Sign-and-trade with Kings is a way out of one mess for the Bulls

Letting DeMar DeRozan walk in free agency is a pill the Bulls may have to swallow 

When the Bulls stubbornly refused to trade any of their veteran assets at the deadline, they were setting up this exact scenario. 

But you don’t fix a problem by throwing good money after bad, so there is a question of whether the Bulls should be taking on a contract like Huerter’s, which isn’t the worst, but isn’t great for a guy who would not likely be part of the future plans. 

The Bulls will continue to seek out sign-and-trades that make sense, and if they can get a useful rotation player on a short-term deal, a young player with upside or draft assets, then it’s probably the best they can salvage. 

If they have to take on a middling deal that doesn’t help them much now or the future, then the Bulls may have to do the tough thing and just let DeRozan walk. 

This is a situation the Bulls should have never put themselves in to begin with, as they mortgaged their future and missed out on plenty of draft assets to chase the play-in tournament only to get stomped. 

This isn’t just hindsight, there was no one who believed the Bulls were serious contenders for anything last season and they lost their chance to cash in, leaving them in the predicament they’re in now.