Getty Images Billy Donovan
The dog days of the NBA offseason are here as Summer League is over and the free agency moves have slowed down. For the Chicago Bulls things have been quiet for the last few weeks ever since they wrapped up their offseason moves by adding veterans Andre Drummond and Gohttps://heavy.com/sports/nba/chicago-bulls/players-workout-los-angeles-kc-johnson/ran Dragic to the roster.
While the Bulls achieved their goal of continuity this summer by re-signing Zach LaVine to a max contract of five years $212 million the team didn’t address all of their needs. The Bulls still don’t have a true rim protector and could use some more three-point shooting and extra defensive help as well.
Proposed Trade
While the Bulls roster is probably set for now the team could still look for help bolstering through a trade either before the season or early in the season. Chicago has a few trade pieces on the roster that would be interesting for a few teams to consider.
If the Bulls were to make a trade the most likely candidates to be traded right now would be Nikola Vucevic and Coby White. One loaded team the Bulls could look to make a trade with involving both of those players is the Los Angeles Clippers.
In a trade on ESPN’s NBA Trade Machine if the Bulls were to send Vucevic and White to the Clippers they could get Luke Kennard and Robert Covington back. If the Bulls were able to pull off a move like this it would be huge for their chances in the Eastern Conference.
Why Each Team Could Do This
For the Bulls the reasons to this trade are pretty obvious. Kennard is a sharpshooter that is coming off of a season that saw him lead the NBA in three-point shooting at 44.9%. He also averaged 11.9 points per game which was the second most of his career.
Covington is a defensive stopper that could definitely improve the Bulls defense. He ranked sixth in the NBA in deflections and was the only player in the league to record 90 blocks and 90 steals. He also averaged 8.5 points while shooting 37.8% from three-point range.
The Bulls could look to move Vucevic with this being the final season on his contract to avoid giving him a big extension. The Clippers currently have one center on the roster in Ivica Zubac so they could be interested in Vucevic to add some depth and a scoring punch.
With Vucevic’s style of play being different then Zubac he could be a good fit to open up the floor for Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. As far as White is concerned he’s considered the odd man out in the Bulls backcourt right now and might be able find more playing time for the Cliperrs.
This trade would leave the Bulls with a lack of depth at center but they could look elsewhere to add another big. Also we’ve seen recently the Warriors win championships without playing a true center in crunch time.
A trade like this could certainly help the Bulls chances in the Eastern Conference but time will tell on what the team plans to with Vucevic.