Former Top-5 Pick Floated as ‘Realistic’ Trade Target for Bulls

Getty Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan reacts against the Orlando Magic.

The Chicago Bulls are 3-4 on the young season.

Their performance as a team has been inconsistent as they have embarked on a youth movement. The Bulls could lean further into that youthful turn as the season goes on, and Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes suggests Detroit Pistons guard Jaden Ivey as a target.

Hughes believes “time is running out” on Ivey, the No. 5 overall pick of the 2022 draft, as Cade Cunningham’s backcourt mate and lists the former as a “realistic” target for the Bulls.

“The Bulls can afford to be more patient with the athletic guard’s struggles to shoot and defend. Chicago is in talent-accumulation mode and might value landing a player whose future is easier to control than those of Coby White or Ayo Dosunmu, whose current deals are too cheap to realistically extend, bringing unrestricted free agency into the picture in 2026,” Hughes wrote on November 5.

“Ivey would give Chicago a more controllable prospect—one who still might have higher upside than any backcourt player on the current roster.”

Ivey, 22, is averaging 19.6 points on 57.4% true shooting through eight games this season.

Both are career-high marks, as are his 4.5 rebounds and 1.0 blocks per game. Ivey’s 3.6 assists are a career-low and have regressed in back-to-back seasons. But Cunningham’s improved availability was a big factor in 2023-24.

The Pistons are 3-5 and in 10th place in the Eastern Conference standings. But that is a significant improvement over where they finished last season.

The East has seven teams with no more than three wins.

Proposed Bulls Trade Lands Pistons’ Jaden Ivey

It is probably too soon to expect the Pistons to break up a potentially relatively promising campaign just for the sake of doing so. This Heavy Sports trade proposal aims to make it worthwhile for both teams.

Bulls get:

• Isaiah Stewart
• Jaden Ivey
• Tim Hardaway Jr.

Pistons get:

• Torrey Craig
• Zach LaVine

This deal would require the Bulls to waive one player to complete and remain in compliance with roster limits.

They could include one of their prospects in Dalen Terry and satisfy salary-matching rules.

They could also include reserve Talen Horton-Tucker with LaVine and Craig – who at 33 years old does not fit the theme of a youth movement – if they wait until trade restrictions are lifted on December 15.

This deal would complete a rumored plan from last season before LaVine underwent season-ending foot surgery.

Stewart, 23, was the No. 16 pick in 2020.

He is averaging 3.5 points, 6.8 boards, and 1.9 assists this season. However, he is averaging career lows with 19.5 minutes per game and a 42.9% clip from the floor. The Bulls signed Jalen Smith in free agency over the offseason but Stewart could be depth if they trade Nikola Vucevic.

Hardaway, 32, does not fit the Bulls’ youth movement more than Craig. But he is on an expiring four-year, $75 million contract.

This deal would save the Bulls $6.7 million plus additional money from getting in compliance.

LaVine still has two more years and more than $94 million remaining on his five-year, $215.1 million pact after this season. Craig is in the final year of a two-year, $5.3 million deal. Stewart is just starting a four-year, $60 million contract.

Hardy is in Year 3 of a four-year, $32.9 million deal and will be a restricted free agent after this season ends.

Zach LaVine, Nikola Vucevic Rebuilding Trade Value

The Bulls are encouragingly getting solid production from the veterans on the roster who profile as trade targets as the season goes on. Both LaVine (22.7 points per game on 64.8% true shooting) and Vucevic (21.7 PPG on 66.6% TS) are putting up encouraging numbers.

An adductor injury will keep LaVine on the sidelines, but he has played well. Trade speculation has not stopped amid LaVine’s injury, and it could pick up when he returns to the floor.

Hughes lists the Los Angeles Lakers’ first-round picks as a dream return for LaVine.

“It wasn’t so long ago that it seemed like the Chicago Bulls would have to give up one of their own firsts to move LaVine, so a pair of picks (perhaps with a swap thrown in if you want to dream bigger) is a sufficiently optimistic package,” Hughes wrote.

“LaVine has a chance to rehabilitate his value and show suitors he’s still the multi-time All-Star and scoring force he was from 2018-19 to 2022-23, when he put up at least 23.7 points per game every year. If the Lakers’ offense flounders, they could determine it’s worth putting their 2029 and 2031 firsts on the table.”

Moving LaVine – and Vucevic – is the Bulls’ best path to keeping their 2025 first-round draft pick which is currently owed to the San Antonio Spurs from the initial DeMar DeRozan trade.