Chicago Bulls: Experience makes trading veterans difficult as of late

The Chicago Bulls have an issue. Their starting lineup has been mostly terrible.

It might be the worst kept secret in the league that bench lineups featuring Thaddeus Young, Garrett Temple and Otto Porterhave kept the Bulls afloat in games as of late. Not only that, but those same vets have taken on a role as “coaches on the floor” — Young and Temple especially.

Which throws a wrench into the plan that all Bulls fans had at the beginning of the year: these vets were supposed to be dealt to contenders for picks, young players, or some mix of the two.

And they’re quickly becoming indispensable.

The Bulls are an extremely young team. If you looked at the ages of their starting lineup, it’d be understandable if you thought they were going to play Duke or UNC next week, rather than Portland or Los Angeles.

It was widely assumed that the roster at the beginning of the season won’t look anything like the roster at the trade deadline; but that veteran coalition looks to be forcing Marc Eversely to write their names down in pen. It’s getting harder and harder to justify trading those veterans, especially when the younger players are failing to hold up their end of the bargain.

This thought started to bud into an idea earlier in the year, when Garrett Temple threw a pass back to Wendell Carter, demanding that he shoot a wide open three. Carter Jr. banked it in.

The veterans are a stabilizing force, and on most nights the most competent players wearing red. Which makes me second guess the plan of trading them away to contenders.

Sending these veterans to better off teams has its positives. The market seems to be booming: Last year, the New York Knicks traded veteran forward Marcus Morris to the Los Angeles Clippers in a three team deal, netting them a 2020 first round pick. That pick turned out to be the 23rd overall. That’s the type of deal that would really pique my interest, but it comes at a cost. That means sending away a positive player, and losing out on a mentor.

Thad Young and Tomáš Satoranský are both on multi-year deals, with partial guarantees. That’s value to the Bulls, as they’re tied up for relatively cheap amounts for another year, and they’ve been good on and off the court. Garrett Temple is only signed for one year, but his five million dollar contract is easy to take on for a contending team.

Otto Porter Jr. seems the most likely candidate to be traded, as his large $28 million contract is in the final year, and he has the defense and shooting that all good teams covet. If we’re ranking on who’s likely to go, Porter Jr. may get the most return.

A young team like the Bulls lacks both talent and discipline. Finding the right mixture of the two may require a veteran to be dealt. Would you trade one of the “Bench Mob?” For who?