In a surprising move announced on Saturday morning, Shams Charania of ESPN reported that the Chicago Bulls had agreed to a deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers. In what seemingly will be a rare one-for-one swap, the Bulls will send point guard Lonzo Ball to the Cavaliers, in exchange for surplus Cavaliers wing Isaac Okoro.
The deal will mark the end of Ball’s four-year tenure with the Bulls, one mostly spent watching on. After playing only 35 games in his first season with the team, Ball then sat out the next two entirely, missing over 1,000 days of action. And although he finally returned last season, he managed to play only 35 more, in a much-reduced role.
All the while, Ball has been battling myriad issues in his left knee, that have resulted in both cartilage and meniscus transplants. When he was deemed finally able to take the court again – the first player in NBA history to ever do so after a meniscus replacement – the Bulls quickly took the unexpected step of signing Ball to a two-year, $20 million extension in February, which was quite the vote of confidence in a player whose sheer injury misfortune had surely left the team lacking in confidence in him as a player.
Now, though, the Bulls have reversed course, done the opposite, seemingly lost that confidence, and given him away. And in exchange, they receive only a player the Cavaliers would likely have salary-dumped.
Cavaliers Needed To Move Okoro, In Some Fashion
Okoro re-signed with the Cavaliers to a three-year, $38 million contract last summer, but things have changed since then. Specifically, the Cavaliers have posted a 64-win regular season and acquired De’Andre Hunter in a mid-season trade.
When they did so, the Cavaliers knew they would have to make some financial decisions. Adding Hunter’s $23,303,571 salary to a payroll already with Donovan Mitchell ($48,787,676), Darius Garland ($39,446,090), Evan Mobley ($38,661,700; estimated), Jarrett Allen ($20,000,000) and Max Strus ($15,936,452) meant running afoul of the dreaded second apron.
With Hunter in toe, Cleveland has more than $210 million in player salary committed for next season already, even before acquiring any new players or dealing with the free agency of breakout guard Ty Jerome. They needed to save money, and having not developed offensively, Okoro became the fall guy.
The Bulls would like to think they are buying low on a player with bounce-back ability. Yet in reality, they have taken on an unwanted contract in a player yet to progress much.
Wanting To Buy Low, Bulls Instead Sell Low
Having acquired fourth-year guard Josh Giddey from the Oklahoma City Thunder last summer and seen him start to break out, acquiring Okoro seems to follow the same sort of plan. Taking a swing on lottery “redraft” talent and seeing if there are sparks in a fire that they can throw a log on makes sense for a team refusing to bottom out.
That said, Okoro still has the same concerns about his offensive game that he had when he entered the league. His $11 million pay check resulted only in a career-low 6.1 points per game this past season – an average three-point shooter, and neither a ball-handler nor a playmaker, Okoro is more Tony Snell than Tony Allen.
Bulls Need To Do Something Different
Over the past season, the Bulls have now moved each of Ball, Alex Caruso, Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan. But the only first-round pick they have received across those four deals was the one they received from the San Antonio Spurs in the LaVine deal – which was in fact their own pick back, having been given up for DeRozan in the first place.
Clearly, the Bulls do not want to bottom out. Clearly, they do not want cap space, draft picks, or the traditional tools of rebuilding. Clearly, they want to try and keep the ball in the air. Pun somewhat intended.
Clearly, though, it also is not working. The Bulls have finished ninth, ninth and tenth in the last three seasons, and have only reduced their talent level since then. Ball was not going to change that, as he is too unavailable to raise the team’s ceiling, and no longer a young player. Yet stockpiling more eight-figure salary for a player who has not proven himself to be starting caliber fixes nothing.
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