onto Caruso, lost in the Play-In Tournament and traded him straight up for a flawed point guard who will be a free agent after the season and reportedly wants a new deal in the ballpark of $30 million per year.
Had Chicago pulled the trigger on any one of those offers, its rebuild would look drastically different.
Here's to hoping the front office doesn't repeat the mistake with LaVine or Vucevic, but given its track record the last few seasons, confidence isn't exactly sky-high.