Trade clock's ticking, and options are limited for Bulls to improve their crumbling defense
The Bulls have less than 48 hours to figure out how they're going to survive until late March, when their injured players might return.
The NBA trade deadline arrives at 2 p.m. Thursday, so the Bulls are watching the clock and calendar at the same time.
A couple of blockbuster-type trades arrived Tuesday, with Indiana sending all-star forward Domantas Sabonis to Sacramento for Tyrese Haliburton and Buddy Hield. Portland reportedly sent franchise anchor C.J. McCollum to New Orleans for a first-round pick and a some players, including Josh Hart and ex-Bull Tomas Satoransky.
The Pacers already began a rebuild by sending Caris Levert to Cleveland a few days ago.
The Bulls have spent the past few weeks demonstrating how much they need some help. They've gone 6-10 since Jan. 12, when the parade of injuries began.
The biggest problem is easy to spot. Over the last 15 games, the Bulls rank last in the NBA in defensive rating and 26th in points allowed. Anyone who's been watching already knows they are also worst in opponent 3-point percentage.
The Bulls did a nice job of creating an identity with their offseason moves. With two-top level scorers in DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine, along with two strong defenders in Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso, they could be aggressive on defense, create turnovers, play fast and be very difficult to match up against. They did this well enough to overcome a lack of height.
Without Ball (knee) and Caruso (broken wrist), the Bulls are still undersized and have to scramble on defense to double-team and recover. The problem is, they're not very good at it without Ball and Caruso. As opposing teams spread the ball around, they're either too slow to get out to the 3-point line or too short effectively contest a shot.
What the Bulls need most right now is a tall, athletic wing, preferably someone 6-foot-8 or taller. That's been apparent in recent games when they couldn't match up with Phoenix's Cameron Johnson and Mikal Bridges, or Golden State's Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Kuminga.
Those type of players are hard to find, though, and it's possible the Bulls won't be able to improve much on Troy Brown Jr. and Alfonzo McKinnie. If Patrick Williams returns from wrist surgery before the end of the season, that could obviously help.
The Bulls don't have much to offer in a trade, since they gave up so many draft picks to get DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic. NBA teams are not allowed to trade first-round picks in consecutive years, so the Bulls can't swap their own pick until 2027. They don't have a second-round pick until 2026.
They acquired a Portland first-round pick in the Lauri Markkanen three-way deal, which is lottery-protected through 2028. Since the Blazers have been cleaning house, it's safe to say the Bulls won't get it this year, but it is available to trade.
One other factor working against the Bulls: They sit just $3 million below the luxury tax threshold. They're going to pay the tax next year once LaVine gets a raise and there are extra penalties for teams that pay the tax in consecutive years, so don't be surprised if the Bulls stay out of tax range this year.
So what can they do? There's been talk about sending Brown to Boston for point guard Dennis Schroder. The benefit is Schroder provides another ballhandling option, some insurance if Ball is slow to return, is a veteran who's capable of scoring 20 points on a given night, and he spent two years playing for Donovan at Oklahoma City.
The negative is that move does nothing to fix the Bulls' height deficit, and actually makes them smaller.
The other likely option is to wait until after the deadline for players to hit the buyout market. There should be plenty of choices since a lot of teams will be looking to lower their tax bills. Brooklyn's Paul Millsap stopped playing a few weeks ago and knows Arturas Karnisovas from his Denver years.
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