Does this trade make sense for the Chicago Bulls?
Zach LaVine is the only legit offensive threat on the Chicago Bulls and while they have some other young players in Marcus Smart, Lauri Markkenen and Wendell Carter Jr. who have shown a lot of promise, they are still growing as young players.
Adding an experienced, relatively young guard in Marcus Smart could not only give the Bulls an emotional leader on the court, but a really strong core to move forward with. The best thing Chicago can do is to look and get Zach LaVine more help, which is exactly what Marcus Smart can do.
He is not the scoring machine that LaVine is, but he is an all-around fantastic basketball player that can contribute to the Bulls on both ends of the court. Smart has been known to be one of the premier perimeter defenders in the league today and with the Bulls being one of the worst defensive teams in the league, this would be a huge step in the right direction for them.
Thaddeus Young does not present much of a future in Chicago and with Wendell Carter Jr. and Lauri Markkanen both healthy, the Bulls could still be a solid team with young talents without Young on their roster.
For a team that has missed the playoffs the last three seasons and has failed to win over 27 games per year during that span, the Chicago Bulls did not really do anything to make themselves better now this past offseason. Instead, they have focused on developing their young talent further and letting Zach LaVine grow into an All-Star talent, which he has continued to do this year.
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This organization is not far off from being a legit playoff team in the Eastern Conference, but they are going to need to find more reliable talent to put around Zach LaVine because he cannot carry this team on his own.
With Kris Dunn gone and Tomas Satoransky not being the future of their backcourt, the Bulls need to solidify the depth in their backcourt. Marcus Smart can be the “do-it-all” guy for the Chicago Bulls and help speed up the development of some of the other young players on this team. Trading for Marcus Smart gives the Chicago Bulls one of the best young cores in the NBA and a legit chance to be one of the team’s nobody will want to play 2-3 years down the road.
