The Chicago Bulls (22-24) currently sit as the No. 10 seed in the Eastern Conference as they’re riding a three-game winning streak.
With the Feb. 9 trade deadline on the horizon, the Bulls have a decision to make, whether to stand pat and attempt a run at the playoffs or blow it up and position themselves for the future.
On Monday, Bleacher Report posted their thoughts on what every team should do at the trade deadline: buy, sell, or hold.
For the Bulls, the consensus was to be sellers.
Dan Favale explains:
Chicago is painfully mediocre. A healthy Lonzo alone isn’t changing that. If the Bulls care about aiming higher than the middle, they would proactively strip this roster down and start anew.
Granted, on some level, this is an oversimplification of what they should do next. Teardowns are neither easy nor routinely completed in entirety. That doesn’t mean Chicago can’t find a happy medium.
Don’t feel like unloading Zach LaVine and the four years and $178.1 million left on his deal? That’s fine. Gauge the market for Nikola Vučević’s expiring contract. See which team—and there is bound to be one—forfeits tantalizing draft equity or prospects for DeMar DeRozan and the one year left on his deal. And definitely don’t be opposed to measuring the temperature of Patrick Williams selloffs.
For the Bulls, no one should be untouchable, and that includes DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine. If just making the play-in or getting swept in the first-round of the playoffs is good enough for the front office, then so be it.
But, if that’s not good enough, which it shouldn’t be, Chicago has to look at gathering future assets for a rebuild.
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