2018-2019 Finish: 54-28

Season Highlight:

In what has been a common theme with these team by teams, the season highlight for the Chicago Bulls was retaining their GM, dazman. When he announced his resignation, not only did fellow GMs around the league reach out to Daz to ask him to stay but his players went on a winning streak to try and sway their beloved GM back. After about a week, he made his triumphant return to the front office in a day that will be known around the city of Chicago as “Daz” day.

Season Lowlight:

Losing to the Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs, 4-1 had to be the lowlight for this team. They had their Splash Brothers but that wasn’t enough to overcome the chessmaster Pete and LeBron. They were able to steal a game where LeBron tried out being a point guard but were easily outmatched.

Best Trade

The Milwaukee Bucks send Jarrett Allen and Gary Trent Jnr. to the Chicago Bulls.
The Chicago Bulls send a 1st-Rounder (Bos) and 1st-Rounder (Min) to the Milwaukee Bucks. The Milwaukee Bucks send a 1st-Rounder (Mil) to the Chicago Bulls.

After the Curry deal went down, Daz used some assets he obtained to bring in a talented young center, which this team desperately needed. Last year, it was the Splash Brothers show and if you were the other team, you had to make his other players beat you. This move helps take some pressure off of Klay for this season as Steph Curry is gone and Kevin Durant is in (but injured, discussed next). If Gary Trent Jr, can provide something, this deal looks really good for Chicago.

Worst Trade

The Boston Celtics send Nene Hilario and Kevin Durant to the Chicago Bulls. The Chicago Bulls send Stephen Curry to the Boston Celtics.
The Boston Celtics send a 1st-Rounder (Bos) and 1st-Rounder (Min) to the Chicago Bulls.

This is just one GM’s opinion but at first glance, I really disliked this trade but it ultimately might have been the one that Daz needed to make. There are a few layers to this deal. Yes, this deal includes two top 5 players in the league but the one Chicago is getting back has an Achilles injury that will likely sideline him most of next year. Looking at this trade from that angle, Chicago has taken a big step back talent-wise in 2019-2020. Will this move knock them out of the playoffs this season? Will Durant come back healthy for 2020-2021? From another point of view, this could be the best trade. The team was short on assets outside the big two and something had to be done to obtain some. Props to Daz for pulling this off and getting in pieces that ultimately made his best trade mentioned above. This could be a franchise changer.

Other Notable Trades

Other than those 2 deals, there weren’t any really notable deals made last year.

The Chicago Bulls send Bruno Fernando to the Memphis Grizzlies. The Detroit Pistons send Keldon Johnson to the Memphis Grizzlies. The LA Lakers send Alen Smailagic and Isaiah Roby to the Chicago Bulls. The Memphis Grizzlies send Matisse Thybulle to the LA Lakers.

This was a deal that moved around a handful of rookies, we’ll see how this pans out.

Free Agency

Bringing back Klay will be the priority as will be signing Kevin Durant to a deal. After that, the team has free agents in Jamal Crawford and Alfonzo McKinnie and Salah Mejri. These are all guys that won’t be worth resigning. It’ll be interesting to see where Daz goes to fill in the rest of the roster holes.

Star

Steph Curry

This should come as no surprise that one of the best players in the league is the (former) star of the Chicago Bulls. A superstar in his prime, Curry averaged 31.2 points in the regular season and 39.6 in the playoffs. This star turned it on when the lights were brightest. It’s a shame he ran into the eventual NLL champs in round 1.

Goat

Anyone not named Steph Curry or Klay Thompson. This was a 2-man team last year that pulled more than their fair share of the weight. The rest of the team really let them down.

Draft Grades

Chicago Bulls - #30) Bruno Fernando and #54) Jordan Bone

Chicago is taking a year off from the NLL with Klay and KD both injured.  Fernando is super athletic, and he’ll try to fit in right behind Jarrett Allen for that center spot.  Bone is a super late 2nd rounder and you don’t expect much out of these guys.

Grade: B

The Future

The future is a bit murky for this team. They’ve traded away their best player and in return replaced him with another superstar that is hurt for the season. The team was rounded out nicely after that deal, however. This may be a transition year for the Bulls in a stacked Eastern Conference. They could quickly become a terror next season however once Durant comes back healthy. Daz made the hard decision to move Steph Curry and it might have been the move the franchise needed. Stay tuned to see how this turns out, I know I will be!