Chaotic management? Why did the Bull send Ball away?

Although there has been no improvement in performance in recent years, the Bulls seem to have not stopped moving forward. They completed another slightly question mark deal this summer, and they chose to send Lonzo Ball to the Cavaliers and exchange it for Ocorro.

For this deal, it is really strange that the Bulls get too few chip returns from Ball.

Although Ball does have a lot of injury history and great health risks in the future, this should not be the best offer he has received. Especially before the trading deadline, many teams have been rumored to have trade interest, such as the Grizzlies, Timberwolves, Pistons, etc., which are all popular next players in the scandal.

The Bulls should have the chance to switch from at least one first-round draft pick, but in the end the Bulls still kept Ball until the end of the season, and now the only one who traded out was Okoro. This is by no means Okoro's problem. His defensive ability is strong, but his three-point shooting frequency is relatively low, which also exposed obvious limitations in the Cavaliers' playoff stage.

But compared to the Cavaliers, the biggest problem in this deal is the Bulls.

They once again embarked on the old path of failure, leaving the players they should trade for too long until the value was eventually depreciated, and only received a meager return when the transaction was traded. The same happened before Zach Lavender. The Bulls sent him to the Kings in February, only for Hult, Trey Jones, Zach Collins, and attached a first round that originally belonged to the Bulls.

Before this, DeRozan was also sent to the King, and the Bulls received Duarte, additional cash and the second round of pick in 2028.

Let's assume that if the Bulls traded these two players a year ago or even two years ago, they would definitely get better returns. The Lakers were interested in LaVine at that time, and the Bulls could get one or two first rounds from the Lakers, but they only got the draft picks they had sent out to get DeRozan and are now free from protection.

But compared to last summer's transactions, the above transactions are not outrageous. At that time, the Bulls sent Caruso to the Thunder, only for Josh Gidey, and had no additional assets. At that time, Caruso was undoubtedly the most valuable trading chip in the Bulls' formation. Many teams were willing to make multiple first rounds to replace him, but the Bulls completely failed during negotiations and were killed by the Thunder, who had endless draft resources. Just like Ball's deal today, they used relatively high-quality assets to exchange for a player who had just played the worst data in their careers. According to the relationship between

, the Bulls sent Raven, DeRozan, Caruso and Ball away one after another, but in the end they only got one first round, which was originally their own.

This is definitely a bad enough asset control, and it also indirectly reflects the reason for the Bulls' mediocre situation in the past five years. Except for the briefly reaching the playoffs in 2022, the Bulls seem to have been using the same excuse: Don't want to completely play it out.

This strategy has both pros and cons, but judging from the results, they are indeed unable to gain enough asset chips for themselves, making it difficult to supplement their future talents through drafts.

So, it is hard not to think about the question: What are the bulls doing in recent years?

Judging from this deal, Okoro is indeed in line with the experienced young players mentioned by the management, but he will play with Kobe White, Josh Gidey, Matas Boozerlis and others in the new season. This four-man lineup has shortcomings in the outside line. And more importantly, after a series of trades, can the Bulls really find a better lineup combination than this?

It is undeniable that the Bulls still have other operational trading opportunities in the future. Kobe White may be sent away, and Vucevic has been on the shelves for several years, but judging from the recent key transactions, it is really hard to believe that they can get fair chips from existing players.