2017-18 Finish: 45-37

 

Season Highlight:

Dazman finds himself in the playoffs after being threatened with termination in the wake of the king's ransom given up for Klay Thompson. Daz bet everything (other than Steph, because they are betrothed) on bringing in Klay - and assuming a playoff spot was the goal, he won. He is vindicated in every possible way after being told he would be shown the door by ownership if his brash move didn't work out.

 

Season Lowlight:

The future - the other side of that coin is that the team has a superstar, an amazing second option, and little else. While Chicago fans had to be ecstatic to be in the playoffs when one of their two big time players missing chunks of the season could have cost them the opportunity to get a game off of Milwaukee, it's bleak to look into the future and not see anything beyond two guards heading towards the backend of their prime.

 

Best and Worst Trade:

The Chicago Bulls send Robin Lopez, Dragan Bender and Buddy Hield to the Washington Wizards. The Washington Wizards send Klay Thompson to the Chicago Bulls.

The Chicago Bulls send a 1st-Rounder (Chi), 1st-Rounder (Chi) and 2nd-Rounder (Chi) to the Washington Wizards.

The Chicago Bulls trade -45 GM points. The Washington Wizards receive 45 GM points.

 

This category shouldn't be combined on any other team in the entire league - but Daz put all of his chips in the middle on this one. Part of me thinks that trading two valuable prospects that aren't really looking great as well as some unknown draft picks for one of the best shooting guards in the league is a no-brainer. Another part of me sees the aftermath - a team with two stars and little else that should be logging NLL minutes at this point. Looking at the trade a year after the fact - I think I do it if I have the assets to trade... but that further calls into question whether Chicago does. Personally, I thought the return for Klay was so high that I wanted to find a package to get him from Washington just to get what the Bulls were offering – due to Klay’s solid play and Buddy/Dragan’s performance to date, I’ve definitely softened on that stance a bit.

 

 Other Notable Trades:

The Chicago Bulls send Bruno Caboclo and Chris McCullough to the Detroit Pistons.

 

The Detroit Pistons use their trade exception over $ 3,285,527.

The Chicago Bulls receive 25 GM points. The Detroit Pistons trade -25 GM points.

This man is only zero years away from contributing! /s Bulls did a solid job of getting something for a wasted pick of the past.

 

The Chicago Bulls send Dirk Nowitzki to the Sacramento Kings. The Sacramento Kings send P.J. Tucker to the Chicago Bulls.

The Bulls finally send away Dirk after he dismissed them years earlier. PJ probably has more value beyond this season, so is a better fit with the sharpshooting star tandem.

 

The Chicago Bulls send Reggie Bullock to the Denver Nuggets. The Denver Nuggets send Pau Gasol to the New York Knicks. The Minnesota Timberwolves send Zaza Pachulia to the Chicago Bulls. The New York Knicks send Zach Randolph and Lance Stephenson to the Denver Nuggets.

The Denver Nuggets send a 2nd-Rounder (Orl) to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Denver Nuggets trade -5 GM points. The Minnesota Timberwolves receive 5 GM points.

The Bulls needed some immediate help, and Zaza probably gave them more of that than Bullock. So, like some other moves - if the goal was to be competitive, it's hard to fault them. But if the goal was building the team around their 2 stars, Bullock looks like more of a starting 3 than what they currently have on the roster.

 

Free Agency:

The Bulls are over the salary cap, even if they release all 3 free agents (Torrey Craig, Isaiah Taylor and Jamel Artis). None of them are particularly appetizing, which means that if they let them go they would be capped out with at least 5 spots to fill - meaning that just to fill out the roster with little frills, they'll be around the luxury cap.

 

Star:

Dewayne Dedmon - This is probably a bit surprising, and probably shows opinion on relative value, but Steph and Klay were always going to carry the team. Demdmond however, averaged 11 and 10 and gave them a legitimate 3rd guy on a team that desperately needed one. Steph and Klay were much more valuable, so maybe that makes this the wrong pick in this slot - but if Dewayne didn't do his thing this year, the Splash Brothers experiment would have ended in early April.

 

Goat:

The curious cased of Joakim Noah seems like a good fit here. Noah should have been the defender and rim protector to everything the Bulls wanted to accomplish when they paid him nearly-max money. The best thing they can even say at this point is that he's closer to being a solid buyout candidate. Despite averaging decent rebound numbers, he couldn't even get on the court for more than a handful of games this season.

 

Draft Grades:

The team spent their entire draft futures bringing in Klay. They have shown, for right or wrong, that they value stars over picks - a topic of much discussion over the years. Klay probably gets them more than most picks that they could give up, but limits their flexibility going forward. I'll give the team an incomplete in this slot.

 

The Future:

It's really a two man show. Klay and Steph is maybe the best duo you can find in the entire league, and health willing, should bring a playoff spot every year. That said, this Eastern Conference is absolutely crazy, and while they have arguably the top two of any team in it - many of their competition's 10th man could easily be their 3rd option. If you assume that everybody plays up to their talent level and account for improvement of young players - they could be in a heavily contested race to scrap into the playoffs. The downside is that most of those other teams have set themselves up for years of competition at the same level, while Chicago has gone all-in on the current regime. If next year is 3 point happy, there is certainly a chance they get hot and make some serious noise in the East, but outside of that, it's hard to see them as too far beyond a two-star team that doesn't have any help on the horizon.