NBA Trade Rumors: Teams believe Chicago Bulls may be big sellers at the deadline
NBA Trade Rumors: Teams from around the league believe that the Chicago Bulls could end up being big sellers at the trade deadline.
As the NBA Trade Deadline season quickly approaches, there are many teams that are going to emerge in the rumor mill. Some because they will be in the business of adding to their roster before the stretch run while others because they could end up driving the market and emerge as sellers.
One team that at this point in the season could end up on both ends of the spectrum is the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls have struggled to start the season but have a roster that is in win-now mode. They could use an addition at the NBA Trade Deadline to help push themselves to the right side of the Eastern Conference standings.
However, at the same time, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if they also emerged as one of the biggest sellers at the trade deadline. And according to a recent report, the Bulls are a team many teams around the league are watching closely.
If they emerge as sellers ahead of the deadline, there will be many teams interesting in three of their core players – DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, and Nikola Vucevic. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowksi gave voice to that before Friday night’s basketball slate.
Is the perfect storm developing for the Chicago Bulls?
The perfect storm of being all-out sellers at the deadline may be brewing for the Bulls. Specifically, DeRozan is 33 and Vucevic is 32. At the very least, considering where the Bulls are in the East standings, it wouldn’t be surprising if they decided to trade one or both of those players at the deadline.
For as good as this team can be on paper, the Bulls have simply not lived up to their potential this season – and that dates back to the team’s disappointment in the postseason a year ago.
Even if Lonzo Ball returns at some point this season, it would be unfair to expect him to act as the savior for the team. Ball is just 25 and LaVine is 27. The Bulls could easily retool around those two, but I’m not sure it would be wise to string along DeRozan and Vucevic. Even less so considering Vucevic is in the final year of his contract and DeRozan will be an expiring contract next season.
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Currently, the Bulls are 9-13 and ranked 12th in the East standings. If they aren’t able to turn that around quickly, you can’t help but wonder if the Bulls won’t think hard about a soft rebuild. And there will be plenty of teams watching to see what they decide to do heading into the trade deadline.