Take yourself back in time to January 2022, and you’d see the Chicago Bulls sitting atop the standings in the Eastern Conference. With the likes of DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, Alex Caruso, and Lonzo Ball leading the way, the Bulls looked like title contenders for the first time in ages.
Unfortunately, not only would the Bulls fall well short of title contention, but DeRozan, LaVine, Caruso, and Ball have all been shipped out of town just over three years later. To make matters worse, the team has gotten very little for the four of them as well.
Chicago Bulls Traded: DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, Alex Caruso, Lonzo Ball
Chicago Bulls Received: Josh Giddey, Kevin Huerter, Zach Collins, Tre Jones, Chris Duarte, Isaac Okoro, rights to their own 2025 first-round pick, two second-round picks, cash
The Bulls got just one first-round pick in the four trades, and it was their own. Let’s take a look at each of these trades.
The first of those four to be traded was Caruso in June 2024. The Oklahoma City Thunder acquired him by parting with Josh Giddey in a swap that included no draft picks.
While Giddey had a promising 2024-25 season for the Bulls, his stock wasn’t all too high at the time of the trade. The Australian had just been benched in the playoffs, and it was clear that he was the odd man out for the Thunder.
The fact that the Bulls couldn’t even get a pick in this deal was quite surprising. What wasn’t a surprise was Caruso playing an important role in the Thunder winning the 2025 NBA championship. It’s fair to say they won this trade.
Just a few weeks after Caruso was moved, DeRozan would join the Sacramento Kings via a sign-and-trade in July 2024. The Bulls only got Chris Duarte, two second-round picks, and cash in return. Even by sign-and-trade standards, that was a poor haul.
The Bulls were reportedly trying to trade LaVine in that offseason as well, but failed in that quest. They would finally succeed in February 2025, as he was sent to the Kings as part of a three-team deal with the San Antonio Spurs.
The Bulls got Zach Collins, Tre Jones, Kevin Huerter, and their 2025 first-round pick as part of the deal. They had sent this pick to the Spurs to acquire DeRozan in 2021.
At first, it seemed like getting this pick back was somewhat pointless, as it was top-10 protected. The Bulls seemed likely to slide down the standings after trading LaVine to the point where they were going to have one of the 10 worst records in the league.
The Bulls would finish 10th in the East, though, and that pick ended up being 12th in the 2025 NBA Draft. They would select Noa Essengue with it, but the Spurs would have been the ones with the opportunity to do so, if not for the trade. So, that was at least one positive here.
Lastly, we get to Ball, who was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Isaac Okoro on Saturday. It was reported that the Bulls could have gotten a first-round pick for the guard at the trade deadline if they absorbed salary, but opted against that. They now get just Okoro, who averaged a career-low 6.1 points per game in 2024-25.
All in all, this is just terrible asset management on the Bulls’ part. They were never going to get an incredible haul for any of those four players, but you’d have expected a better return than this.
