What are the Bulls doing? Lonzo Ball trade just latest example of poor asset management, questionable moves

The Chicago Bulls have done another job that has left a lot in the world of basketball scratch your head. Bulls would have A sent Lonzo Ball to the Cleveland riders For Isaac Okoro. This is an agreement that, when it pointed out the first time, the logical reaction was “that’s all?” Just due to the lack of return that the Bulls obtained for the ball.

Yes, he has long history of injuries and his health is certainly a risk here, but there is no way This was the best offer on the table for the ball. Especially when on the deadline for the trade, there were reports from several interested teams, including the Memphis grizzles, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Pistons de Detroit, who could have tightened at least a first round choice.

Lonzo Ball Trade Notes: ace deal horsemen for the veteran guard; The bulls accept another exchange of questionable players

Sam Quinn

Instead, Chicago has kept Ball for the rest of the season, and now all they have to show to exchange it is Okoro. It is not really a blow on Okoro, who is a tenacious defender, but who is also a 3-point shooter at low volume and someone who turned out to have important limits in the after-season race of Cleveland. It’s more on the Bulls.

Again, they run the same manual who failed them: hang on to a player for too long to the point that their value depreciates, then, when it is time to exchange them, a minimum value comes out. The same thing happened with Zach Lavine, which the Bulls sent to the Kings of Sacramento last February for Kevin Huerter, Tre Jones, Zach Collins and a first -round choice which previously belonged to the Bulls. This happened with Demar Derozan, who was also sent to the Kings, and in return, the Bulls obtained Chris Duarte, Cash and a second round choice in 2028.

If the Bulls had exchanged these two guys a year or even two years earlier, they would probably have obtained much better packages for them. There was a time when the Lakers were interested in Lavine, and they could have extracted one or the two first round choices or both for him. Instead, everything they got was the protections of a choice they have already sent to the Spurs in an agreement to land Derozan in the first place.

But none of these offers was no longer blatant than what the Bulls did last summer, where they exchanged Alex Caruso to Oklahoma City Thunder for Josh Giddey and nothing else. At that time, Caruso was by far the most precious asset on the Chicago list, and a certain number of teams would have punished several draft choices in the first round to win the defensive anchor. But the Bulls maneuvered this trade as if they did not have the more precious asset in Caruso, and proved by a Thunder team which has an infinite quantity of Draft capital. In fact, it is not too different from what they have just done in the balloon, in which they exchanged against a player who comes out of his worst statistical season, while abandoning the best asset.

So, to add everything, the Bulls exchanged Lavine, Derozan, Caruso and Ball and got right A Pick of first round in total. A choice they already had. It’s just poor management of the assets of a team of Bulls that has been content with mediocrity for five years now. Aside from the isolated season during which Chicago made the playoffs in 2022, the Bulls trotted the same company line as they do not want to completely Tanker, which has its advantages and disadvantages. But they do not put themselves in the best position to even write enough quality talents by not getting capital in exchange for these players.

It simply raises the question – again – what do the Bulls do? Okoro corresponds to the mold of what the director of the Arturas Karnisovas team said that this is the goal of obtaining a young player with experience to associate Coby White, Giddey and Matas Buzelis, but it’s a lot of guys on the ground that cannot shoot. And more than that, how is it the best combination of players that Chicago can bring together when they made all these trades?

There are even more trades than bulls can do. Maybe White is moved and Nikola Vacevic has been on the commercial block for two seasons now. But on the basis of the way Chicago worked in each of their last four trades, this does not inspire that they will get the fair value for one or the other of these guys.