The Bulls were relatively quiet as the trade deadline passed on Thursday, completing a pair of minor deals involving Noah Vonleh and Jameer Nelson. Chicago’s major move came when the team dealt Nikola Mirotic to the Pelicans, which netted the team highly-coveted draft picks.
Vice president of basketball operations John Paxson, is happy with the Bulls’ moves and is excited about the future, Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times writes. Paxson compared draft picks to gold for teams as his franchise restocks for the future. In particular, Paxson likes having future high picks to go along with the young talent already on the roster.
“We look at it this way: We got the three young guys [Lauri Markkanen, Zach LaVine and Kris Dunn] when we made the [Jimmy Butler] trade for last year, we’re going to have two [first-round] picks most likely in this draft, and we’ve got Bobby [Portis] and Denzel [Valentine] as young guys,” Paxson said. “That’s seven young pieces, and we just need to continue to develop them, grow, and make the smart decisions, not get in a rush.’’
Check out other Bulls news and notes below:
- Paxson said that the Bulls were offered several multiyear bad contracts in trade talks, but the team was not comfortable taking on significant money that went beyond the 2018/19 season, K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune tweets. Paxson added that the Bulls were comfortable taking Omer Asik in the Mirotic trade because he is set to make just $3MM in 2018/19.
- While the Bulls could have traded Robin Lopez and/or Justin Holiday, Paxson said their value as veteran leaders and teammates was too important to the club, Johnson tweets.
- Tony Allen, who was acquired as part of the Mirotic trade, was reportedly set to be waived by Chicago. However, Paxson said the team will have a discussion with Allen’s agent before deciding on his future, Nick Friedell of ESPN tweets.
- Point guard Kris Dunn is out of concussion protocol but he is still not ready to return, per the Associated Press. Dunn has missed the Bulls’ past eight games; he’s averaging 13.7 PPG and 6.4 APG for Chicago this season.
Seeing how difficult it was for teams to get a 1st round pick at the deadline makes me appreciate the Niko trade that much more. It will likely be a mid first rounder, possibly a lottery pick. This team already has a really nice young core, excited to see what it looks like after the draft.
Lopez, Holiday, and Allen really should’ve been moved though. I’m surprised they couldn’t even get a top 55 protected 2nd rounder from a top contender for Allen. Especially someone like the Thunder who need a new defensive specialist, and Allen only makes the minimum.
I was hoping the wolves would trade shabazz Muhammad for Allen. Would have worked well for both sides.
Probably hard to get much traction on a deal since he’s injured and everyone knows he won’t finish the season there. Just wait and play the buy out game
Didn’t the Bulls also trade James Nelson today? So Vonleh wasn’t their “lone trade.”
Fixed, thanks.