Chicago Bulls deserve all the trolling for Jordan Bell move

The Chicago Bulls deserve every bit for trading away Jordan Bell, a solid young player, for cash during a rebuild.

Everyone’s been thinking it for months, ever since Jordan Bell started out for the Golden State Warriors in summer league: the Chicago Bulls were probably going to look really stupid for trading him away for $3.5 million.

The fuel only got added to the fire when Steve Kerr announced that Bell would starting against the Bulls in place of an injured Draymond Green.

And Bell and his teammates were intent on showing the Bulls how conscious they were of that slight before the game.

Then, once the game got started, he reveled in showing Chicago exactly what it was missing.

Bell finished the game with a Green-esque stat line of seven points, six rebounds, four assists, two assists and six thunderous blocks.

None felt more devastating than this utter robbery of Denzel Valentine‘s dignity and manhood.

Oh, and you thought he wasn’t up for a little bit of trolling on his own account? Oh, no. Even during the game, he wasn’t letting this go.

And you know what? The Chicago Bulls deserve every last bit of the merciless trolling they’re getting for this move.

While fans are upset about the Bulls trading away the 16th pick of the draft, that was essentially fee for getting Zach LaVine from the Minnesota Timberwolves. As such, I’m not that mad about that.

But trading away Bell for a few million dollars just to defray some of Rajon Rondo‘s buyout cost? How irresponsible can you possibly be when you’re starting a rebuild?

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Sure, hindsight is always 20-20, but are the Chicago Bulls so set in their frontcourt that they couldn’t have used a good young forward like Bell? Because I don’t know guys…that looks like a pretty useful rotation player to me.

I don’t mean to talk about Bell like he would somehow have reversed the Chicago Bulls’ fortunes this season or something. No, they were going to be awful no matter what.

But this move underscores exactly what I feared from the beginning: the Chicago Bulls front office isn’t fully sure how to function when they’re obviously not contenders.

I admit that I’m liking the fruits of the Jimmy Butler trade thus far. Lauri Markkanen has played well, even when struggling to score. Kris Dunn has finally cracked the starting lineup as a point guard and is showing improved offense along with his trademark defense. And the hyper-athletic LaVine will return soon.

Next: Outlook for the rest of the Chicago Bulls season

But you can never just give up assets when you’re trying to rebuild your roster from the ground up. And the fact that the Chicago Bulls did that with Bell should drive them crazy, even if he never becomes a superstar.

We know that it’s going to drive the fans nuts every time they see his name out in the news.