After another poor start to the season, the Chicago Bulls are being viewed as potential sellers by teams around the league and their top players are being scouted, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.
During his appearance on Friday’s episode of NBA Today, Windhorst reported that teams have been closely following the Bulls’ play over the first few weeks of the season.
“Talking to some people around the league, scouts are going into Bulls games because they recognize that the Bulls could disband this team at some point,” Windhorst said. “And they’re all collecting information like, ‘What’s going to happen to the Bulls?'”
Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan would be likely targets for any team looking to take on Chicago.
LaVine has been linked to the Philadelphia 76ers following the James Harden trade, while DeRozan and the Bulls are reportedly “far apart” in contract negotiations, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium.
DeRozan’s contract expires and he is expected to enter free agency after this season.
This is probably a bit of a late move, but the Bulls still have a lot to gain if they decide to blow things up and part ways with DeRozan, LaVine and Nikola Vucevic and bolster their draft capital.
The franchise has bordered on mediocrity in recent seasons, making the playoffs just once since 2018.
They were 40-42 last year and many experts were calling for a front office rebuild.
A view with which DeRozan strongly disagrees. “I think a lot of people who say or imply that don’t understand basketball at all,” he told Sportskeeda’s Mark Medina in September.
“You can think of it as an answer or a way. But it is unclear how long this path will take. This route doesn’t necessarily always work as quickly as you might think.
Since DeRozan and Vucevic are 34 and 33 years old, respectively, the value Chicago might have for them will be less than if they had made the trade a few seasons ago.
However, even at 28 years old, LaVine remains a valuable asset. The two-time All-Star is averaging 22.4 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists as the Bulls are off to a 3-6 start.
They are in twelfth place in the Eastern Conference.
If the trend continues downward as the trade deadline approaches, the expectation should be that change comes to the Windy City.
