[Fergus]

The Bulls seem to have pulled of a trade with the TimberWolves.

The Bulls get Dunn, LaVine and swap the 16th pick for the 7th. The 7th pick was used to select Lauri Markkanen. Lauri is Finish who played for Arizona. He is a 7 footer with a fantastic shot and some ball skills. The announcers on ESPN called him "stretch 5" not a "stretch 4".

Coach Thibodeau reunites with Butler, giving him an excellent veteran who plays the way Thibs likes, to lead his young team. I am a huge Bulls fan, but I will be watching some TimberWolves games this year.

 

[R-Star]

Butler is going to be great for Wiggins career.

I love this for the Wolves next year.

The Bulls? Guess a rebuild makes sense, but no ones taking Wade's contract so this won't line up with a full tank/rebuild.

 

[Bogg]

Chicago should have done this back at the deadline (or ideally last draft), but at this point I suppose it is what it is. Durant going to the Warriors kind of killed the trade market for any sort of win-now veteran league-wide.

 

[Ballscientist]

In addition of Blake Griffin, Wolves are better than Warriors!

my rankings:

Wolves
Warriors
Spurs
Jazz
Rockets
Grizz
Thunder
Blazers

Clippers could lose Griffin.

 

[Fergus]

I just saw a note that other teams like Cleveland are interested in Wade, if he gets a buy out from the Bulls. If true, that may encourage Wade to negotiate a reasonable buy out so he can move to a team that has a real chance to win.

 

[Bogg]

I just saw a note that other teams like Cleveland are interested in Wade, if he gets a buy out from the Bulls. If true, that may encourage Wade to negotiate a reasonable buy out so he can move to a team that has a real chance to win.

If I'm Chicago, and I'm about to execute a full rebuild, I'm probably shopping Wade as an expiring to take on a bad contract in exchange for some youth/picks. How much would Chicago want to send Wade to the Lakers (as a big-name "splash", even if the on-court product wouldn't be great) and eat the end of Luol Deng's contract? Something like that.

 

[Fergus]

I would suggest that the recent "huge" trades of Chris Paul to Houston and Paul George to Oklahoma will have a lot of GMs around the league scrambling to find players to bring to their teams. Dwayne Wade may have a lot of value in that market. He is an expiring contract, a proven leader, a big name (even now) and someone who can still contribute to a winning team. In my opinion a lot of other players, owners and fans will be pushing their teams management to make this kind of move.

The question is how well Paxon and Gar can leverage this. I would have liked to received more for Butler and definitely think the Bulls got fleeced for Gibson and McDermott. I have seen no evidence that there is any real skill in the Bulls front office at negotiating with other teams.

Last note. The Bulls are reported to have released Rondo. I suspect no one is really surprised about this. However, this also may add into the Bulls leverage to move Wade. Wade will want to leave even more, either via a buy out or a trade.

 

[Bogg]

I would suggest that the recent "huge" trades of Chris Paul to Houston and Paul George to Oklahoma will have a lot of GMs around the league scrambling to find players to bring to their teams. Dwayne Wade may have a lot of value in that market. He is an expiring contract, a proven leader, a big name (even now) and someone who can still contribute to a winning team. In my opinion a lot of other players, owners and fans will be pushing their teams management to make this kind of move.

The question is how well Paxon and Gar can leverage this. I would have liked to received more for Butler and definitely think the Bulls got fleeced for Gibson and McDermott. I have seen no evidence that there is any real skill in the Bulls front office at negotiating with other teams.

Last note. The Bulls are reported to have released Rondo. I suspect no one is really surprised about this. However, this also may add into the Bulls leverage to move Wade. Wade will want to leave even more, either via a buy out or a trade.

Eh, I don't know that Wade's really useful in a "keeping up in the arms race" kind of way that's going to net you anything significant - he's a name and a face to put on billboards, but he's primarily valuable as a huge expiring contract with no no-trade clause to complicate things. Obviously I pointed out the Lakers above, but Phoenix also has three large contracts in Knight, Chandler, and Dudley they may want to get out of and has picks to spare as well as some youth (although I'm not sure how much Chicago would really want Bender or Ulis with Lauri and Dunn in-house, and I can't see Phoenix moving off of Criss or Jackson to rid themselves of those deals).

 

[OhGarPax]

Just another example of GarPax incompetence. Fine with dealing Jimmy but you cannot include your first-round pick in the deal. Might as well gave them a future first to take Butler off your hands, too. #FIREGARPAX

 

[Fergus]

What does everyone think about the trade now that we are ~ 25 games into the season?

I think that the recent play of Dunn along with the strong play of Markkanen shows some real promise. I look forward to seeing what LaVine does when he returns in a couple of weeks!