“But the Bulls still get a "C" for "cheap" here, because there's no reason the Spurs needed to be a part of this deal. The Bulls should have just taken on Barnes' contract themselves and gotten that 2031 pick swap in the process. Of course, doing so, even with Duarte headed to a third team, would have taken the Bulls into the luxury tax, and paying the luxury tax is apparently untenable for this organization. A 2022 Forbes study showed that the Bulls had paid the 24th-most money in luxury taxes since 2001 despite playing in the league's third-biggest market. The Bulls also could have found ways to duck the tax during the season, which likely would have started with a Jevon Carter trade, as he is not a core member of the team anyway.
“The irony of all of this is that as we speak, the Bulls are reportedly still looking for someone to take on Zach LaVine's contract in another trade. You know what might have helped them sweeten a possible LaVine deal? Another draft asset, like that 2031 swap with the Kings. There still might not have been a viable deal on the table, but having that swap couldn't have hurt.”
by wjbc
16 Comments
Some people are just never happy
Going into the tax for Barnes (37M for 2 yrs) on a rebuilding young team seeking their T10-protected pick is ridiculous. Barnes is a solid enough player to win some games we don’t need. Jerry is a cheap bastard but this is not it.
We got a flier on a younger*/possible shooter in Duarte and (2) 2RP all because DeMar didn’t join a team earlier and wanted to evaluate options, so I don’t see how this is anything below a B grade for us. Only knocked down because we didn’t trade him last deadline.
We shouldn’t have taken on Barnes that’s dumb. We should have moved DeMar much sooner though and that’s def worthy of a C grade.
Coulda gotten outta the tax later, another pick woulda been nice since we aren’t getting that Portland pick
Damn this is pretty much exactly what I said lol
Idk why Jerry’s cheapness is Stockholm syndroming yall all of a sudden the best asset in this deal is Sacramento’s unprotected first and it went to a third term
Media keeps sleeping on Demar. When we signed him it was voted the worst signing of the offseason, he then proceeds to break Wilt Chamberlain records, hit back to back game winning buzzer beaters and bring us to the playoffs where he single handedly wins us a game in Milwaukee. Kings get a D- which probably means he will have a great season for them lol.
We’re not even able to go into the tax anyway right? Aren’t we hard-capped from using the MLE on Jalen Smith?
You’re not putting everything into context, the Bulls already have a huge contract they’re trying to get rid off Taking on another one makes it harder. We also have a youth movement and don’t want to add older players.
sign and trades on an unrestricted FA should be B at a minimum.
I’m personally not disappointed with the Demar trade, as it’s still better than to see him leave for free. But the Bulls ended with both the worst player and the worst draft compensation on that trade. It’s hard to see it as a total win when you put it that way.
This is a dumb argument. A pick swap in 2031 with the Kings is barely an asset at all. To value that properly you would need to know not only how good the Kings will be in 7 years, but how good every other team will be in 7 years. No one is going to place much value on something with that much uncertainty built in, which is why Sacramento was willing to give it to San Antonio in exchange for literally no assets in return.
And taking a veteran with a non-expiring contract in this deal when the Bulls are trying to (a) tank and (b) trade away their vets on multi year contracts, would be counterproductive.
Just shows what a low bar there is to be a sportswriter.
Hate when these articles are just “bad grade for not doing the exact trade I had in mind” rather than assessing value
Going into the tax for a rebuilding roster is crazy thinking.
Hindsight is 20/20 but we were trying to come up with AKME’s best trades.
I think what it comes down to is that the trade could have been better if the Bulls were smarter with their past moves. A smart organization would have sold earlier and gotten more for their players. A smart organization would not be in this financial position where they had to bring in 3rd team instead of getting all the assets.
If the the Bulls have paid the 24th most money in luxury tax, then the other six teams must not have paid anything in luxury tax since the Bulls have only paid it once and it was less than $5 million. The only reason why they paid the tax in the first place was that Rip Hamilton got hurt and they couldn’t trade him.