Chicago Bulls: 3 trades to help make a playoff push

Trade No. 3

Newsday’s Steve Popper recently wrote about the New York Knicks and how the team is in the midst of another grueling rebuild. He stated that the majority of the team is on the trade block, including forward Julius Randle.

If Chicago wanted to make a big-time attempt at making a push, this trade would excite fans the most. Randle would come to the Bulls and, in return, Chicago would send Thaddeus Young, Denzel Valentine and two future second round picks to New York.

Without Markkanen, the Bulls don’t have a semblance of scoring threats beyond LaVine. Sure, they might have certain guys step up on occasion, like Coby White, but there is no one who can consistently get it done scoring the basketball.

Markkanen is currently averaging 15.0 points per game this season to go with 6.5 rebounds. If you look at a big man like Randle to replace Markkanen’s contributions, he actually more than supersedes those numbers.

Randle is posting averages of 18.8 points, 9.2 boards and 3.3 assists while shooting nearly 45 percent. He isn’t a phenomenal three-point shooter (29 percent), but his scoring, overall, would be a big boost.

The question is, could the Bulls get Randle with this type of package? I’ll be the first to admit, this may be somewhat of a low-ball offer. If the Bulls had to include a first-rounder, maybe they do so and then ride into the future playing Markkanen off the bench (where I personally believe he belongs, as a stud sixth man).