Chicago Bulls miss opportunity to help rebuild with DaMarre Carroll trade
Are they asleep at the wheel or what? The Chicago Bulls missed an opportunity to add to their stock of assets for the rebuild, as the Brooklyn Nets scoop up DeMarre Carroll from the Toronto Raptors.
These are the exact kind of deals that the Chicago Bulls should be looking to make. Late on Saturday night, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that the Brooklyn Nets had made a trade for Toronto Raptors forward DeMarre Carroll. For the second time this offseason, the Nets have made a strong trade for a rebuilding squad, picking up assets in exchange for taking on a bad contract.
In this deal, the Nets send the Raptors center Justin Hamilton in exchange for Carroll. For their troubles of taking on the two years and $30 million remaining on Carroll’s contract, the Nets receive a lottery protected 2018 first-round pick and a 2018 second-round pick. This is a strong move by a team that knows how to rebuild.
Where were the Bulls?
My only question is; where were the Chicago Bulls on this? They could have easily fit Carroll in under their salary cap. Plus, his play has significantly dropped in recent years so it’s not like he would have effected any tanking efforts.
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The Bulls should be in the process of acquiring as many draft picks and young talent as possible. Instead, they are probably going to use their cap space to lock up Nikola Mirotic to a long-term deal. I just don’t understand the thinking here.
This is the second time this offseason that the Nets have made a deal like this. In the first one, they took on Timofey Mozgov’s mistake of a contract from the Los Angeles Lakers and were able to get 2015 second-overall pick DeAngelo Russell for their troubles.
You mean to tell me that the Bulls couldn’t use the second-overall selection from two years ago and two extra draft picks for this rebuild? Gar Forman and John Paxson need to start looking at deals like these to improve their situation.
Use cap space to create assets
Unless it is for a young talent like Nerlens Noel, the Bulls spending in free agency right now does not make any sense. Instead, they should be looking to take on bad contracts in exchange for long-term capital. My proposed deal involving Luol Deng with the Lakers would be a perfect example.
I have little faith that GarPax is actually looking to make a deal like this, but they absolutely should be. After trading Jimmy Butler, the Bulls signaled that the rebuild is on. Doing it half-way is just going to hurt them in the long-term.
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The Chicago Bulls need to get creative and create as many assets as possible. Every time one of these cap space clearing deals happens, they are missing an opportunity to do so.