The Chicago Bulls had an extremely busy trade deadline. How does each deal stack up when we zoom out an examine them?

It's not a simple exercise, as it doesn't take long to look at these trades and come to the conclusion that winning basketball games is not anywhere near the top of the list of priorities for the Bulls organization right now. But I don't think it would be particularly helpful to only examine the Bulls transactions under the idea of what makes the team worse in the short term.

So, for this exercise, I chose to grade the deals on: the (subjective) talent level on each side of the deal, the contracts/salary implications of the deal, and the draft compensation (if any) involved. Overall, I actually quite liked what the Bulls did at the deadline in terms of tearing it down for an actual rebuild, but at the same time, they chose to sell-low to a reckless level on a particular player, which somewhat soured my overall view of what they accomplished.

The Bulls acquisition of Dario Saric and a pair of second round picks was a move that I simply had to give the highest grade possible. This is precisely the type of trade the Bulls should've been looking for and repeatedly executing over the past several seasons. Chicago--despite being a big market--has not been a destination for superstar free agents for quite some time, with that in mind, the Bulls should have been using their salary cap space to take back bad contracts and pick up draft picks in the process. 

Of course, higher risk means higher reward, and if the Bulls had been willing to take on bigger contracts they would be receiving first round picks as compensation rather than seconds.

But at the end of the day, picking up draft compensation for simply facilitating a trade for two other teams is good business. It sucks that the Bulls had to waive consummate professional Jevon Carter to make roster space, but Carter was not factoring into a Bulls rotation that already was and still is extremely guard-heavy.

In this trade, the Bulls sent Kevin Huerter and Dario Saric to Detroit, and received Mike Conley Jr. (salary filler in this instance) from Minnesota, and Jaden Ivey from Detroit. 

This was another move of Arturas Karnisovas and Co. that I had to give the highest mark possible. My reasoning? This move made the next trade on the list--which isn't a good trade for the Bulls on paper--make a lot more sense.

The Bulls received Ivey--the former 5th overall pick from the 2022 NBA Draft--in exchange for sending out Huerter and Saric. This was a nice piece of work by Chicago, using the Conley contract they picked up to package with White, and acquire an intriguing young talent.

Ivey still has a ton of untapped potential. The 2024-25 season was Ivey's best, where he put up 17.6 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 4.0 APG, and 40.9% from the 3-point line on 5.1 attempts per game. Since that season, Ivey has suffered several lower body injuries, including a  broken left fibula, and an arthroscopic right knee procedure. 

It obviously will sting for Bulls fans emotionally seeing White--who spent his first six and a half seasons in Chicago--with another team, but at the end of the day, Karnisovas picked up a player of a similar talent level on a cheaper deal.

Ivey is also a restricted free agent, allowing the Bulls to have more team control over retaining him as opposed to White's status as an unrestricted free agent.

The reasoning for this trade not being an "A+," is that the Bulls had to take on Collin Sexton in this deal. Sexton is an unrestricted free agent, so the Bulls can choose to simply let him fall off the books if they want. The money isn't my issue with this deal, the issue is the fact that Sexton will get minutes on this squad down the stretch. And every minute Sexton is on the floor is likely taking away developmental minutes from Dillingham or Ivey, players more likely to be long-term fixtures with the Bulls organization.

Legitimately the only reason I didn't give this trade an "F," is the fact that the Bulls picked up Rob Dillingham in this deal.

Dillingham hasn't done--quite literally--anything of note in the NBA yet, but the athletic and evasive Dillingham is the type of fast twitch athlete that the Bulls need to be taking swings on. 

Dillingham is undersized for a modern NBA PG at 6-foot-2, but is blazing fast and isn't afraid to pull it from deep. He still will need to learn to pick and choose his spots better, but the guard-friendly Billy Donovan should be a solid coach for him in this regard. Now for the bad part(s) of this deal. 

Picking up four second round picks is great work, and it will allow the Bulls flexibility in future deals. But not picking up a single first round pick in exchange for Dosunmu is about as bad as it gets. 

And the common rebuttal is: what if no team was offering Chicago a first round pick for Dosunmu? In that instance, I truly believe the Bulls would've been better off keeping him. Dosunmu is averaging 15.1 PPG, 3.6 APG, and shooting 45.1% from the 3-point line, good for seventh in the NBA. 

I completely understand the Bulls not wanting to commit big money to Dosunmu long-term after paying Giddey. The issue is, it doesn't feel like a proper assessment of the market. If Chicago had a chance to re-sign Dosunmu this offseason--all indications are that he would've negotiated at the very least--then they could have flipped him for a much better package later on. And if this move was made as part of Chicago's efforts to improve their draft lottery odds, I don't think it was necessary, as Dosunmu's stellar play wasn't lifting the current team to an improbable amount of wins.  

This move was a nice bow on the gift that was Arturas Karnisovas' trade deadline acquisitions. Bulls fans have long complained that Chicago has ignored adding rim protection to a team already is lacking in perimeter defense. Karnisovas added a (reasonably strong) band-aid onto Chicago's rim protection by picking up Nick Richards. 

The former Kentucky standout is still a decent shot-blocker, averaging 1.0 BPG last season over 57 games with the Charlotte Hornets and Phoenix Suns. 

Richards is an unrestricted free agent, so this current deal gives Chicago a chance to see how he fits with Matas Buzelis and the rest of the Bulls new acquisitions. This trade didn't get the highest possible mark because while Richards does fill a need, Chicago got rid of a younger, more intriguing player in Ousmane Dieng to make this possible.

It was sad to see the cheerful Terry go, but he didn’t provide much in the way of on court production on his rookie deal. Yabusele gives the Bulls some much needed size, shooting from the big man spot, and the fact that he amended his contract to be expiring with no player option was a slam dunk by Karnisovas and Co.