Considering a Bulls trade for Anthony Davis
and of course making it about existential questions about The Chicago Bulls NBA franchise
After a hot start, the Bulls are right where they oughta be. They currently are in the midst of a few nights off, and then have an interesting part of the schedule coming up before getting another 3 nights off:
The opponents are worse than what started this season’s schedule, with one truly daunting matchup in Denver but the other contests against the Jazz, Blazers, Heat, Wizards, and Pelicans. Yes, the Bulls can truly lose to anybody after they biffed it against the Pistons 2nd string on Wednesday, but that doesn’t make them unique in this league.
Rest-wise it’s not easy: 6 games in 9 nights. I didn’t look up the rest for every opponent but it’s probably not going to be a disadvantage for them outside of the road trip opener in Utah. That’s another factor: 4 of these games are on the road.
Josh Giddey should be back as soon as Sunday. And Coby White may make his season debut next week as well.
So in the meantime, let’s engage in flights of fancy surrounding the Bulls making a star player acquisition.
The Dallas Mavericks are a disaster, though have vaulted the Chicago Bulls in franchise rankings because they didn’t give their actively-failing-while-sounding-in-over-his-head lead executive a secret contract extension and instead fired him. And talk has immediately started on the team trading their All-NBA player who was most closely tied to that failed executive, Anthony Davis.
Perhaps the also-in-over-his-head owner in Dallas doesn’t even act this dramatically any more this season: the GM replacements are interim, and they do own their own draft pick this year (but not next…). But that hasn’t stopped the NBA speculation churner to produce trade ideas, including Davis being traded to the Bulls.
Every hypothetical exercise I’ve read has wound up with some trade package combining Coby White, Nikola Vucevic, other stuff including picks, and come to the same conclusions:
Davis would be a good fit in that he’s a top-15 player in the league who’s tall and plays defense. He makes a lot of money, but the Bulls have clean books because they have so few very good players. Also: from Chicago.
Davis would be a poor fit with the current Bulls playing style and ‘identity’, which is: young, fast-paced, depth-driven, very coachable. Exemplified by 23-year-old Josh Giddey, who especially in White’s absence has dominated the ball for the Bulls and is not only putting up numbers but showing signs of improvement.
When factoring in Davis’s injury-filled past- and injury present - it’s ultimately not worth it to even pursue, and that’s before thinking of how Arturas Karnisovas would throw in draft picks for no reason.
And maybe that’s all there is too it: he’s simply too injury-prone1 for the Bulls (and Bulls fans) to even consider it. But that’d be a boring blog post, so let’s indulge…
I have consistently said that this whole ‘identity comes from our playing style’ mantra from Karnisovas is backwards and merely borne of convenience. An identity should come from the players, but the Bulls don’t have players good enough (nor a front office capable of getting them) to define an identity, so they instead are leaning in to a gimmick that fits what they currently have2.
And while it’s working so far this season, and to be realistic the best case scenario is that the league (and its stars) will be duped into thinking this is a “young team on the rise”, it’s not actually going to work as it stands now. Heck, after Coby White’s return we may see a still-middling level of play but with with Giddey’s numbers going down.
But I’ll throw in this wrinkle: why not trade Josh Giddey for Anthony Davis?
If Giddey’s start is real, or at least enticing, then it solves multiple ‘problems’ in a Davis trade:
Don’t need to worry about the playing style fit.
Bulls have multiple guards to play a new playing style - pick and roll with Davis.
Maybe - I don’t agree, but that doesn’t matter - Giddey has positive trade value in being signed long-term versus an expiring Coby White. So you can keep and re-sign Coby. And it lessens the ask from Dallas in draft compensation as Giddey is only 23 don’tyaknow.
If substituting as the centerpiece player outgoing, Giddey makes double what White does. That means - oh god I can’t believe I’m saying this - the Bulls could keep Nikola Vucevic which also caters the playing style to Davis in that Davis can play power forward with Vuc (theoretically) spacing the floor.
Karnisovas is really bad at what he does, but he has proven in his rare successes that he can take advantage of someone worse. I don’t think the Mavs should act desperate, because they have an 18 year old Cooper Flagg as a centerpiece. But maybe they’d be dumb and instead of longer-term assets would take a package of “young players with experience” from the Bulls?
Money-wise3, if you start with Giddey the Bulls have to add ~$19M in outgoing salary. There are a lot of negotiable ways to get there, maybe they are interested in Patrick Williams but he’s signed for too long so they take the expiring Zach Collins. Maybe Noa Essengue is included instead of a draft pick (I’d consider Buzelis off limits). They can expand the deal where the Bulls take on more multi-year salary veterans from the Mavericks with or without lowering their 2025-26 payroll and possible tax.
I think a post-Davis-trade team could contend in the East, if Davis plays. When Davis has played the last couple of years, he’s been really good. Davis and Vuc start in the frontcourt, which asks a lot of Davis defensively but that’s your new defensive identity. Still very thin at the wing, as they are currently, and Billy can decide if he wants shooting (Huerter), defense (Okoro), or a little of both (Ayo). Buzelis could be really interesting as a 6th man, and will get plenty of starts for Davis’s expected, but hopefully short-term, injuries.
What I also like about this idea, is that the Bulls can still seize on opportunities depending on how it works with Davis. They’d retain a lot of moveable salary and future picks for another star, or even aiming lower (this is the Bulls, I can’t get too fantastical) can trade for better fitting role players. And if it implodes: you still have Buzelis, and your picks, and AK gets fired for following blogger advice.
Also, Davis making $55-60M doesn’t work with their ‘paying players gives ‘dorf indigestion’ ethos. David Eckstein didn’t make $50M in his career!
Also convenient in that it leads to a low payroll and is entertaining to watch win or lose.
another technicality: Giddey can’t be traded until January 15th